Alienation Occurred in “ Melancholia” Movie

A movie may mirror a person's experiences in life and is not just for amusement. Movies include moral lessons that viewers may learn from. It educates us about attitudes, behaviors, language, culture, and culture. It's simple for individuals to appreciate movies visually as literary. Melancholy is appropriately examined utilizing the alienation idea based on the movie's plot. Human alienation was at first a social phenomenon in contemporary life (Darma, 1995 in Efendi, 2005). Social psychology refers to this as alienation. According to Melville's 1996 short story "About Bartleby," alienation is a type of self-separation from everyone and everything, including other people (Bloom, 2009). The alienated emotion toward anything, including internal and exterior components, is the complexity of estrangement in and of itself. This could incite someone to be antagonistic toward other individuals or society. The purpose of this study was to identify the ways in which Justine, the main character in the film Melancholia, was alienated. The article utilizes some of the earlier research on melancholia that has been conducted by a small number of academics in order to analyze the film. This research was produced under the auspices of the alienation theory. This research fell under the heading of literature philosophy. The Lars von Trier film Melancholia, which was released in 2011, served as the study's main source of information. Analyzing the presence of alienation in the film involved observing, transcribing the screenplay, and categorizing the conversation in accordance with the subject of alienation. A type of mental disease in humans called alienation is defined by emotions of being foreign or weird to others, to nature, the environment, God, and even to oneself. Alienation is discussed in connections with oneself, other people, society, objects/nature, and capitalism in Lars von Trier's film Melancholia. The social lives of those who don't take care about their families' or children's issues are criticized in this movie. They don't express any emotional existence; only physical existence.


Introduction
A movie may mirror a person's experiences in life and is not just for amusement. Movies include moral lessons that viewers may learn from. It educates us about attitudes, behaviors, language, culture, and culture. It's simple for individuals to appreciate movies visually as literary. Textual studies in history were the drafting and reading of vocal writings that were printed. The definition of texts was greatly expanded by new media types in the later decades of the 20th century beyond the written word. Texts increasingly include publications on the internet, advertisements, movies, TV shows, videos with digital sound, visual texts using several media, and even installations. (Pope, 2014in Wahyudi, 2017. This is why movies are considered a form of literature, even though they don't just use word to convey information; they also employ narration and more visuals than ever before. The evolution of movies as a form of media entertainment is greatly influenced by technological advancement. It alters and/or eliminates an art's bounds and forms. Movies and literature work together to shape society as a literary medium. Based on what Dubey (2013) said on his journal that literature is basically mirroring the society. It can be said that the mirroring is a portrayal towards the society which is reflected into the literature and in this case, it can be made into movie.
Another masterpiece by Lars von Trier, titled Melancholia, was produced in 2011. Melancholia, as defined by the Cambridge Dictionary, is the state of being melancholy or depressed without obvious cause (Cambridge University Press, 2021). The name of the planet in this movie that is expected to crash with Earth is Melancholia. The protagonists in the film experience a range of emotions as they prepare for the end of the world. The lead character Justine, played by Kirsten Dunst, suffers from a mental condition that causes her to always be fearful and tense around things for no apparent reason. Justine still has depression despite having a family, partner, and all of those wonderful and contemporary things. This persona was developed by Trier as someone who frequently felt alienated. The movie is trying to portray what is like to have a mental illness while so many things are going on through Justine character. Lars von Trier was inspired by his experience in depression in writing Melancholia, and the movie star Kirsten Dunst also used her experience of depression to act in the movie (Kaufman, 2021). Through this movie, Lars von Trier wanted to tell the world that how people with mental illness want to be understood and well treated. The movie is worth watching. Nevertheless, it is not a happy ending. This movie won several awards, the winner of the best actress performance in Cannes Film Festival 2011, Toronto International Film Festival 2011, and second place as the best director in Village Voice Film Poll 2011 (MUBI, n.d.).
Melancholy is appropriately examined utilizing the alienation idea based on the movie's plot. Human alienation was at first a social phenomenon in contemporary life (Darma, 1995in Efendi, 2005. Even if technology has brought us a great deal of advancement in this contemporary world, it is still very common for people to feel odd and melancholy. Social psychology refers to this as alienation. According to Melville's 1996 short story "About Bartleby," alienation is a type of self-separation from everyone and everything, including other people (Bloom, 2009). The alienated emotion toward anything, including internal and exterior components, is the complexity of estrangement in and of itself. This could incite someone to be antagonistic toward other individuals or society. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to identify the ways in which Justine, the main character in the film Melancholia, was alienated. The article utilizes some of the earlier research on melancholia that has been conducted by a small number of academics in order to analyze the film. In his article Mechanized Bodies, Human and Heavenly: Melancholia and Thinking Extinction, Andrew Wenaus (2016) said that the aim of Melancholia is to emphasize realism as a basis for the whole storyline concerning sadness and that in real life,, the audience were asked to understand that there is an end to everything as there is always the beginning for something. The writer also use Gordon (2012) The Bride of Melancholia as one of the previous studies source as in his journal, Gordon talked about how Trier mirroring his depression experience and projecting in on Justine's character. Therefore, based on those two previous studies, the writer find out that alienation themed has not been explored yet in the Melancholia.

