Symbolism in Labyrinth

Labyrinth – like Freud's unconscious – is full of symbols, working as a powerful form of language. A word (for example, cat) signifies a concept: it evokes an image in the reader's or listener's mind. A symbol is more than this: it possesses specific connotations and associations in addition to its conventional meaning. It signifies a concept or an idea, often one that is vague and intangible.

Sarah's friends

Sarah's three friends who help her through the labyrinth – Hoggle, Ludo and Sir Didymus - embody certain character traits. As Hermione (another fan) suggests, they are based on stereotypes of fairytales and folklore, so it makes sense that they have the requisite characteristics for a quest through a fantasy world.

Ludo represents loyalty. In gratitude for her help, he risks his life to defend Sarah. His physical strength is also a great asset to Sarah on her quest.

Sir Didymus symbolises honour and bravery, the classic characteristics of a legendary knight. Indeed, he bestows knighthood upon Ludo after their fight, greeting him in a chivalric manner: "Come, let us be brothers henceforth, and fight for the right as one!" His blind enthusiasm is reminiscent of Don Quixote.

Hoggle's character explores multiple issues - trust and betrayal, friendship and forgiveness, cowardice and bravery. His rough exterior - following the fairytale cliché - hides a heart of gold. Even at the beginning, we see a trace of his concern for Sarah: "You're really going in there, are you?" But his fear of Jareth constantly works in conflict with his desire to help Sarah.

He is torn between selfish independence, and a touching wish to be Sarah's friend. After meeting the wise man, he asks Sarah, "Why did you say I was your friend?" "Because you are", she replies. Hoggle muses, his lined face softening, "Friend, huh? I like that. I ain't never been no-one's friend before". This new-found sense of companionship quickly founders in the face of danger: at the sound of a nearby roar, he hurries away, muttering: "Hoggle ain't no-one's friend. He looks after himself, like everyone. Hoggle is Hoggle's friend".

When he later rescues Sarah from the fireys, she says, "I know you came back to help me, and I know that you're my friend". Although he grumbles indignantly, "Did not! Am not! I just came to get my property back", the expression on his face suggests that his motive was more generous. However, he has been ordered by Jareth to give Sarah the enchanted peach, and is battling with his conscience. When his cowardice wins out, his act of betrayal gives rise to a terrible guilt: "I've lost my only friend".

Hoggle suffers from fear and self-doubt. Yet despite this, he demonstrates resilience and bravery, rescuing Sarah three times – from the oubliette, from the fireys, and from the goblins. Perhaps he represents a kind of Everyman: flawed but basically good.

Hoggle's facial expressions are amongst Jim Henson's finest achievements. There are 18 motors in his face, and 14 people operating him with remote controls. His character development is a pleasure to watch: he is Sarah's guide through the labyrinth, and along the way, he learns the values she teaches him, of friendship, loyalty and bravery (backed up by Ludo's and Sir Didymus's examples).

Crystal balls

The film playfully twists the normal function of crystal balls. Traditionally, they show the future or reveal the truth. But Jareth's crystals contain dreams, not reality.

At the beginning, he offers Sarah "her dreams" encapsulated in the mesmerising crystals. These are probably similar dreams to those used later to lure her to the masked ball, or to those she explores in her dressing-up games – dreams of being a beautiful princess, a fantasy heroine.

But Sarah's dreams are not contained in the crystals uncontaminated. When she goes into the masked ball scene, it is not as she dreamed, but is overwhelming and threatening. This demonstrates an important point about fantasy. If you imagine something inside your head, you are entirely in control. Every character you conjure up, however aggressive or commanding, is your own creation and is under your power.

But when you share a fantasy, perhaps through role play, or (as in the film) by someone trying to make your dream come true, you cede that power. You are vulnerable to the very autonomy of the characters involved. The fantasy is distorted by others' desires.

At the end of the film, Jareth again offers Sarah her dreams in a crystal ball. He holds it out to her, but she ignores the offering. When she recites the pre-learned speech, and pronounces the 'magic' words like a fatal shot – "You have no power over me" – Jareth throws his hands up in a gesture of despair, pain and frustration. The crystal is tossed into the air, and the camera follows it in slow motion as it rises, pauses hanging in mid-air, and falls down again – to alight on Sarah's fingertip, and burst into nothing. The solid-seeming crystal has become a mere bubble. Perhaps that's all it ever was. The sequence beautifully illustrates the nature of fantasy and desire – a seductive illusion, fleeting and easily destroyed.

The crystals' surfaces are of course reflective, like mirrors (see the section on mirrors). They reflect Sarah's dreams and desires, and can be seen as a metaphor for Lacan's concept of the Other (see the section on the mirror stage), seducing Sarah into an illusory completeness.

