Hal Ashby’s film Harold and Maude operates on multiple layers of story telling. Upon first viewing, it is an unorthodox love story between a rich, young, morose boy who strikes up a romance with a wild, adventurous seventy-nine year old woman. Their relationship breaks the social constructs surrounding age and class, not to mention they deeply upset Harold’s mother. Through the quirkiness of Harold and Maude’s dynamics and the unexpected nature of their relationship, Harold and Maude does not adhere to conventional standards for romance films. In fact, it does exactly what Maude taught Harold to do: be an individual, be original, don’t try to blend in with the masses and be forgotten about. The name “Maude” means “strong, female fighter,” while Harold’s means “mighty in war,” and they both are warriors in their own ways.
While the plot line is darkly funny and the characters endearing, Harold and Maude have a greater purpose than simply carrying out an unusual love story. They represent the spectrum of human experience, both in age, mentality, and how they live their separate lives. Harold and Maude illustrate that humanity’s uniqueness is also what makes us connected to each other by a common thread of experience. They are vehicles for the film’s symbolism of life and death, and the continual cycle that intertwines both.
While the plot line is darkly funny and the characters endearing, Harold and Maude have a greater purpose than simply carrying out an unusual love story. They represent the spectrum of human experience, both in age, mentality, and how they live their separate lives. Harold and Maude illustrate that humanity’s uniqueness is also what makes us connected to each other by a common thread of experience. They are vehicles for the film’s symbolism of life and death, and the continual cycle that intertwines both.
On a metaphorical level, Harold represents the sterility and bleakness of old age. Although only twenty years of age, he is sapped of life prior to meeting Maude. His physical appearance of blanched skin, a very thin frame, dark hair, sullen expressions, and black clothes make him look emaciated, cold, and isolated within himself. While growing up in an rich household, it is clear Harold has been emotionally neglected by his mother. He is estranged from her, and she is so self-absorbed she hardly notices the difference. Harold is repressed by the social constraints he grew up under, the “stifling privilege and ossified values” of his class (Zoller Seitz). His icy demeanor reflects the rigidness of his upbringing. He also admits that he “enjoys being dead,” after creating an accident in his boarding school’s chemistry lab which made everyone think he was dead. Committing fake suicides fifteen times, Harold’s fascination with death and the delicate nature of mortality sets him apart from his peers. In many ways, his obsession with death isolates him from life, as he has no friends his own age or healthy relationships with any of the characters before meeting Maude. However, his staged suicide attempts offer a paradox about his character. He says he enjoys being dead, but it is not true. If he truly wanted to die, he would not use suicide as a joke. He would not practice suicides. He would actually kill himself. His ambivalence over death is shown in the opening scene of the movie with cinematic lighting. The first time the viewer sees Harold’s face, half of it is cast in dark shadow, and the other in bright sunlight.
Harold plays with the idea of death with a sense of curiosity and a disconnect with reality: Harold uses fake deaths as a way to feel alive. To him, creating the illusion of death circumvents his bland upbringing. It also shows quite a bit of emotional trauma, because he uses his fake suicides as a way to get attention from the person he craves it from the most: his mother. However, their relationship is not healed through his various acts of immolation, hangings, and drownings. If anything, the more Harold tries to reach out and get his mother’s attention, the more she withdraws. Her only reaction to seeing her son hang from his neck is: “I suppose you think that's very funny, Harold... Oh, dinner at eight, Harold. And do try and be a little more vivacious.” Similarly, when he shoots himself in the forehead, she reacts like this:
Harold plays with the idea of death with a sense of curiosity and a disconnect with reality: Harold uses fake deaths as a way to feel alive. To him, creating the illusion of death circumvents his bland upbringing. It also shows quite a bit of emotional trauma, because he uses his fake suicides as a way to get attention from the person he craves it from the most: his mother. However, their relationship is not healed through his various acts of immolation, hangings, and drownings. If anything, the more Harold tries to reach out and get his mother’s attention, the more she withdraws. Her only reaction to seeing her son hang from his neck is: “I suppose you think that's very funny, Harold... Oh, dinner at eight, Harold. And do try and be a little more vivacious.” Similarly, when he shoots himself in the forehead, she reacts like this:
While one could say Harold’s actions are harmless because he is not actually killing himself, the fake suicides are emotionally damaging to him. He values his life less and less with each fake attempt, coming closer to actually wanting to die. That is, until he meets Maude.
