INTRODUCTION OF A BEAUTIFUL MIND

Decades ago about a brilliant mathematician named John Forbes Nash, who is a genius and suffered from a mental illness know as paranoid schizophrenia. John Nash attended Princeton University. He was distinguished among his colleagues because of his deep insights into complex mathematical theories, he decided not to waste time on books and classes, with determination.  

A DRAWN PICTURE OF JOHN NASH  BY NANCY UKWUIJE, JOHN NASH

His most renowned achievement, the Nash Equilibrium, has transformed the way economics and mathematicians view strategic interactions. His need and wants to be remembered, made him isolate himself from his loved ones. The story ultimately celebrates Nash's resilience and his ability to find meaning and purpose despite his struggles.

Within five years, he rises to the position of team leader where his game theory research gives him academic renown. He also has a great bond with his student and ultimately wife, Alicia. Through Alicia's steadfast support and his own perseverance, Nash gradually learns to live with his illness.

Nash eventually came to accept and understand his condition. It highlights the value of resilience and the human spirit in overcoming hardship. Nash's story exemplifies the power of love, support, and intellectual curiosity in overcoming life's obstacles.

THEMES IN THE BIOPIC

FEAR OF FAILURE: In the movie, we see John struggle with a strong fear of failure. Throughout the biopic, he is filled with the immense desire to create something of himself, etch his name on the walls of history, be remembered and recognized. This desire fueled do much that he began to refute the bounds of average learning and began to pursuit his “big idea” out of the setting of the classrooms. He said that “school will dumb you down”. His fear of failure led him to inflict upon himself physical pain and this fear also fueled his delusions and hallucinations.

The fil suggests that real purpose doesn’t lie in the just being recognized but in finding yourself and your real purpose.

HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS

John’s relationship with the people around him was always a problem. He was brilliant awkward. His intellectual prowess set him high above his peers and even with people of this intellectual standing he was till an odd bird because he was always in his own head. His inward thoughts and drive to be remembered and successful, fully occupied his mind, so much so that he didn’t pay attention to the people around him anymore.

His lack of understanding of human relationships and the workings of the average society put him in a place where he didn’t have a lot of friends. This void was filled by his imaginations. He began to think up his best relationships and friendships. When he was diagnosed, his psychiatrist said “imagine all your best relations were not dead, or gone, but never were”.

His relationship with Alicia was the strongest and truest bond he shared. Alicia saw and loved him beyond his symptoms and struggles and she remained devoted to him.

STRUGGLE WITH MENTAL HEALTH

The film depicts John’s struggle with schizophrenia. He suffered from so surreal hallucinations and delusion. Hallucinations so realistic, he cut up himself in one scene looking for a chip that he believes was implanted in him. He struggles to define reality from his hallucinations and from the beginning its hard for the audience to tell the difference too.

Nash’s illness leads him to isolate himself from the people closest to him and he is filled with distrust when what he holds as his reality is forcefully taken away from him by his loved ones when they reveal the truth to him.

THE BURDEN OF BRILLIANCE

John Nash was presumptuously a very brilliant man with a very brilliant mind, and for every advantage there is a disadvantage. His extreme brilliance was met with its highs and lows. As much as it was the reason for his being outstanding and ambition, it was also what fueled his delusion and what ultimately isolated him from his peers. It could be said that Nash’s ambition to be remembered is what put him under so much pressure and in pursuing his dreams, there was a choice to be made, his personal life and mental health or his great new idea for which he will be remembered.

CHARACTERIZATION OF A BEAUTIFUL MIND

JOHN FORBES NASH: JOHN FORBES NASH: He is the main character from the beginning of the move. He was portrayed as a man of high intellect and a very strong intellectual standing. His desire to excel, remembered and recognized drove him to accomplish great feats and aim for greater height. He was a very ambitious man. Even being a man of high intellect, he had little knowledge of human interaction and relationships, he struggles to fit in with his pairs and even when he was put along his fellow intellectuals, he still struggles in forming a bond.

He struggles with his mental health throughout the movie. He suffered from schizophrenia which is the mental health problems that makes a person see very high realistic hallucinations and delusions.

