Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans was first released in 1929, but the story itself feels as though it has been told time and again through the ages. In this film, a married man meets a woman—a dangerous, beautiful woman—who tries to lure him away from his dutiful wife. What begins seemingly as a crime story evolves into exactly what the title suggests: it is the song of two humans and their relationship to each other over the course of the film (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, 1929). It is important to note that Sunrise is a silent film, so all the relationships and exchanges had and made during the course of the film are done entirely through inter-titles and physical acting (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, 1929; Hutchinson, 2011). This discussion will consider Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans in the context of social exchange theory, which describes the way human relationships are formed within a given society (Cook, Cheshire, Rice & Nakagawa, 2013).
Social exchange theorists postulate that every human being’s interactions and relationships are founded on the basis of self-interest (Cook et al., 2013). It is important to note that when considering this theory, the term “self-interest” is not meant to be a derogatory term—that, is, “self-interest” merely means that people act in such a way that they are maximizing their own enjoyment, happiness, and prospects as far as possible when crafting relationships with others (Cook et al., 2013). Exchanges between individuals may be positive or negative in nature, and they also may be negotiated or reciprocal in nature; however, regardless of the basis of the exchange, human beings perform a cost-benefit analysis whenever they engage in any kind of social exchange or relationship behavior (Cook et al., 2013; Emerson, 1976).
Although often used in the business world, social exchange theory can also be immensely useful when analyzing personal relationships. Two of the most important concepts in social exchange theory are self-interest and interdependence; self-interest is a relatively self-explanatory concept, but interdependence is a little more complex (Emerson, 1976; Fiske, 1992). According to Cook et al. (2013), an individual’s ability to “get ahead” in relationships is one of the driving forces behind his or her behavior. This document will examine the relationships between the three main characters of Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans —the Husband, the Wife, and the Woman—and how social exchange theory can be applied directly to the interactions that these individuals have during the events that occur over the course of the film.
The characters of Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans revealed the social exchange theory by their methods of interaction. The relationship and the communication between the characters of the film were based on mutual need and even, in some cases, mutual greed. The change in the behavior and communication pattern of the characters of the film is fully dependent upon the theory—after all, the Husband decides to upend his entire life for the Woman with little apparent provocation. The film also provides a deep focus on the self-efficacy which is also the most important process of the social learning. The communication of the characters of the film influences the thoughts of the individuals and affects their actions. All of these statements showed that the social cognitive theory is used in the film Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans.
Social exchange theory suggests that every human exchange is associated with either a cost or a reward (Fiske, 1992; Cook et al., 2013). If an individual’s relationship with another is positive, then the rewards are greater than the costs of the relationship; if the costs are too great, on the other hand, the worth of the relationship becomes too much and the worth declines (Cook et al., 2013). Costs are not necessarily financial costs, of course; they can be time, emotional energy, effort, and so on. Similarly, rewards do not have to be financial rewards, although they can be: rewards can also be intangible things like friendship, companionship, support, and so on (Emerson, 1976).
In the opening scenes of Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, the Woman from the city tempts the Husband, kissing him and telling him he must get rid of his wife and sell his farm to be happy (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, 1929). Although the man is not necessarily convinced by the idea at first—in fact, he violently tries to strangle the Woman for suggesting such a thing—he is so overcome by the passion he feels for her that he agrees to do a terrible thing by killing his wife and leaving for the city with the Woman (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, 1929). The two plot to kill the Wife, deciding that the best way to kill her would be for the husband to drown his wife (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, 1929). Instead of telling the Woman no, the Husband agrees to drown his wife, taking care to put bundles of reeds into the boat so that when it capsized, he would be able to stay afloat and survive (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, 1929).
In this opening scene, the role of social exchange theory can be seen clearly in the interaction between the Husband, the Woman, and even the Wife, who is not on screen. The Husband feels something very strong for the Woman, which has the effect of forcing him to choose between his relationship with the Wife and the relationship with the Woman. For the Husband, the passion he feels for the Woman at the beginning of the film is a much larger benefit than the cost of losing his wife. Likewise, at that moment, keeping his wife happy and alive is a smaller reward than the cost of keeping her alive.
However, one important piece of social exchange theory is the fact that relationships between people are fluid and the cost-benefit analysis that people do on any given situation is always changing and evolving (Fiske, 1992; Cook et al., 2013). Although an individual might feel one way about something at a certain time, that analysis can quickly change based on new interactions and new feelings that arise in a situation. In the beginning, the Husband feels as though the love and passion of the Woman is more important than anything else in his life, including his wife. However, over the course of the film, his cost-benefit analysis of the situation changes and he begins to see the situation in which he finds himself very differently (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, 1929; Cook et al., 2013; Emerson, 1976).
Throughout the film, it is unclear why the Woman is so interested in the Husband. Perhaps she is interested in him because he has a wife and is taken; perhaps what she feels for him is truly love. However, when the Husband interacts with the Woman, she seems intent on inciting passion in him as much as possible, and she does not seem to mind if she incites violence in his behavior either (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, 1929). When he tries to strangle her, this does not become a cost too great for the reward; part of the problem of the film is that to a modern audience, if a man were to attempt to strangle a woman, the cost-benefit analysis would almost certainly shift for the woman in question.
For the Husband, the cost-benefit analysis associated with social exchange theory shifts when the Wife escapes from his attempts to kill her. He cannot imagine life without her, and he and she begin to rekindle their relationship; he tries to show her all the benefits of being with him, so that her cost-benefit analysis of the attempted murder will shift back to his favor (Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans, 1929). Although the wife does indeed take him back, the story does not end happily for all parties—the Woman, of course, is thwarted by the Husband’s shift in sensibilities at the end of the film. Because the film is silent, using the social exchange theory to model the behavior of the characters in the film is immensely helpful; although modern sensibilities might shift the cost-benefit analysis in certain situations, the filmmakers used cost and reward effectively throughout the film to demonstrate the importance of developing interdependence and positive self interest in relationships.
References
Cook, K. S., Cheshire, C., Rice, E. R., & Nakagawa, S. (2013). Social exchange theory. In Handbook of social psychology (pp. 61-88). Springer Netherlands.
Emerson, R. M. (1976). Social exchange theory. Annual review of sociology, 335-362.
Fiske, A. P. (1992). The four elementary forms of sociality: framework for a unified theory of social relations. Psychological review, 99(4), 689.
Hutchinson, P. (2011). My favourite film – Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. the Guardian. Retrieved 10 August 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2011/nov/16/my-favourite-film-sunrise
Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans. (1926). Hollywood.