While Harold symbolizes the end of life, Maude embodies the beginning. Structurally, this is an interesting juxtaposition within the story. Harold and Maude have reversed traditional roles. Usually it is a young man who is daring and acts infallible, and the elderly woman who is more reserved—but not in the case of Maude. Maude is expressed not simply through dialogue, but by her actions and the objects that surround her as well.
Maude teaches people how to let go. An expert at stealing cars, she explains to Harold that she steals cars so their owners realize how quickly circumstances can change, and that what’s here today “can be gone tomorrow.” Ultimately, she is responsible for showing Harold how to let go. For example, when Harold gives Maude the memento that says “Harold loves Maude,” she admires it, thanks him, and promptly throws it in the ocean. “Now I’ll always know where it is,” she says. Her ultimate lesson in ‘letting go’ is her own death. Not only does she opt to let go of her body, her very existence, but she makes Harold let go of her as well. She wants Harold to be free, and not hold onto her anymore. Maude’s ability to not clutch to the past or to objects most likely stems from her life experience. She is a survivor not only of World War I and World War II, but of a concentration camp. Maude has suffered greatly in her past, as shown in the subtle scene of Harold looking at the tattoo on her forearm. The position, size, and string of numbers indicate that Maude is a survivor of incredible suppression. She has learned what truly matters in life, and it is not material objects. Yet for all the darkness she has endured, Maude chooses to make her life beautiful. She chooses to be different, and she fights for freedom within herself and in society. She resists conformity because she has experienced how violent and deadly the need for a homogeneous culture can be.
In one of the early funeral scenes where Maude and Harold go to enjoy other people’s demise, Maude is seen leaving while holding a bright yellow umbrella. She is dressed in very similar clothes to the little girl standing behind her. She is a burst of color is a sea of black clothes and black umbrellas. She also expresses her wish to be reincarnated as a sunflower in her next life, because they are so “tall and simple.” Sunflowers are representative of warmth, and summer. Sunflower heads have the ability to track the sun across the sky, and often symbolize happiness; similar to how roses represent romance. The color yellow is associated with optimism, as black is associated (in Western cultures) with death. Their final night together, Harold decorates Maude’s entire house with giant yellow sunflowers, a symbolic final celebration of her life.
Maude teaches people how to let go. An expert at stealing cars, she explains to Harold that she steals cars so their owners realize how quickly circumstances can change, and that what’s here today “can be gone tomorrow.” Ultimately, she is responsible for showing Harold how to let go. For example, when Harold gives Maude the memento that says “Harold loves Maude,” she admires it, thanks him, and promptly throws it in the ocean. “Now I’ll always know where it is,” she says. Her ultimate lesson in ‘letting go’ is her own death. Not only does she opt to let go of her body, her very existence, but she makes Harold let go of her as well. She wants Harold to be free, and not hold onto her anymore. Maude’s ability to not clutch to the past or to objects most likely stems from her life experience. She is a survivor not only of World War I and World War II, but of a concentration camp. Maude has suffered greatly in her past, as shown in the subtle scene of Harold looking at the tattoo on her forearm. The position, size, and string of numbers indicate that Maude is a survivor of incredible suppression. She has learned what truly matters in life, and it is not material objects. Yet for all the darkness she has endured, Maude chooses to make her life beautiful. She chooses to be different, and she fights for freedom within herself and in society. She resists conformity because she has experienced how violent and deadly the need for a homogeneous culture can be.
In one of the early funeral scenes where Maude and Harold go to enjoy other people’s demise, Maude is seen leaving while holding a bright yellow umbrella. She is dressed in very similar clothes to the little girl standing behind her. She is a burst of color is a sea of black clothes and black umbrellas. She also expresses her wish to be reincarnated as a sunflower in her next life, because they are so “tall and simple.” Sunflowers are representative of warmth, and summer. Sunflower heads have the ability to track the sun across the sky, and often symbolize happiness; similar to how roses represent romance. The color yellow is associated with optimism, as black is associated (in Western cultures) with death. Their final night together, Harold decorates Maude’s entire house with giant yellow sunflowers, a symbolic final celebration of her life.
