Hugo Essay Prompt #3

Runaway machines in Hugo; what a knot to poke at!

Anyway, upon watching the double-dream sequence again, I noticed a couple of details:

In some ways, the train-dream is almost stupidly humorous. The workers on the train, covered in soot and ash, try to stop the train before it can hit Hugo, who for some reason just stays on the tracks like he'd prefer to be squashed into mashed-Hugo. One of the small problems I had with the film. Come on, Hugo.

Back to the train. We're given a look inside the train car, where the works shout and scream and crank gears and pull switches to try to stop the train's momentum. We see the machinery of the train a little, but then we see three shots of the "face" of the train, where the light is. Bam, bam, bam, closer, closer, closer; it personifies the train a little bit. After this, the train hangs a left and tears through the station as people scatter. It then crashes through the front windows and falling onto the pavement to stand on it's nose, like the Montparnasse derailment of 1895.

All this is what happens physically in the dream. Symbolically, there's a whole lot more. Hugo digs another heart-shaped key from the tracks, which has "Cabret et fils, horlogers", or "Cabret and son, watchmakers" engraved on it. Perhaps this key is symbolic- Hugo's searching for answers about his father, which he feels the automaton can give him. Further, if the automaton is also a metaphor for Melies, the broken man, Hugo is really dreaming about Melies, and whether or not he can give the answers Hugo needs. Or maybe Hugo's not really searching for a black and white answer, per say- his father is dead, his uncle is AWOL, and that is that- he might just be searching for paternal or familial love. After all, he is only twelve. Can a twelve-year-old pick apart complex emotions, or does he simplify it by way of automatons?

You might also explain the train crash scene symbolically- at this point in the movie, Melies has rejected Hugo after the incident with the flying papers. Hugo's hopes of answers are crumbling. What better than this train catastrophe to symbolize this? A train, which is a machine in itself, ripping through Hugo's home, and it's all his fault?

As to why a double-dream, I can't really get a grip on that question. Two symbolic scenes in one?

Bit long, sorry.