Edvard Munch's the Scream Edvard

Edvard Munch's The Scream Edvard Munch's most famous painting, the Scream, can be deceptively simple in its initial appearance. None of the details are rendered in anything resembling realism, or even traditional impressionism. In fact, Munch is credit with being one of the founders of the expressionist school of painting, and the Scream is one of the prototypical expressionistic works (Art & Critique, par. 1). The scene is rendered in a perspective that makes it difficult to determine distances and at the same time distorts focus.

The central figure is easy to determine; not only does he appear to be screaming, but he is also so far in the foreground of the painting that he is almost walking off the canvas, making him easily the most prominent figure in the painting. Behind him at some distance, though certainly within hearing range, two indistinct figures appear to be walking side by side, with the figure on the left slightly cut off by the painting's border.

It is impossible to tell whether r not these figures are walking towards or away from the central figure, or if they are exhibiting any reaction to the scream. All three figure are on some sort of wooden walkway or bridge, with a railing running along the viewer's right hand side and disappearing to the left as it approaches the off-canvas vanishing point.

On the other side of the railing is a dark and swirling background that could be water or land, with a lighter patch near the horizon at the background of the painting that likewise could either be water or land, and is almost certainly the opposite of whatever the darker areas are. Above the entire scene, a vivid orange sky at sunset, streaked with a few shadowy clouds, provides the only intense color in the piece.

The figures and the bridge are dark and muddy browns, and the land/water spots are muted blues and grays, with the reflection of the sky making them seem even more muddied. Color takes a back seat to line in the composition of this painting, however (Art & Critique, par. 2). The majority of this painting is rendered in curving lines; large swoops that stretch from one side of the sky to another, or curve almost entirely around the background mass of land/water.

The only straight lines in the painting involve the individual planks and railings of the bridge and the two human figures in the background of the painting. Interestingly, the bridge is also the most detailed and realistically rendered portion of the painting. It is also important to note that the dominant figure is composed of curves, unlike the bridge and the other figures that are composed of straight lines.

This ties the figure into the wild outside world of the painting much more strongly than to the world of the bridge, where he is standing now, suggesting that he is entirely out of place in the ordered world that the rest of humanity belongs to. This is reflected by the lack of balance and harmony in the painting; the extreme perspective that has everything slanted back and to the left deliberately cuts the painting into two portions along an uneven and seemingly random angle.

The off-balance feeling of this painting is strengthened even more by the fact that the central figure is cut off at the bottom. The central figure himself is also placed off-center in the painting, standing against the rail of the bridge at the extreme foreground of the painting, where it disappears on the right. The figure himself is not cut off on the side, only on the bottom, and this placement puts the figure's thrust off kilter, making it somewhat less powerful.

Yet the figure still completely dominates the painting, and even appears to be surrounded by a slight border as the rest of the scene curves around him. One obvious interpretation of the Scream is that the central figure is under some sort of torment; insanity is often suggested as an explanation for this public display of anguish (Art & Critique, par. 1). There is a strange quietness to the painting, however.

Everything is softened by the curves, and the colors are so muted that it almost appears as though the screamer -- and indeed the rest of the scene -- is in reality totally silent. There is almost a feeling that sound cannot exist in the world of the painting, making the scream a futile and horribly ironic gesture. This interpretation would mean that the screamer's torment might come from not being heard, or not being able to correctly express himself, or a combination of the two. This.