Literature review Existentialism
A generally used definition of "existentialism" is that it is a philosophical matter that places more emphasis on existence than on content. Existentialism can be referred to as a "philosophy of existence" according to the definition (Raosaheb, 2016). One may say that existentialist perceives or interprets everything in terms of an object's existence. Existentialism is a philosophical idea that holds that everything in the universe is founded on existence, as if a person's ability to live in this world depends on both their bodily and mental well-being. If a person possesses those two qualities, they will develop into a free and responsible person. Existentialism's five major ideas are subjectivity, freedom, failure, alienation, and death.. Existentialists believe that contemporary humans live in isolation with regard to the issue of alienation. Loneliness, spiritual emptiness, and worry will accompany all ideas, attitudes, or deeds. It occurs when someone is in severe need of himself, others, and the outside world (Efendi, 2005). One may argue that if people live in desperation toward either themselves or their environment, everything would appear pointless. People in such a circumstance will feel distant or estranged from one another. Feeling alienated, estranged, or distant in other words, experiencing a strangeness toward what is typically referred to as a "Alien" feeling. In fact, Alienation is the condition that someone lost from themselves and the outside world, and the patterns can be seen in thought, attitude, and action dealing with life's problems.

Alienation
Hegel was the one who originally introduced the idea of alienation. According to Hegel, alienation is the situation in which people view something that is truly a part of themselves as being foreign (Kenny, 2007). Hegel believed that alienation was an essential part of the self-creation and self-discovery process. According to Marx, the result of the capitalist method of production is another idea of alienation. Aside from psychological problems, economic problems can also contribute to alienation. One of the strongest indicators of the working class' estrangement is often the oppression that comes from the ruling class. According to Erich Fromm's The Sane Society (Fromm, 1955;Wardhani, 2014), alienation was first used to describe someone who has a mental condition. A person's sense of isolation is sometimes described by the word "alienation." It appears that estrangement is the type of sadness that leaves its victims always feeling odd, worried about everything, emptiness, and powerless. People who experience these emotions often lose control of their lives because they feel foreign and alien. No one else will comprehend them but themselves, yet the issue with estrangement is that they are unable to comprehend their own emotions.

Forms of alienation
Karl Marx categorizes alienation into four categories: alienation from one's own activities' results, alienation from one's own creative activities, estrangement from one's own essence, and alienation from one another (Mukhopadhyay, 2020). While Erich Fromm distinguished three types of estrangement (Istikhomah, 2019) 1. Self-generated alienation This estrangement results through human growth, particularly during childhood, which steadily shapes a lasting personality, rather than from inherent birth. Have fun and have free sex to your heart's content with some feature, such as aggressive tendencies or sadism. 2. Human-generated alienation This alienation is brought on by someone in his immediate environment, typically due to social class distinctions and employers, but it may also be brought on by interpersonal conflicts. 3. Alienation brought on by society and man-made objects Alienation is viewed from a product's point of view in terms of usefulness and value. People who feel alienated in this way are more inclined to over consume or utilize products without considering their advantages. Economic activity, prosperity, and material welfare become personal ambitions in the capitalist period.

