Complex Obligation in the Moulin Rouge

            Obligations are ever present in our lives and even in the lives of those in Moulin Rouge!. Obligations can complicate our lives quite frequently. As Diane Jeske addresses in “Families, Friends, and Special Obligations,” there are many different types of obligations that we experience in life. Special obligations and familial obligations are difficult because we do not enter them voluntarily.  Special obligations are those obligations we owe to everyone, while familial obligations are owed to your family. The last type of obligation is those due to your friends. These are less complex than the previous because you enter into friendship voluntarily.

            In Moulin Rouge!, the obligation that you see most often would be in involuntary coworker obligation. Satine, the head courtesan for the Moulin Rouge, must face these obligations when she is set up to sleep with the Duke in order to coerce him into funding the Moulin Rouge. Satine’s personal motivation is that she will become a famous actress if he funds the Moulin Rouge. Due to a miscommunication, Satine does not end up with the Duke that night; rather she ends up in her room with Christian, a poor bohemian poet, whom she mistakes for the Duke. Satine and Christian fall in love during this confusion. Satine now has to face her work obligations of sleeping with the Duke for funding and her obligation to herself to pursue love.

            This complex choice between obligations that Satine is facing creates obligations with friends who know Christian and Satine’s secret. These friends are comfortable with keeping their secret because they have entered into the friendship voluntarily and care about each other. When Harold Zidler, the owner of the Moulin Rouge, finds out about Christian and Satine, he is furious. Instead of defending Satine from the Duke, he encourages her to break it off with Christian because the Moulin Rouge is at stake. Zidler does not have an obligation to Satine rather he has an obligation to the Moulin rouge and its success.

            An added complication occurs when Satine begins to fall ill. Zidler knows that Satine is dying but does not tell her until sometime later. Zidler had an obligation to the Moulin Rouge to keep her working as long as possible, but because of this obligation, he has compromised Satine’s health. Zidler does not have any obligation to Satine until the end. Satine feels as though she must fulfill her obligation to the Moulin Rouge before she dies. In order to accomplish this goal, she tells Christian she does not want to run away with him. Christian fights for Satine even though he unknowingly may be walking into his own murder scene. After Zidler sees Christian fighting for Satine, Zidler begins to help Christian to escape his own death. Zidler finally feels that friend obligations for Satine. Unfortunately, it was short lived because after he helped Christian escape death, Satine dies in Christian’s arms.

            There are many complex situations and obligations throughout Moulin Rouge!. I think Jeske’s description of how complex these obligations can be fits perfectly with the film.