Maude’s love of sunflowers and life is a strong character trait. Maude likes to watch things grow. This becomes especially clear when she steals a tree from public property that is unhealthy and replants it in the forest. She is passionate about life, and for Harold she is the giver of vitality. The lessons she passes onto Harold about music, disobeying authority (anyone up for hijacking a cop’s motorcycle?), and living life with purpose allow Harold to reach out from within himself and form a connection with the rest of the world. Maude teaches him how to love, and when he confesses his feelings, she says: “Now go love some more” (Min). In many ways, Maude’s death signifies that it is time for Harold to start living his. She has imbued him with her vivaciousness, and now she must fall back into the cycle of life of death (Gangal).
What is fascinating about Maude’s character is that she chooses to commit suicide not out of depression, but out of her love of life. Suicide is her way of having control over her own longevity. At eighty years old, she has lived to the point where she is happy, and has chosen not to dampen her fiery existence with senescence. She masters death in the way Harold is not ready to do yet. For all his fake suicides, he knows he still has a life ahead of him to live. The continual cycle of growing and dying is best shown in the scene of Harold and Maude sitting in a field of daises. Maude asks Harold what kind of flower he would be, to which Harold replies “one of these,” pointing at the daises, because “they are alike.” Harold’s desire to be part of something he sees as cohesive and identical indicates he has not chosen his isolated existence by choice. He is highly eccentric and enjoys many aspects of his unusual life, but also craves normality and community, like the identical daises. Maude’s response that some of the daises are “smaller, some are fatter,” some “grow to the left and others to the right,” and many are missing petals, conveys that even within a group of living things, variation makes each of them special. “You see Harold, I feel that much of the world’s sorrow comes from people who are this [referencing a single flower], yet allow themselves to be treated as that [referencing a hill of daisies].”
Maude is expressing the importance of accepting one’s own individuality, and only by realizing how different we all are can humanity relate to each other in a meaningful way. As the camera pans out, the daises instantly transform into white headstones, also seemingly identical. But of course, headstones are a very specialized item. They are the last remaining testament to a person’s life, each one etched with information pertinent to a single person. The transformation of the daises into gravestones symbolizes the nature of life: we are each different within our pool of “commonality” (Zoller Seitz). Our lives are brief, and what remains of us will also share characteristics of likeness and unique variances. Harold’s last fake suicide, when he drives his hearse over the cliff following Maude’s death, symbolizes the end of his suicide attempts. He has obliterated the vehicle of his own destruction, and begins to play the banjo and dance as the credits roll, indicating Maude’s viewpoints of life’s preciousness have sunk in, and he is ready to begin living (Min).
Maude is expressing the importance of accepting one’s own individuality, and only by realizing how different we all are can humanity relate to each other in a meaningful way. As the camera pans out, the daises instantly transform into white headstones, also seemingly identical. But of course, headstones are a very specialized item. They are the last remaining testament to a person’s life, each one etched with information pertinent to a single person. The transformation of the daises into gravestones symbolizes the nature of life: we are each different within our pool of “commonality” (Zoller Seitz). Our lives are brief, and what remains of us will also share characteristics of likeness and unique variances. Harold’s last fake suicide, when he drives his hearse over the cliff following Maude’s death, symbolizes the end of his suicide attempts. He has obliterated the vehicle of his own destruction, and begins to play the banjo and dance as the credits roll, indicating Maude’s viewpoints of life’s preciousness have sunk in, and he is ready to begin living (Min).
Works Cited
Gangal, Anurag. "Harold and Maude: A Meditation on Death." Digital Journal. N.p., 21 Jul 2009. Web. 4 Dec 2013.
Min, N.n. "Analysis: Harold & Maude." Listology . N.p., 3 Sep 2001. Web. 4 Dec 2013.
Zoller Seitz, Matt. "Harold and Maude: Life and How to Live It." The Criterion Collection . N.p., 12 Jun 2012. Web. 4 Dec 2013.
Gangal, Anurag. "Harold and Maude: A Meditation on Death." Digital Journal. N.p., 21 Jul 2009. Web. 4 Dec 2013.
Min, N.n. "Analysis: Harold & Maude." Listology . N.p., 3 Sep 2001. Web. 4 Dec 2013.
Zoller Seitz, Matt. "Harold and Maude: Life and How to Live It." The Criterion Collection . N.p., 12 Jun 2012. Web. 4 Dec 2013.