Lydia

3 Pages 812 Words

Beetlejuice: the Movie and Depression

The story is thus: a wholesome, small town couple Adam and Barbara Maitland are killed in an auto accident and their ghosts are doomed to dwell in their house for 125 years. Soon after, the big city Deitz family (frazzled Charles, neurotic and narcissistic Delia and depressed Lydia) moves in and takes over. Adam and Barbara's carefully decorated house is gutted and transformed into Delia’s idea of “art”. Disgusted by the triple intrusion, Adam and Barbara try to haunt the family out of their home, but unfortunately, their cheap parlor tricks and hovering around in designer bed sheets are unsuccessful rookie efforts. They need a professional. Enter Betelgeuse, the afterlife's leading bio-exorcist. After summoning Betelgeuse, Adam and Barbara discover that he's a vile, dangerous creature that wants to escape the afterlife and raise hell in the land of the living. Now with two problems on their hands, Adam and Barbara must take care of their dilemma with the Deitzes and keep Betelgeuse confined to the afterlife.
Lydia is presented to the movie watcher as a young female wearing a black dress with a black veil covering her face as though in mourning. From the beginning of the movie Lydia presents herself as an outsider, a loner that no one, especially her parents, understands. Charles and Delia, Lydia’s father and stepmother, add to this feeling by being so preoccupied with their own problems and needs that Lydia is left to fend for herself. Lydia describes herself as strange and unusual. She demonstrates some of the symptoms of adolescent depression; the feeling of being different, withdrawn, poor family relations, and the desire for attention. You can see Lydia’s desire for attention from her parents in her mischievous nature, and gothic appearance. Childhood depression is most likely to be triggered by the trauma of loss, change or an otherwise negative life event during the formati...