Taxi Driver Essay Questions

How does the following quote from Dostoyevsky’s “underground man” apply to Travis Bickle? “What is to be done with the millions of facts that bear witness that men, CONSCIOUSLY, that is fully understanding their real interests, have left them in the background and have rushed headlong on another path, to meet peril and danger, compelled to this course by nobody and by nothing, but, as it were, simply disliking the beaten track, and have obstinately, willfully, struck out another difficult, absurd way, seeking it almost in the darkness.”

Travis Bickle is a cinematic representation of Dostoevsky's 19th century literary model, the infamous “underground man.” Like his Russian inspiration, Travis is alternately a demon from hell when viewed from one perspective and an avenging angel when seen from another. Obsessed by the distinction between good and evil, right and wrong, Travis is flawed in his obstinate individualism, which connects to the man described in the above quote. Travis is "compelled to this course by nobody and by nothing."

He eventually bursts in a violent eruption. Having "obstinately, willfully, struck out another difficult, absurd way" through his own personal urban hell, Bickle snaps and strikes out in violence. "Almost in darkness," Travis Bickle seeks to forge a new way that is counter to his own interests, filled with "peril and danger," and just as arbitrary and chaotic as a more mainstream path might be.

How does the famous “are you talkin’ to me” scene with Travis addressing his reflection in the mirror stand as the thematic centerpiece for the entire film?

As Travis Bickle stands shirtless and armed in front of a mirror, he engages in an incessant dialogue with his reflected self, an image which perfectly encapsulates his entire journey. Having embraced his own alienation from society, Travis refuses to confront himself ethically and emotionally, and instead chooses to confront a performed persona of toughness and self-assurance. The scene is masculinity pushed to its limits, a performance of self-hatred and repressed emotionality which communicates Travis' particular brand of disconnection and disaffected angst.

Travis's disconnect from mainstream society is stimulated by his suspicion of it and, in return, society’s suspicion of him as an individual. Travis's isolation is an origin-less feedback loop, which is perfectly made literal in the accusations that Travis hurls at his own image. The viewer senses that Travis could ask his own reflection, "are you talkin' to me?" indefinitely, which becomes a perfect metaphor for Travis's political stand-off with society.

Is Travis Bickle a hero or a villain?

It is difficult to characterize Travis as either a hero or a villain, as his moral character is often contradictory, at turns bigoted and noble. Travis commits or attempts to commit several acts of violence throughout the film. First he kills a robber in a convenience store, for which the clerk thanks him. While the robber did not necessarily deserve to die, Travis protected the clerk. Travis then plans to assassinate a presidential candidate, however, his plan is apprehended so quickly that he would not even be subject to arrest for attempted murder. Later he kills three men in order to save a child prostitute. His violent acts at the brothel could be categorized as both cold-blooded murder and self-defense, but all are in the service of saving a 12-year-old girl from a life of sex work that she wants to escape. Travis commits heroic acts villainously, and is so enamored of his own moral righteousness, that he kills before he is sure that violence is necessary.

Discuss Travis's complicated relationship to his own sexuality and sexual desire.

At the start of the film, Travis attends pornographic movie houses almost compulsively. While he watches them stone-faced, apparently unmoved by their salacious content, he attends often, and tries to pick up the young concessions clerk on one of his visits. Later, his biggest mistake with his beloved Betsy is bringing her along to an X-rated movie, which scandalizes her.

For all his apparent horniness, Travis remains precious about the purity of the women in his life, one of his more puzzling contradictions. Without even knowing Betsy, Travis feels enamored of her perceived "purity" as represented by her blond hair and white dress, and he feels almost maniacally protective of its preservation. As protective as he is of Betsy's virginal aspects, however, he chooses to take her to a sexually explicit film, which belies a disconnect between Travis's understanding of Betsy and his own seemingly repressed sexual desires. He believes that a pornographic film is a perfectly reasonable place to take a woman on a second date. One cannot help but see the gross hypocrisy of a man who takes a woman he feels so possessive of to a film in which the female protagonist sleeps with a orgy of men.

Later, Iris, another sexually complicated figure becomes the object of Travis's obsession, but to greater ethical effect. Equally blond and innocent looking, Iris becomes a double for Betsy in Travis's eyes, and he wants to save and protect her too. While his obsession with Iris is paternalistic and possessive, his ultimate desire to free her from sexual slavery is noble, as he refuses to sexualize her, and wants to return her to an innocent youth.

In what ways does Scorsese's direction help to illuminate the narrative of the film?

Scorsese depicts New York as a gritty and moody landscape for Travis's wanderings. With many closeups and an almost relentlessly mobile camera, Scorsese frames the narrative with an obsessive and frantic lens, which reflects the psychic state of the film's protagonist. Shots of the side of the taxi from ground level give the effect of feeling oppressed by the grittiness of the city. After Travis falls onto the couch in Iris's room, having killed three men and splattered with their blood, the camera drifts up into a rare bird's eye view, panning across the room slowly, like God looking down on the violence of man.

The cinematography, by Michael Chapman, was lauded at the time for its stark contrasts and communicative movement. While the New York of Scorsese's film is dingy and dark, the colors that do exist pop off the screen with a vibrancy, and details are revealed skillfully and economically by the camera, as when we see Travis's mohawk for the first time.