Psychoanalytical themes

Psychoanalytic theory can sound a bit like bullshit, if you ask me. But since I've studied it, and so have my friends, these ideas naturally came up, and there might be something to them.

Journey to the subconscious

The labyrinth can be seen as a representation of Sarah's subconscious. Allen, analysing the theme of falling in Labyrinth , suggests that every time Sarah falls she goes deeper into her subconscious, learning about herself in the process.

Sarah's first fall follows her pride in figuring out the riddle of the truth-teller and the liar. This teaches her not to be over-confident in her own abilities and not to assume things follow the usual logic.

Her second fall is from the ballroom and, as Allen says, "exposes her fairytale ideals as untenable garbage". The ballroom is a comforting fantasy based on childish dreams of happy endings. Sarah learns that this is an illusion: real life involves responsibility, and she must return to her quest to save Toby.

Interestingly, the song during the ballroom scene is titled As The World Falls Down, and uses the word 'falling' repeatedly, but in the context of 'falling in love'. In this illusory dream-world, falling has a different significance – perhaps Jareth is trying to seduce Sarah away from her true 'fall', or journey, into her subconscious and towards self-knowledge, and lead her instead down a false path: a fall into illusory fairytale love.

Allen states that in Sarah's final fall, from the Escher staircase, she "demonstrates all her new-found insight". Ignoring the romantic and fantastic temptation offered by Jareth she shows a commitment to reality, to her baby brother, to family responsibility and to her own future as an adult. As she falls, she passes broken pieces of the staircase: a visual metaphor that supports the interpretation of this scene as a descent into her deepest subconscious (which psychoanalysts describe as 'fragmented').

The mirror stage

The post-Freudian psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan postulated a stage in human infant development that he called the 'mirror stage'. The newly-born child, he suggests, is dominated by a chaotic mix of perceptions, feelings and needs. It does not distinguish its own self from that of its parents or even from the world around it. It ingests and excretes with no sense of its own body's boundaries.

Between 6 and 18 months of age, the infant goes through the 'mirror stage'. The infant recognises itself in a mirror for the first time and identifies with the image, which serves as a gestalt of the infant's emerging perceptions of selfhood.

The infant experiences itself as a confusing mass of impulses: fragmented, uncertain. The mirror image, by contrast, is whole and coherent, simple to define and understand, with firmly established boundaries. Thus the reflection is an 'ideal ego' – the self that the infant wants to be, and for which it will strive throughout its life.

Furthermore, the infant's realisation that its body is separate from its mother gives rise to a sense of lack or loss. The mirror image is a fantasy set up to compensate for that sense of loss. Throughout our lives, we have a sense of a missing 'Other' who would complete us.

Lacan, as anyone who's tried to read him must agree, is a tad inaccessible. But the basic idea – that mirrors reflect our desires, our ideal images of ourselves – is a simple and potent one. It even features in Harry Potter. The dangerous power of Mirror of Erised is that it shows you your heart's desire ('Erised' – 'desire' reflected, geddit?), and Harry is hypnotised by the reflection of his dead parents waving and smiling at him.

When Jareth sends the crystal balls floating to Sarah they contain images of her musical princess doll. As she watches, the doll becomes herself. Later, she tries to escape from the ballroom and comes up against her own reflection in the glass bubble, massively distorted so that it towers above her. She grabs a chair and smashes her giant mirror image. This act causes the ballroom world to break away into fragments, echoing Lacan's 'fragmented' self.

Perhaps this scene involves Sarah metaphorically becoming her ideal ego. This is a romanticised image of herself as a fairytale princess: a dangerously narcissistic fantasy. Her smashing of the reflection represents her rejection of this idealised image, on which she has become unhealthily dependent. It signals her willingness to accept her separation from her mother, and to finally confront and accept the difficulties, the confusion, the turbulence and unpredictability of life.

Return to the womb

After Sarah's experience at the masked ball, which could be said to represent her first taste of adult sexuality (see masked ball section), she encounters the junk lady - a mother figure who represents Sarah's desire to regain her relationship with her mother and thus remain in childhood.

The junk lady returns Sarah to her bedroom – to the 'womb' – where she is surrounded by comforting, familiar toys. She talks to Sarah as if to a child: "You like your little bunny rabbit. Oh, and there's Betsy Boo!"

Some of these things are from Sarah's past – "Here's your panda slippers. You like your panda slippers. You never wanted them thrown away, did you?" This must be a reference to Sarah's parents discarding a favourite pair of slippers, and insinuates childish resentment.

