Claudia

Claudia's Profile

Claudia is a girl in her twenties. As a child she was left alone to develop with little parental guidance and through her relationship with T.V. movies developed an unhealthy relationship with Horror films, believing this to be the way life really is. 

All the scenes take place in various parts of Claudia’s apartment, which is European in style with
a great deal of kitsch décor. She is agoraphobic and is kept in touch with the outside world by her neighbours who provide her with her every day requirements. She models herself on a variety of girls often twisting her look to suit whichever film she is watching at the time and there is often a nod to the main character in the current film within her appearance.

The script portrays her as psychotic and there is always the feeling that although her character is scripted/can be seen as humorous, danger is just around the corner. However all this is normal to Claudia and she is of a cheerful disposition in this mad world of hers.

Developing Claudia's Character

It states in her character profile that she had little parental guidance and that she developed an unhealthy relationship with Horror films; it then states she is psychotic. I looked up exactly what it meant for someone to be psychotic meant and found that the NHS gave a great definition, as shown below.

Psychosis is a mental health problem that causes people to perceive or interpret things differently from those around them. This might involve hallucinations or delusions.

The two main symptoms of psychosis are:

• hallucinations– where a person hears, sees and, in some cases, feels, smells or tastes things that aren't there; a common hallucination is hearing voices
• delusions – where a person believes things that, when examined rationally, are obviously untrue – for example, thinking your next door neighbour is planning to kill you

The fact that Claudia was left alone as a child could have caused her Psychosis state to come on and if she was watching a lot of horror film then she would obviously have some very terrifying, graphic and inhumane visions in her head that she could be believing as true. It states in her profile that she believes the things that happen in horror films to be how life is in reality, which would make sense if she was psychotic. This would have be very frightening and unsettling to grow up with and maybe now that she is older and she is watching more and more horror films, her hallucinations are getting even worse.

I think that this would also explain why she is agoraphobic. If someone if agoraphobic then it means they are scared of being in situations or places where they feel like if they needed help they couldn't find it. This could be why she doesn't like leaving the house, as if she does she feels very panicked and scared for her safety. The fact that she is always inside would be very pale from lack of sunlight, and may also have weak bones due to a lack of vitamin D. 

It says that her apartment has a lot of kitsch decor, which is very colourful and fun; this seems very different to her mental state and lifestyle. I think that maybe her neighbours helped her re-decorate her apartment, as she spends so much of her time in it, and wanted to make it seem like a happier, more cheerful place to be, in the hope that if would have some kind of affect on her general mood. It says her neighbours provide her with her everyday requirements, which could be anything from toilet paper to a new horror film. However I think that because her neighbours are her only link to the outside world, they could have a great influence over her and could feed her with false information; this could either be a in positive ways or negative ways.

It says in her character profile that she has a cheerful disposition, but I don't see how you could if you were in constant fear of the outside world; however maybe because she doesn't know any different she has excepted that this is how life should be or maybe she is in denial. I think that maybe she is happy and content when she isn't having her hallucinations, but when she does have them, she turns into a completely different and panicked person.

For my creation of Claudia I chosen the words 'Save us' as inspiration. I chose this word because I think that Claudia feels trapped in her own house and wants to be saved from having horrific hallucinations. 'Us' could be referring to her and her imaginary boyfriend, Quentin. When people have hallucinations they believe that it is really happening to them and this could result in Claudia taking drastic measures to make them stop. I think that she could have tried to scratch her eyes out so that she didn't have to see all the awful things she hallucinated about. I think this could be her defining characteristic, that she is blind. The fact that she is blind would also mean that her neighbours would have even more control over her and it would make more sense that she doesn't want to leave her house.

Her character profile says that she often changes her look depending on what the girls in the horror film she is watching look like. The fact that I have decided that she is blind would make this more difficult, so maybe her neighbours help her achieve the look of the girl she wants to look like. I think it would be fun to chose a horror film that was released in the 21st century that she could be dressing up as.


Resources:
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/psychosis/Pages/Introduction.aspx
http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/agoraphobia/Pages/Introduction.aspx