Alienation's effects on social relationships
People who feel alienated will suffer unfavorable effects in both their personal lives and their social connections. The effects of estrangement, according to Beck (in Yoder, 1949), can have an impact on a number of things (Istikhomah, 2019): 1. Feelings A person who feels alienated will express part of his feelings to others. The severity of the reaction is often determined by the circumstances around the occurrence. When someone feels alienated, their feelings are typically suppressed and include emptiness, grief, a sense of worthlessness as well as worth, and comedy.

Mindfulness
It is impossible to say that someone is running well if they are disillusioned with their capacity for thought since they already believe they are beneath others. This causes a person to have a different body image, act negatively, be unable to make decisions, and blame and criticize themselves.

Inspirational
The capacity of people to control their social conduct in order to engage in social interaction is another characteristic of motivation. A person who feels alienated will stop being motivated. He will mourn the loss of his excessive reliance, avoidance, denial, and hopelessness. 4. Physical state Many physical diseases will be present in an alienated person. Physical issues, such as being fatigued quickly and having an unmaintained physique, might be seen as a disturbance.

Research method
This research was produced under the auspices of the alienation theory. This research fell under the heading of literature philosophy. The Lars von Trier film Melancholia, which was released in 2011, served as the study's main source of information. Analyzing the presence of alienation in the film involved observing, transcribing the screenplay, and categorizing the conversation in accordance with the subject of alienation. There are a number of ways to identify someone who experiences alienation, including attitudes, mindsets, and behaviors or actions (Efendi, 2005). The main character in the film Melancholia's views, thinking, and actions or behavior were therefore observed in order to study the different types of alienation.

Result and discussion
Alienation can result from a mental disorder called depression. According to the WHO (World Health Organization), the Kementerian Kesehatan Republik Indonesia (Health Ministry of Republic Indonesia) reports that there are around 800,000 suicide-related fatalities worldwide each year, or one death every 40 seconds (Kementerian Kesehatan Republik Indonesia, 2019). While depression is sometimes disregarded in underdeveloped nations, it is given great consideration in wealthy nations. According to the study, developing nations have the greatest rate of suicide deaths (Kementerian Kesehatan Republik Indonesia, 2019). This occurred as a result of the lack of focus given by developing nations to irresponsibility awareness and methods of prevention. People who have depression frequently exhibit symptoms including helplessness, anxiety, and perhaps a sense of estrangement from both oneself and society.
This study examines alienation as one depressive symptom. The movie's lead heroine, Justine, develops a mental disorder that renders her helpless, terrified, and desperate. The readers will be able to see that alienation exists in the present world by examining the attitudes, actions, and thoughts of the main character. No matter how old or young, wealthy or poor, it may happen to everyone. Despite the fact that this film is drama fiction, the tale is based on actual events that actually occurred.
The intriguing aspect of the film is how Justine, the lead character, is compared to a planet that is forecast to crash Earth. Melancholia is the name of the planet. In psychology, melancholia is a syndrome where the state or mood is continually shifting and can create odd behaviors owing to the mood disorder or due to some sort of pressure that causes trauma to a person and results in some kind of long-term mental impairment (Jansson, 2020). The title of Trier's film is Melancholia. Melancholia is mentioned in the movie as having been hidden all this time behind the Sun and having the potential to smash into Earth and annihilate civilisation. The size of Planet Melancholia is 20 times that of Earth. Large and blue, it is a planet. The color blue has traditionally been associated with sadness in literature. Away from their mansion, Justine, Claire, and Claire's kid are shown in the first shot standing in front of it. Except for Justine, everyone is shown standing underneath the moon. She is positioned under the Melancholy. This representation is crucial to the development of the film's whole plot.

Figure 1 Justine standing under the Melancholia
You might think of Justine's despair in terms of the melancholy that only shines above hers. As the author noted above in relation to the melancholia syndrome, the following observations regarding Justine's estrangement as a manifestation of her melancholia feeling were made by the author in the film.

