Conclusion

I'm reluctant to write a conclusion, because I hope the very point of this essay is to show that Labyrinth can't be simplified to a few key points. Its meanings proliferate, often contradicting each other. However, I'll go over the main themes and ideas.

Was it all a dream? I think that both Terry Jones and David Bowie saw Jareth and his labyrinth as something real, and this is the interpretation I tend towards, too. But in the end, it doesn't matter which it is. Henson said of the film, "Is it all a dream, like Alice's adventures in Wonderland or The wizard of Oz? In my mind it is. But it's all rather ambiguous – dream or reality? Fantasy or fact? It's whatever you like to make it. Wherever it takes you to."

For me, one of the most interesting themes of the film is dream and fantasy and their place in 'real life'. Sarah's need for fantasy and escapism is clear. She is a child who loves to pretend and play games. She wants to 'make herself up', in the double sense both of applying cosmetics and of imagining herself as somebody else. She longs for fairytale romance (perhaps as a result of the Oedipal loss of her father).

Jareth offers Sarah "her dreams". I think that he represents the child inside Sarah. He tells her: "Go back to your room. Play with your toys and costumes. Forget about the baby". He wants to keep Sarah in a childlike state, lost in fantasy, trapped in the room/womb.

Throughout her journey, Sarah learns the necessary lessons to gain the strength to reject what Jareth represents. "The lessons Sarah learns about questioning her expectations, letting go of the past, and acknowledging her love for her extended family, culminate in the assumption of power. Sarah conquers her desire for a fantasy-like dream world and an ideal lover and realizes the power she has to change the world around her." (Hermione)

She learns that fantasy is an illusion, and that it is unhealthy to depend upon it. She shatters the glass around the masked ball, and tears down the walls of her bedroom in the junk heap.

Yet, pleasingly, she does not leave the world of fantasy behind her entirely. As she admits to Hoggle at the end, "Every now and again in my life, I need you". This posits a role for fantasy as part of reality, rather than its opposite: a heartening idea. Sarah "symbolizes a need to mature without letting go of the spirit of childhood" (Hermione). Fans on IMDB wrote that the messages they take from the film are "Keep the inner child alive inside you", "Labyrinth is about Sarah keeping her imagination alive, her fantasies and dreams".

The film's final shot - the owl outside the window – is significant but ambiguous. Hermione argues, "Jareth may not have been at Sarah's party with the other labyrinth denizens, but his mere presence was enough to indicate that Sarah needed him too". On the other hand, the owl's exclusion shows that Sarah has locked out whatever the Goblin King represents, be it a too-adult sexuality, or an unhealthy dependence on fantasy.

A psychoanalytic interpretation of Labyrinth is very productive. There is Sarah's Oedipal desire for her father and differentiation from the mother; the use of mirrors to evoke Lacan's mirror stage; and the pre-logical construction of the labyrinth, with its contradictions and fragmentation. The theme of motherhood is also explored, and it is interesting how Jareth's cane and blatantly male sexuality make him a masculine figure, yet he also symbolizes the Mother and the return to the womb.

My interpretation of the film is that it shows the transition into adulthood, which includes both motherhood and sexuality. Jareth wants to stop this transition and keep Sarah in a state of arrested development: a child dependent on escapist fantasies on which he can feed and thus live "within her". Sarah's ascent into adulthood depends on the separation from her mother, the discovery of her sexuality, and the acceptance of her own selfless, responsible, maternal side.

The enduring power of fairy tales lies in the fact that they represent, in figurative form, the process of healthy human development. They allow children to explore their own burgeoning and bewildering psyches. By identifying with the characters, and working through the choices and struggles depicted in fairy tales, children learn to cope with problems such as "overcoming narcissistic disappointments, oedipal dilemmas, sibling rivalries; becoming able to relinquish childhood dependencies; gaining a feeling of selfhood and self-worth, and a sense of moral obligation" (Bettelheim p6). Labyrinth is a modern fairy tale – perhaps the only contemporary text deserving of the name.

Interpreting the film is itself like trying to follow a labyrinth. There is no 'correct' interpretation, no simple way through. You have to find your own way. The film is like a Russian doll – it has multiple layers, but no solid centre: there is no 'grand narrative'. Labyrinth is truly postmodern. It destablizes binary opposites and challenges logic, the ego, the very fabric of reality itself. And I think if a Goblin King ever showed me my dreams in a crystal ball, what I saw there would be myself as Sarah, finding my way through a magical labyrinth.