As we progress through the movie, we see Nash begin to form intimate, real relationships with people, most especially his wife, Alicia. And towards the end, Nash achieves all his goals and desires by winning the Nobel price and he begins to recover from his mental problems after accepting his reality and learning how to interact with real people.

ALICIA LARDE (ALICIA NASH): Alicia was John Nash’s wife. She was a very devoted lover to her husband; she proved this by sticking through thick and thin with him throughout all his mental episodes. She was first of all his student, but her boldness and as Nash would say, her ability to find solutions to problems and see things from a different perspective drew the audience’s attention to her. She was also a very smart woman and was able to challenge Nash and meet him in the middle for a lot of intellectual conversations. Alicia’s role in the plot was significant because she saw John for who he really was, beyond his symptoms and his episodes. She loved him and John began to feel a very strong level of intimacy and vulnerability with her. She was the reason he began to grow from the odd duck that he was into a stronger man.

CHARLES HERMAN: When John Nash was a gifted but reclusive doctoral student of mathematics at Princeton University, Charles Herman shared his room. Charles is first seen from Nash’s perspective, announcing that ‘the prodigal roommate has arrived’. He is one of John Nash’s hallucinations. Charles embodies Nash's most profound worries and anxieties, both personal and societal. He embodies the paranoia and distrust that come with schizophrenia. He was also Nash companion during his academic journey.

WILLIAM PARCHER:Parcher is a fabricated fantasy of John Nash, the great mathematician played by Russell Crowe. During the Cold War, he worked as an agent for the United States Department of Defense. Initially, Parcher engages Nash to decipher concealed Soviet codes seen in newspapers and periodicals. Nash's talent excites him, so they collaborated on this confidential job. Parcher depicts Nash's paranoia and distrust, which fuel his illusions and blur the distinction between fact and fantasy. He appears polite and respectful, later turned aggressive, threatening Nash and his wife for exposing government secrets.

DR. ROSEN: : A psychiatrist named Dr. Rosen says he would be happy to assist the gifted mathematician, John Nash. After putting Nash to sleep and checking him into a mental health facility, he determines that Nash has schizophrenia.  Nash's vivid memories of Charles, Marcee, and Parcher, in Dr. Rosen's opinion, are just an amazing conspiracy theories and paranoid delusions.

CAPTIVATING MOMENTS IN THE MOVIE A BEAUTIFUL MIND

THE GARDEN SCENE

The first captivating scene was when Nash and Alicia were at the garden having a romantic moment discussing and Nash opened up about how he wants to spend his life with her and be more intimate with her but he wants to marry her the right way before they experience any intimacy together, she smiled and they had their first romantic kiss. This scene is relevant to the plot because it shows how Nash begins to move past his social problems and begin to build strong human bonds and interactions with a woman he has grown to love.

THE CAR RIDE SCENE

The third captivating scene was when John Nash was having his schizophrenia episode in the night he went to deliver the code mail package with the United State government in wheeler then Mr. Williams patcher that works with the United State government picked him up in a black government car and drove him away hurriedly claiming the Russian spies was chasing them, they started driving roughly and they were targeting each other, Mr. Patcher lured the Russian spies into the river with the help of his driving skills. This entire scene was a figment of John’s imagination. He was under so much pressure from his lecture at the university of Princeton that he began to experience his very realistic hallucinations.

THE NOBEL PRIZE SCENE

The last captivating scene was when Nash was getting the Nobel award  he celebrated his wife, he waved to her with the handkerchief she kept in his pocket on their first date she smiled, he spoke about the undying love he has for her and how she is more important than the numbers he has always believed in and she is the only reason why he is on the stage today it was an emotional and cute moment between the legendary prof Nash and his loving wife Alicia. He had finally achieved all that he had set is mind to do, the recognition he wanted, the big idea that had spent so much time in his brain’s lab had finally bore fruits and this scene was a full circle moment. He pondered out loud in his speech about the growth he had seen, his love for the devoted woman that had stayed with him throughout his struggles with his mental health. That scene was evidence of growth.