The peach

It is significant that the food used to transport Sarah into the hallucination is a peach. Few other fruits are as sexual as a peach, with its downy pink skin and cleft suggestive of the naked body. The theme of sexuality is discussed at length further on.

The peach makes Sarah confused and delirious. This suggests the effect of a drug, which could be a deliberate connotation. Drugs are commonly presented as an 'evil temptation' into a world seemingly full of fun and frolics, but in which lurks danger.

Liebel compares the peach to the waters of Lethe. In ancient Greek mythology, Lethe was a river in the Underworld: drinking its water made the dead forget their lives. Having eaten the peach, Sarah forgets her quest, and enters a strangely insubstantial realm. One can imagine that if she stayed, she might remain forever a 'shade', an endlessly-rotating doll in Jareth's arms.

Hermione, too, sees a parallel between the masked ball and the Underworld. According to Greek myth, Hades (the Lord of the Underworld) fell in love with a mortal girl, Persephone. He kidnapped her and took her to the Underworld, where he persuaded her to eat some pomegranate seeds (echoed by the peach). This meant that she would always belong partly to the Underworld, and even though she went back to her home, she had to spend some time each year with Hades in his realm.

Mirrors

Mirrors are an interesting symbol in Labyrinth. Hermione points out that "each time Sarah looks in a mirror she speaks to an internal world separate from the one she is in."

When she looks in her dressing table mirror, she is trying to see a fantasy version of herself, a 'made up' person - the past-tense verb of the noun 'makeup' revealingly has the parallel meaning of 'imagined'. Even if she's only putting on a paper crown and some inexpertly applied lipstick, she can see something different – the grown-up, queenly woman she wants to be.

When she wishes the goblins would take Toby away, she is looking at herself in the mirror in his bedroom, pulling on Toby's hat to imitate a goblin and create yet another version of herself. The cut from Sarah's reflection to the huddled goblins suggests that they are behind the mirror: that the mirror is a gateway (as in Alice) to a different world.

In the rough draft of the film script, when Sarah is taken to her bedroom by the junk lady, she looks in her dressing table mirror and sees "herself as a very old woman, clutching a teddy bear". The significance of this is unclear – perhaps it shows what will happen if Sarah remains in the room: her body will age as her mind remains fixed in childhood – but it proves that the scriptwriter is interested in the concept of mirrors reflecting alternate realities.

The ballroom where Sarah dances with Jareth is inside a bubble, and its walls are one huge mirror. Half the shots in this mesmerising sequence are of a reflective, slightly distorted surface. Lost and bewildered, Sarah keeps catching sight of Jareth's reflection in a mirror. Hermione draws a parallel here with Tennyson's The Lady of Shalott, in which the mirror reflects "magic sights" and "shadows of the world". Just as the Lady of Shalott glimpses the ideal lover of Arthurian myth, Lancelot, in her mirror, so Sarah is led to Jareth through a mirror.

Allen sees a strong association between the Goblin King and mirrors. He offers Sarah her dreams reflected in his crystal balls, and is himself arguably a reflection of Sarah's desires. When Sarah first catches sight of Jareth at the masked ball, two women are standing either side of him, and each is holding up a small hand mirror near his face. It's not clear what they're meant to reflect – I think the set designers just wanted a proliferation of mirrors in the scene – but the shot underlines Jareth's association with mirrors.

Interestingly, in the rough draft, Sarah does not enter the ballroom dressed as her musical doll, but in her normal clothes. Reflected in a mirror, she sees Jareth dancing with a beautiful woman. Moving through the crowd to try and find him, she catches his reflection in a mirror again – and sees him dancing with her: a beautiful, fairytale version of herself. The action is seen from the point of view of both the 'real' Sarah - stumbling awkwardly and fearfully through the crowd – and the 'fantasy' Sarah, smiling entranced into Jareth's face as he tells her that she is his queen. This highlights the way in which mirrors can reflect an ideal ego.

The mirror in psychoanalytic theory is discussed later.

The owl

The owl (seen at the beginning and end of the film) exists as a symbol on several levels. Owls commonly feature in fantasy and have associations with magic and wizards. As such, they reinforce the fantastical theme of the film.

The owl is also linked to the Goblin King. Jareth's clothes in his final scene are grey and feathered, corresponding to the owl's plumage. At the beginning of the film, the owl flies in Sarah's face and the camera shot is obscured by the confusion of its wings, eventually building up through flutters of feathers and fabric into the Goblin King. This strongly suggests that the owl is Jareth's alternative form, or familiar. The sequence has echoes of Dracula's transformation into a bat.

If Jareth can appear as an owl, this is interesting. Probably the strongest association that owls have is with the concept of wisdom. Does the Goblin King represent self-awareness, or the knowledge of adulthood, which Sarah lacks?

Owls are also a bird of prey, and it could be said that Sarah is the Goblin King's prey – he seems almost desperate to bring her into his realm and keep her there.