SPOILER WARNING
This is a character analysis of the character, Daniel Plainview, from the film, There Will Be Blood (2007). It can be watched on Netflix at the time of this articles release.
Daniel Plainview’s greatest power comes from his voice. His ability to weave convincing words with a drawl emulates the thick, black oil that he uses to charms his victims. In fact, I would argue that one of the main selling points in There Will Be Blood is located in the sound as much as the sights. This is notable in that his opposite, Eli Sunday, is a preacher, a role that also requires one to use his voice and charisma as a spiritual weapon. Both are using it throughout the story in their battle over the souls of the townsfolk.
At the beginning of the story, Daniel’s son, H.W, plays the role of a good child. He, like the rest of the town, is also entranced by his father’s words. Often, his good relationship with his father is used to Daniel’s benefit. The image of a family man is a part of the smoke and mirrors that he uses to convince people to act as he desires.
Yet, a big turning point for the story is when H.W. permanently loses his hearing in an oil rig explosion. I think it is fitting that H.W. loses his hearing this way. After all, he has spent much time prior to this by his father’s side in the thick of the business. He watches and learns from his father, and often called Daniel’s “business partner.” It can come across as playful, innocent banter, but knowing Daniel’s personality as a ruthless Capitalists alludes to how a small part of him genuinely views his son on those terms.
We see the father and son struggle in their relationship H.W’s accident with Daniel speaking to him and receiving no acknowledgment or recognition of understanding from his son. Eventually, Daniel abandons H.W. at a school for the deaf, only to bring him back (along with a deaf teacher) in order to spite some business partners who he perceived insulted him for his parenting.
However, the once familial bond between the two is now lost. The pair spend the next decade purely as business partners. While H.W. growing up seemingly as a well-adjusted young man and learning to adapt to his deafness, Daniel slowly descends into madness, his humanity slowly being stripped away. In one of the last moments of the film, H.W. leaves Daniel’s practice to start his own, with Daniel responding by disowning and belittling him.
Despite knowing that Daniel Plainview is not a sympathetic protagonist, I am empathetic in that I think his inability to communicate with his son had a disastrous blow on his conscience. The early scenes with them together seem genuine, with Daniel proud of his son for the small victories that he contributes to the family business. When Daniel pulls his son out of the wreckage of the explosion, Daniel is genuinely distraught in a way that a father cannot hide when a child is in danger. His frustrations later when he screams at his son, begging for acknowledgment from a son that can no longer hear also rings true to me. When H.W. returns from the deaf school, Daniel attempts to rebuild that familial bond with hugs and a steak.
The problem is that despite Daniel’s attempts to be genuine with his son, H.W.’s loss of hearing means that he is the only character in the film that becomes immune to his father’s ability to seduce, hypnotize, and manipulate. He is able to see that his father is not the family man that he makes himself out to be, but a selfish deceiver who spins his most favorable truth to gain what he wants. When H.W. comes back from the deaf school, he does not hug his father, even superficially, but attacks him.
Over time, we see that while H.W. gains his own ability to express himself through sign language, Daniel does not make the attempt to learn this new language. I believe that he is so rooted in his ability to control people in his spoken language, that the thought of losing that control by speaking in a visual language dissuades him from doing so.
In their final conversation at the end of the film, they must use Daniel’s teacher as an interpreter. This teacher acts as a filter of sorts, with Daniel no longer able to conceal his intentions through his voice and words. The animal that Daniel has mentioned and revealed on occasion, that he has spent so much time trying to conceal either for his son or for his business, is fully unveiled.
I think the saddest part about this scene is that Daniel denounces H.W, revealing that they are not related and Daniel only used him for the image of the family man as a part of his grand deception. Is this the plain truth? Or is this a simple deflection of as a way to protect himself from the pain of losing the only person that he had a genuine relationship with? I think in the web of deception, in all the confusing feelings that Daniel has created through the disconnect between his words and actions, the truth is lost in the snake oil.
Danger Wonka 