Estrangement
A person who is estranged is someone who is alienated. The person has a tendency to distance themselves from others around them. Several situations in this film reflect the yearning to be alone oneself. No one seemed to care about her feelings when she arrived for her wedding celebrations at the beginning of the film. Everyone was working hard to complete tasks. Immediately following her mother's statement in which she expressed her disbelief in marriage, the alienation sign began to manifest. Justine is very silent and begins to extend her neck. She groaned and made an effort to smile as Claire abruptly led Justine into a room and warned her not to ruin the celebration.
Claire She must demonstrate her happiness to everyone. Justine is aware that her sister is joyful and is attempting to warn her in order to make everything go as smoothly as possible. Since Claire is the only sibling Justine has in the film, Claire is aware of Justine's mental state. She only worries about the wedding she planned for Justine, not if Justine is well. By disengaging from her surroundings, Justine began a new phase of alienation. This scenario demonstrates the following: Justine, however, departs from the gathering and rides a golf cart to the golf yard. Looking at the narrative element of figure 1, the camera shot is a wide view. It demonstrates how Justine disassociated herself from the celebration as she prepared to leave. She is standing on a dark staircase with brightly shining garden lighting on either side. It may indicate that Justine is on the brink of darkness, as represented by the dark stair, and feels alienated from his surroundings, which are bustling inside celebrating her wedding, as shown by the garden lighting.
Her nephew Leo wants to sleep in the subsequent scene. John, Claire's husband, accepts Justine's offer to accompany him to his bedroom. Justine comes up with a reason to leave the celebration. Justine spends the night in the space after giving birth to her nephew. According to Burkitt (2019), alienation is a state in which a person feels cut off from everything around them, including other people, objects, and other things that are connected to them. She is doing her best to keep the party Claire planned for her from being ruined by being fine and putting on a good front for the visitors. She could lose energy performing such tasks since she has mental health concerns. When Claire awakens Justine from her vacation nap, she appears weary. Justine continues to try to distance herself from her bridal party and even from Michael, her future husband, in order to display her severe alienation.

Self-alienation or becoming alienated from oneself
Following, Justine invites her nephew to retire to bed. It turns out that Justine is also dozing off in the bedroom. She is then met by Claire in the space. According to the dialogue, Justine isn't being herself. She is aware of another person inside her body. To everyone, Justine tries to act normally. She barely succeeds in hiding it. In the very beginning of the movie, Trier created an interesting scene where Justine in her wedding dress struggling to move forward as she is tied to ropes at her waist and ankles. He used slow motion effect and the composition was so dark. There are many things that can be underlined in figure 2 such as the gloomy cloud; forest; the rope; the wedding dress and the camera composition. The gloomy cloud can represent of how gloomy Justine's feeling was on her wedding day. Christopher (2021) said that gloomy or dark clouds could represent something negative such as depression, confusion, burden, and other difficulties. In the story, Trier created Justine with her depression based on his depression. The fact that the scene was part of the opening, it already told the audience about the depression that the main character had since the very beginning. Normal people would be feeling emotionally happy on their wedding day, but Justine was portrayed as she is trapped in the middle of the dark forest alone, trying her best to fight her own demon. Another symbolism that showed up is forest. Forest is one of the major symbol in literature, it emphasize something human unable to control because forest ruled and owned by nature. Forest symbolized lost, exploration, secrecy, and mystery (Jackson, 2018). The wedding dress makes it look uncomfortable for her movement, only weighed her down her step while she's struggling running away from the tight rope that is tied to her.
In the conversation with Claire, Justine also mentioned "It's clinging to my legs. It's really heavy to drag along." She's consciously saying this sentence towards Claire who keeps pushing Justine to go along with the party as Claire and John have planned for her. Her depression has somehow started showing worse symptoms where Justine is finally able to telling Claire the truth that everything is hard for her that day. Her uneasiness is symbolized by the rope. Rope is use to tie one into something, in Justine's case the rope is trying to tied her and dragged her deep into the forest. Turned out this scene was a dream of Justine. After having this exhausted dream, her alienation comes in a more severe way.

