Why Does the Titantic Live On, 100 Years After the Tragedy?

Culture

Last week's 3-D release of James Cameron’s epic drama “Titanic” coincided with theopening of a new Titanic museum in Belfast, Northern Ireland where the great ship was built. The most publicized commemoration of the 100th anniversary of the Titanic is a special cruise ship set to carry the same number of people to the place in the mid-Atlantic where the ship sank at exactly the same time to mark the tragedy.

Kate Winslet, one of the stars of Cameron’s “Titanic," commented in her interview with the BBC that “people are still fascinated by the Titanic because of the human tragedy which was a captivating backdrop." The film itself increased people’s interest in the story, as have the numerous museums, books, and documentaries intended to preserve memorable scenes from the ship. The stories of the Titanic — diverse people from around different backgrounds all aboard the same ship, the half-filled lifeboats — are filled with social drama. The head of the company which operated the Titanic, J. Bruce Ismay, left the ship, leaving its desparate passengers doomed to death. The survivors were mainly women and children from the first class, proof of the priority of one class over another.

We should not forget that the Titanic was merely one example of such tragedy. Another ship, the Lusitania was torpedoed by Germans in 1915, costing 1,200 people their lives. Millions of people have perished since the Titanic sank, but nothing touches people as the story of the Titanic does.