Chapter 1. The White Swan vs. The Black Swan. The Madonna and the... Tomas Leroy enters the studio as the girls in the company are rehearsing and warming up and he begins to tell the story of Swan Lake as he surveys the girls.
We all know the story. Virginal girl, pure and sweet, trapped in the body of a swan. She desires freedom. but only true love can break the spell.
Her wish is nearly granted in the form of a prince, but before he can declare his love, the lustful twin, the black swan, tricks and seduces him. Devastated, the white swan leaps off a cliff, killing herself, and in death finds freedom. As Thomas Leroy begins to discuss the plot of the ballet Swan Lake, he is not just discussing the ballet but prophesizing what is to come, prophesizing Nina's inevitable fate. Toma announces that they will be doing the Swan Lake production a little differently this year.
They need a fresh face to present and she will be playing both the white swan and the black swan. The white swan and the black swan are not merely characters and not merely characters that are relevant to Nina. The black swan and the white swan are archetypes of women.
They are emblematic of the Madonna and the As we have discussed in previous videos, the white swan is the Madonna. She is pure, innocent, the ingenue. The black swan is the whore. She is cunning and deviant, the seductress.
Nina and her ballet counterpart, Odette, are the perfect ingenues. Ingenues are characterized as young women and girls who possess qualities of youth, innocence, naivety, kindness, and purity. She is the fawn-eyed damsel in distress and in literary fiction and film she is often the female lead or protagonist.
On the other side of the coin from the ingenue we have the seductress, embodied by Lily and her ballet counterpart Odile. The seductress is characterized by her promiscuity, cunning nature, and sex appeal. She is the alluring femme fatale, willing to do whatever it takes to get what she wants.
She is most often framed as the villain. As I've discussed in previous essays, these archetypes of the ingenue and the seductress draw parallels to Freud's psychoanalytical theory of the Madonna and the mistress, a theory that suggests that in the minds of some men they struggle to fully see women as fully realized and rather view them in these archetypal categories. This theory was developed when Freud's patients repeatedly reported feeling unattractive to their wives though it wasn't a matter of libido as they remained attracted to sex workers.
The ingenue is the girl you marry and the seductress is the girl you f-These archetypes are far older than Freud himself, however, and have shown up as two of the main representations of women throughout the history of art, especially within puritanical culture. Nina is, as mentioned, the perfect ingenue. She possesses an air of sweetness and purity though this is unfortunately not enough as Thomas'production of the ballet is unlike other productions of Swan Lake in which typically there would be one ballerina to play Odette and another ballerina to play Odile. Thomas decided to fuse these roles, however, allowing the audience to truly be deceived by the dance of the black swan as they are in the ballet. She must be played by the same girl.
As Thomas quickly admits, Nina is the ideal white swan and in any other scenario she would have been the perfect casting for the lead Odette, though Nina fails to embody the seductive, hypnotizing nature of the black swan. Ever since I was a little girl, I was always torn between these two extremities of girlhood. These two ideals of what women could be were laid out before us very young. Little girls are often ushered or encouraged towards the ingenue, of course, but... the media made the darker characters seem all so appealing.
Children's media aimed at girls often depicted these two archetypal extremities, Ariel and Vanessa in The Little Mermaid, Kim and Shigo from Kim Possible, Marina and Eris from Sinbad, or the fairies and the witches in Winx Club, to name a few. Nearly every year for Halloween as a child, I would without fail dress as a princess or a witch. Though I remember being indecisive in my youth as the 31st of October creeped closer and closer. Which will I choose? How do I want to be perceived?
Interestingly enough, the princess and the witch are emblematic of the archetypes in which we discuss, the ingenue and the seductress. Before we dive further into the video, I would like to take a moment to introduce you to to today's sponsor, Incogni. Are you sure who knows your personal data, such as your birthday, for example?
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From earliest childhood, girls are taught to consider which role they shall choose for themselves. Girls are trained to consider the duality of womanhood. If you are a lucky girl, you may have the fortune of choosing which path you shall walk, but for many women, their reputations are paved before them. before they are even developed enough to understand. women are often forced into one of these two categories, the madonna or the whore, the ingenue or the seductress, the white swan or the black swan.
we see this polaric standard enforced by seemingly harmless tiktok trends. are you a light feminine or a dark feminine? do you have doe eyes or siren eyes?
Are you deer pretty or fox pretty? Are you a strawberry girl or cherry girl? Do you have prey eyes or hunter eyes?