The junk lady insists: "Better to stay in here, dear. There's nothing you want out there", "Everything in the world you've ever cared about is all right here". Her reassuring words conjure up the young child's sense of security, of the world being small and centred around herself. But Sarah realizes this is all an illusion – "It's all junk!". She has to reject it, and distance herself from her mother.

In psychoanalytic terms, this is a metaphor for the stage at which the baby differentiates itself from the mother and becomes a separate subject. Labyrinth is the metaphorical story of the self's break from the mother and move towards the father, in an Oedipal trajectory (see earlier section on Sarah's Oedipus complex).

In some ways, Jareth is a father-figure. He cares for Sarah, but is stern when necessary; he can take the role both of protector and of disciplinarian. Lorelei cites the way in which Jareth speaks condescendingly to Sarah and insists that he knows what is best for her. Jareth has the phallic power of the Father as described in psychoanalytic theory.

This raises a paradox. Jareth can be seen as wanting to lure Sarah towards the phallic, sexual Father, but the junk woman wants to lure her back to the Mother – yet they are both, one presumes, working towards the same end: to keep Sarah in the labyrinth.

Interestingly, in the rough draft of the screenplay, the junk lady is Jareth in disguise. This illustrates the paradox of Jareth's seduction: he acts as both Father and Mother, offering Sarah both a return to the womb, and an ascent into sexuality.

Motherhood

The film explores Sarah's own maternal feelings as well as her feelings towards her mother. Her entire quest is motivated by the need to rescue her baby brother Toby. Even though it has always been her dream to escape to a world like this, all she can think of is finding him and leaving it.

When she makes the 'leap of faith' at the end, it seems like an instinctive act. It's not clear what she thinks will happen, but the implication is that she is prepared to sacrifice herself for Toby's sake: an archetypal maternal act.

At the beginning of the film, Sarah has no maternal instinct. She wishes to be rid of the responsibility and annoyance of a child. She imagines the goblins inviting her: "Say your right words, and we'll take the baby to the Goblin City and you will be free".

Jareth offers her a crystal, saying: "It will show you your dreams. But this isn't a gift for an ordinary girl who takes care of a screaming baby". He is playing on her anti-motherhood feelings, trying to convince her that maternal responsibility will spell an end to her dreams.

Sarah refuses, and is given a time limit to find Toby before he becomes a goblin forever. Although this consequence is not fully explored, one presumes that if Sarah failed, she would forget all about Toby, and would therefore remain in a state of ignorant, childlike bliss, a kind of arrested development. Jareth tells her: "Go back to your room. Play with your toys and costumes. Forget about the baby". If she did, then the realm of fantasy would subsume Sarah's maternal responsibility.

It's easy to imagine that part of her would want this. After all, it's what she wished for, and she does cling to the games and dreams of her childhood. But instead, she immediately chooses to rescue Toby, to assume her responsibility, and take her place in the adult world as a mother and carer.

At the end, Sarah gives Toby the teddy bear which she had been so angry with him for taking. "I'd like Lancelot to belong to you now", she says, recognising that the role of 'child' has passed from her to Toby. In the rough draft of the script, Sarah watches Toby learning to walk with "delight and wonder on her face", emphasizing her new role as maternal adult.

Labyrinth is a story of the journey to maturity, but is unlike any other rite-of-passage film in that Sarah has to make the choice whether or not to take that journey. An alternative state - of continuing childhood and living in fantasy - is posited.

Power

Hermione argues compellingly that the film's main theme is the assumption of power. Jareth initially has power over Sarah as a consequence of her "longing for a fairy-tale world and an ideal lover".

His role as this ideal lover for whom Sarah longs is emphasized by song lyrics. In Underground, Bowie sings: "Lost and lonely…down in the underground, you'll find someone true"; and of course, there is the beautiful romance of As The World Falls Down - "There's such a sad love deep in your eyes… In search of new dreams, a love that will last… I'll be there for you".

As a petulant teenager at the beginning of the film, Sarah "abdicates power as well as responsibility" (Hermione), and assumes she has no control over the world around her. This is shown both literally, by her sulks and cries of "It's not fair", and symbolically, by her failure to remember the critical line: "You have no power over me".

When Jareth first arrives in Sarah's house, he tells her patronisingly: "You're no match for me, Sarah". Rather than challenge this, Sarah takes it for granted that he's right, replying, "But I have to have my brother back". She perceives herself as a powerless victim.