Unhappy
In her nephew's bedroom, Justine has a conversation with John. From the conversation, it can be indicated that Justine is not happy in her marriage. As a husband from Claire, John must have known about Justine's mental condition. John didn't intend it that way, but he truly did want her to be joyful on her wedding day since that's what a bride should do on her wedding day. There is a problem with Justine, as seen by Claire, John, and even Michael, but no one appears to be concerned. They keep urging Justine to hide the emotions she experienced that night. They disregard her sentiments. A different scenario demonstrates Justine's attempt to fake happiness on the wedding day. Claire and Justine are having a talk in a separate space. Justine continues to deny her discontentment. She is attempting to suppress her own emotions since many around her have urged her to be joyful, even if she was not.
Claire: It's just that I thought you really wanted this. Justine: But I do.
Claire: Michael has tried to get through to you all evening to no avail. Justine: That's not true. I smile and smile and smile... Claire: You're lying to all of us It is clear from multiple instances that Justine does not want to get married. Justine is seen sitting in the midst of the ballroom, husbandless and feeling disconnected from everything, including herself, at one point making a numbing expression. Everyone is dancing joyfully in this moment. Figure 3's frame and camera perspective portray a scene from the ballroom's dance period, and Justine is plainly dozing off while feeling alienated by everything. Justine appears to be the focal point of the photograph because to two older couples dancing on either side of the frame. She is in a scene where the bulb is dim, which represents the despair that Justine is dealing with on a daily basis. All save her appear to be enjoying themselves and the party. She chooses to be alone herself, although Justine frequently expresses her fear in signs to Claire, her mother, and her father, but sadly no one pays attention. As a result, she cut herself apart from both society and herself as a coping method. Her attitude is greatly impacted by the pressure she feels from everyone around her about how she should feel on her wedding day. She has a new idealistic belief that "I should be happy" as a result of her chat with Claire and John about how she tried to be happy and how she should be. According to Horney in Saleem (2014), self-isolation or self-alienation occurs when a person with a mental disease creates a "ideal picture" of oneself that is unlike from their "actual self" in the present. The separation that resulted from the collision between the idealized self and the real self. After her wedding reception, Justine spends a few months going alone at night to the riverbank. Without a single piece of clothing on, she is sprawled out on the grass beside the river, gazing at the planet Melancholia.

Alienation in Capitalism
The fundamental idea behind alienation is estrangement from capitalism. The capitalism that exists was expertly shown by Trier in his psychological drama. Justine's boss, Jack, has her create a tagline for the project at her wedding reception. She is disappointed by it. She first makes an effort to contain her resentment and disgust against Jack for disrespecting her wedding day. When Justine learns that her boss, Jack, frequently inquires about the phrase, she becomes furious. In the end, when Justine is no longer care about 'pretending to be happy' and let the depression takes in, she insults him, and she decides to resign from her job because he always bothers her to work even on her wedding day.
Justine: I hate you and your firm so deeply I couldn't find the words to describe it. You are a despicable, power-hungry little man, Jack. It may be claimed that in capitalism, employees are made to be an object in the eyes of capitalists rather than a subject or a creator of things. According to Burkitt (2019), alienation under capitalism is brought on by workers feeling cut off from the products they produce as a result of an external force originating from the employer. The ability to command employees to make goods with several advantages belongs to the capitalist. As a result, at this point, alienation results from the situation of the capitalist and the worker. Because Jack doesn't understand how to celebrate her wedding day, Justine has lost interest in her profession. Her decision to quit the job is a result from her alienation from capitalism.

