An Analysis of Bonnie Tyler’s ‘Total Eclipse of the Heart’ (1983)
The music video opens on a Gothic style, private school in America somewhere.
The camera pans around and zooms into a lit window in the building (at nighttimes)
The camera is now inside a bedroom and we are shown in ECU pan a number of very Victorian looking perfume bottles, lit candles as well as white flowing curtains. Backlit against a large moon, Tyler stands gazing out the window. She is classically constructed as the Romantic, Gothic female- a symbol of purity.
She is dressed totally in white, with very blonde hair.
The song starts and we see her move from her bedroom into long corridors.
The flowing and billowing red curtains symbolise passion and sexual desire.
As she passes down the corridor the red curtains billow around her and she looks in various rooms (some obviously classrooms) and we, the audience see a variety of boys.
The first has three boys, the second a single boy releasing a white dove (symbol of purity and love), five boys having a very upper glass dinner.
It would seem we are being shown that she is looking for someone in particular.
As she leaves the corridor, there is a low angle camera shot where we look up at her standing on a gothic sweeping balcony, backlit, with light streaming out of her fingertips in a crucifix pose.
The narrative continues with various scenarios of Tyler being surrounded by young men in various ‘male’ stereotypical clothing.
There is the ‘noble savage’; young men dressed primitively in loin cloths dancing around her
There is the grid-iron football player, traditionally the stereotype of the All American boy
There is the motor-bike bad boy – as the dancers come up the stairs in leather jackets, trousers and boots complete with studded gloves
There is the ninja warriors fighting- symbolic of strength and masculine fearlessness/martial skill
There is the fencer – masters of skilled and controlled aggression
juxtapositioned against this are the ‘angelic choirboys’ all with glowing eyes and including a flying choir boy – representative of innocence and grace.
It would seem we are being treated to a visual metaphor of the best of masculinity, seemingly encapsulated within the ‘angelic boy’.
Most of these scenarios have a strong sexual theme- the boys are all involved in traditional sexualised rituals.
At the end of the video (which is actually the beginning of the narrative) we are in daylight and Tyler, accompanied by a Professor, is brought down the steps and introduced to a group of boys as a new teacher. The camera pans along until we get a CU of her shaking hands with one particular boy and the shot is held. This shot is held so that we understand a particular connection is being created here between this boy with the glowing eyes (bright eyes) and Tyler. It is evident that this is the boy she has fallen in love with and has sexual desires for.
This of course, is a Taboo relationship. Teachers and students are not allowed to have these kinds of relationships which is why Tyler is singing a song about emotional torture and breakdown ‘Once upon a time I was falling in love now I am only falling apart. Nothing I can do it’s a total eclipse of the heart” (An eclipse is where the sun’s shadow covers the moon completely and there is total darkness for a short period of time).
Another music video that spoke to the same theme and message was Police (Sting’s) ‘Don’t’ Stand so Close to Me’(1986)- a song sung by a teacher about the sexual attraction he had towards a female student)
However, the music video is not representing or promoting an actual relationship as Tyler is constrained in this constructed representation of the ‘Good Victorian Woman’
It is a romanticised stereotype which evolved from the very marked split in female sexuality in British Victorian Society around the late 1800’s/early 1900’s.
The Victorians had a very strict social structure and very strict social rules; particularly those pertaining to women and their place and behaviour – especially sexual behaviour.
The Victorians are largely responsible for ‘dividing’ women in two’ creating a good, virginal women who would be a viable commercial product on the Victorian marriage market and the ‘bad woman’’ who was spoiled/fallen from Grace in so far as she was sexually active or exhibited sexuality.
These, of course, are specifically constructed gender identities to suit the political and economic purposes of the day. The Victorians were very concerned with issues of inheritance and property and therefore with the assurance that female sexuality was ‘caged’ to ensure that the women they married were only producing children that could have been theirs.
The Victorians are responsible for the evolution of the ‘red light area’ as we know it and the commercial practice of prostitution. The Western ‘bad woman’ representation and stereotype begins to be consolidated at this point with its characteristic shorter skirts and low cut bodices. These women were the ‘fallen’ and could never be accepted back into Victorian society nor lead a ‘normal’ life in terms of a ‘proper’ marriage. Regrettably, many of these women were forced into prostitution because there was no other way to earn a reasonable living. Factory works was available in appalling conditions and with equally appalling pay (e.g. a penny a day for 12 hours factory work). Many were country girls who had come to the city to ‘make their fortune’ and found themselves quickly taken advantage of. Many were household staff who had become pregnant to their masters and had no choice but to take to the streets.