Hermione suggests that, in the crystal, Jareth is offering Sarah "a life focused on dreams in which she loses the power to act". Would Sarah necessarily become powerless if she succumbed to him and entered the dream-world? This does makes sense. One often feels powerless in dreams; and certainly in the case of Sarah's dreams, they are based on other stories, archetypes and clichés that would preclude the possibility of free agency.

Sarah's constant complaint - "It's not fair" - locates the centre of power outside the speaker. Sarah begins to realise this when she steals Hoggle's jewels to force him to help her. He protests that it's not fair, and she replies, "No, it isn't. But that's the way it is". She realises that she has the power to actively commit an unfair act on someone else, rather than just passively being the victim. This allows her to stop complaining and making excuses, and to start taking control.

As discussed in the section titled What Sarah learns on her journey, Sarah gradually acquires the confidence that allows her to finally challenge Jareth and assume power at the end.

When she encounters Jareth underground, after escaping from the oubliette, she begins to stand up to him. In response to his question, "How are you enjoying my labyrinth?", she retorts defiantly (if rashly): "It's a piece of cake". It is a bold attempt to claim some power for herself.

In their final confrontation, Jareth claims: "Everything that you wanted, I have done… I am exhausted by living up to your expectations". Hermione thinks that he "gives Sarah the clue that she is the person in power in the very speech he makes to distract her from that realization". She believes that Sarah has always had the upper hand, but hasn't realized it, and therefore hasn't had the confidence to take control.

Jareth says, "You cowered before me, I was frightening". Normally, to frighten someone is an active behaviour, and cowering is the effect it evokes. Jareth turns this around, implying that his behaviour was led by Sarah. She was a young girl, frightened by growing up and by sex, and in response he took up a position that represented her fears, and allowed her to play them out. This ties in with the concept of the labyrinth as something that is created (by whatever means) primarily as a learning experience.

However, I feel that the play of power between Jareth and Sarah is more subtle. Despite what he says, Jareth has not always been in Sarah's power, nor has he merely "lived up to her expectations". Certainly, the characters and events of the labyrinth spring from Sarah's dreams and desires, but that doesn't necessarily mean that Jareth is under her control. As discussed in the section about Jareth, I think Jareth has existence, and powers, independent of Sarah.

He says, "Just let me rule you, and you can have everything that you want… Just fear me, love me, do as I say, and I will be your slave." These statements are paradoxical, and illustrate the complex nature of the power play between them.

I think that Jareth is given power by Sarah's need for him and for the labyrinth; nevertheless it is genuine power. Does a dominatrix hold the power, or her willing, paying victim?

Sarah only acquires power enough to banish Jareth when she says the crucial line "You have no power over me". The reality springs from the words, and from Sarah's understanding of them. When reciting the speech, she comes unstuck, as always, before the critical line. As she summons it from her mind, comprehension dawns on her face. She looks Jareth straight in the eye, and says with a kind of astonished confidence: "You have no power over me".

The line highlights the power that fantasy has over Sarah, the power of fantasy as addictive escapism. Whether he is a figment of Sarah's imagination, or a pre-existing entity who takes on a certain role in response to her needs, Jareth represents dreams and fantasy. Her journey of self-discovery through the labyrinth gives Sarah the strength to free herself from that yoke.

Allen agrees that Sarah's quest is for "control over her subconscious". She argues that Sarah's journey through the labyrinth teaches her how her mind works, giving her, by the end, the strength to jettison that part of her subconscious represented by Jareth.

However, Allen is scathing about this – "Sarah leaves herself with friends and party-hearty types… She edits her subconscious so it only contains that which is lovable and bumbling and innocuous… and boring". This concurs with my opinion that Jareth represents a kind of sexuality that is seductive but dangerous, a 'polymorphous perversity' (see masked ball section).

Allen suggests that a more satisfactory ending to the film would involve "Sarah relegating Jareth to his proper position, yet not excising him completely". Dozens of fans would agree: many despise Sarah for rejecting Jareth. Certainly, Jareth is sexy and exciting, especially when compared to looking after a baby brother.

However, I feel that this is missing the point. Jareth must be rejected because he represents, as well as sex, the stranglehold that Sarah's dreams have over her. Her games and fantasies are preventing her from experiencing real life – not just family responsibilities, but self-discovery away from the shadow of her mother, and loving and sexual adult relationships.