Fear and desperate
A depressed person frequently experiences feelings of anxiety and desperation. Justine tells her mother in the bedroom that she is terrified because she feels helpless and scared. She wishes to discuss what is occurring to herself. But her mother believes that she is scared of getting married. Her mother had prior marital experience, which makes her terrified of marriage. So her mother simply responds in a chilly manner.
Justine Justine attempts to talk to her father and begs him to stay in the house since she is feeling desperate because her mother won't listen to her. However, Justine discovers that her father took a journey that night to his house when she entered her father's bedroom. From these scenes, Justine gets the impression that no one is concerned for her, not even her parents, who don't seem to comprehend. She is desperate, helpless, and without hope. Barclay (2018), who holds the view that estrangement may lead to feelings of hopelessness, dread, desperation, and exhaustion, as well as a sensation of having no sense or everything being meaningless and numbness, reinforced Justine's feelings.
In Figure 4, the gloom in front of her represented her sadness. Justine's state was shown by Trier using expansive views. She is the only thing and the only thing in the middle of the frame. The gloomy woodland in front of her symbolizes how no one was there to support her as she struggled with her sadness. Trier wished to underline that Justine was alone that evening and that her vulnerability led to a worsening of her melancholy. The following scene in the film, where it is predicted that the planet Melancholia would smash the Earth, is where her numbness finally becomes apparent. There isn't a way out.
Justine: The Earth is evil. We don't need to grieve for it. Claire: What? Justine: Nobody will miss it. Claire: But where would Leo grow up? Justine: All I know is... Life on Earth is evil. Everyone in the film is terrified of passing away. Justine, who has been experiencing loneliness and desperation for the first time, has given up on life. Because she believes that this world is horrible, she is numb and has no fear of dying. She persuades Claire that nobody will live forever and that she should prepare for the end of the world.

Alienation with the things
Depression survivors do not cut themselves off from their environment and from themselves. A more severe condition known as alienation from objects may result from estrangement. When Justine has a mental condition, she feels completely out of place in the world. She fully cut herself off from so many things and lost all hope in living. Justine can no longer do things on her own such as getting her a taxi, taking a bath and even walk. Her illness makes herself feels weird towards everything including water.
Claire Her illness also makes her cannot taste the food that she usually likes. She becomes alienated from the food. It is shown that at dinner Claire prepared meatloaf because it is Justine's favorite food. However, Justine cannot taste it well.
Justine: It tastes like ashes The circumstances that make her unable to cope with the problems that occur within herself makes her weak mentally and physically. It is seen that Justine feels not only mentally exhausted, but also powerless to do something simple such as eating and bathing. She was drowning from depression and she is fully aware of it. Again, Trier actually spoiled everything in front about the depression that the main character had.
According to Studiobinder (2021), a high shot is used to create an emotional representation that would make the character appear helpless, weak, and frail. The purpose is to evoke strong emotions and depict them in an emotive light. Trier used this moment as the movie poster, and as it was said above, this one scene might serve as the main catalyst for the movie's whole depressive-themed storyline. Justine is submerged in a bridal dress in Figure 5. The water represented her despair, which was taking over her and causing her to drown as she was celebrating her birthday. In the film, Justine first appears to be content to remain submerged in the water, but as the water rises, she tries to raise her head to seek some air. It suggests that, despite her numbness and hopelessness, she is nevertheless motivated to survive.

Conclusion
A type of mental disease in humans called alienation is defined by emotions of being foreign or weird to others, to nature, the environment, God, and even to oneself. Alienation is discussed in connections with oneself, other people, society, objects/nature, and capitalism in Lars von Trier's film Melancholia.
The social lives of those who don't care about their families' or children's issues are criticized in this movie. They don't have any emotional existence; only psychical existence. This occurrence frequently occurs in our social lives. Families and parents have never been able to comprehend their children's emotional state. Many parents raise their children in an authoritarian and self-centered manner. The child feels alienated as a result. With the help of this movie, Lars von Trier hopes to help the general public and families better understand what alienation feels like and how to care for someone who is going through it.
Justine feels alone and forlorn since her family, especially her parents, lacks emotional connection. The suffering of their daughter is unimportant to her father and mother. Justine feels ignored in this situation, which drives her to despair. The marriage of Justine's parents did not work out. They haven't seen one other in a very long time. Because her mother did not believe in marriage, she firmly supported Justine's decision to dissolve her union. Justine suffers from not having somebody to listen to her feelings. While everyone around her urge her to act normally and joyfully. Because of this, Justine prefers to isolate herself from large groups of people and spend time alone. She also believes that the world is bad.