Are you the ingenue or the femme fatale? The Madonna or the whore? The prude or the slut? White swan or black swan? As Susan Sontag wrote in her essay, The Double Standard of Aging, to be a woman is to be an actress.
Being feminine is a kind of theater. with its appropriate costumes, decor, lighting, and stylized gestures. From early childhood on, girls are trained to care in a pathologically exaggerated way about their appearance and are profoundly mutilated by the extent of the stress put on presenting themselves as physically attractive objects.
Women look in the mirror more frequently than men do. It is virtually their duty to look at themselves, to look often. Indeed, a woman who is not narcissistic is considered unfeminine.
This pressure for Nina to embody the qualities of both the white swan and the black swan echoes the way in which women must walk a tightrope on our pathway into womanhood. To take on the impossible task of embodying both the Madonna and the whore in an attempt to remain humanized so as not to slip into the dehumanizing nature of both archetypes. For if you embody only the characteristics of the Madonna, you are a prude, you're boring, and you lack the exciting appeal of the seductress and told that your husband will surely grow tired of you.
Whereas if you are the seductress, you are labeled a Accused of being devalued, unclean, or even evil. Told that no man would ever make you a wife. Mirrors are a significant and prominent symbol within this story.
Nina is persistently faced with mirrors and therefore must consistently confront the image of herself. Though she is not only faced with mirrors in the physical sense, but also with mirrors in the form of doppelgangers. Lily is, of course, the most obvious doppelganger, casted very obviously due to the physical similarities Mila Kunis and Natalie Portman possess.
She is Nina's most obvious double, as she represents Odile, Odette's double in the ballet. Though Lily is not the only doppelganger in the film, Nina's mother acts as an additional double to Nina. Again, the casting is uncanny, as Barbara Hershey really looks as though she could be related to Portman.
And the third doppelganger being Beth. played by Winona Ryder. Once again, a very intentional casting decision as Portman and Ryder bear quite a few similarities. Though Lily is the primary representative for Odile, the three women mentioned all act as stand-ins for the Black Swan in contrast to Nina being the White Swan. These three women act as mirrors, showing Nina her potential outcomes.
Lily is who Nina must become. Her mother is who she is afraid she may become and Beth is who she desires to be, but also her inevitable fate. Lily represents what Nina needs to embody.
She is the perfect black swan casting. Had the production been cast in a traditional way, it is a given that Nina would have been cast as Odette, the white swan, while Lily would have played Odile, the black swan. Nina is threatened by this as she struggles to embody the essence of the black swan and Lily's presence is a constant reminder of what she must embody and is failing to be.
I will be exploring the way in which Nina has a unique and yet symbiotic relationship with all four of these women within the film. The way these four women act as reflections of Nina. Her greatest desires, her greatest fears, her greatest insecurities, and her greatest truths.
And as much as these four slim brown-eyed brunettes all represent the white swan and the black swan in their own ways, they also represent the dance of the four swans. As they move in synchronicity, their stories carefully intertwined with one another. Chapter 2. Nina vs. Her Mother. The Suppression of Womanhood.
Nina's mother is perhaps the most subtle mirroring we see in Black Swan. Nina and her mother's relationship exhibit traits of the White Swan-Black Swan dynamic in the sense that it seems as though Nina's mother is constantly attempting to sabotage Nina. On a surface level, one could glance at Nina's mother, Erica, and it would be evident that Erica is very supportive when it comes to her daughter Nina's career, and her daughter in general.
Though as the story unfolds, one can come to realize that her mother is truthfully extremely overbearing and controlling of her daughter, which has negative repercussions. Nina's mother is a very important figure in the story and in Nina's journey from white swan to black swan. I believe that much of why Nina struggles throughout the film to tap into the black swan energy is a metaphor for her inability to tap into her womanhood. In a way, her mother acts as a force. pulling her towards the white swan archetype, keeping her trapped within the confines of girlhood and stopping her from stepping into womanhood.
The white swan as an archetype, as discussed, is characterized by qualities of purity and innocence. These are also qualities we associate with children, especially girls. The black swan is characterized by qualities such as seduction and deviance, which are qualities often associated with women.
The black swan, as discussed, has roots in the archetype of the seductress and the witch. These archetypes are culturally rooted in a fear of female sexuality and female power. Even within fairy tales and movies, we often see the ingenue portrayed by a child or teen girl, whereas the witch is most commonly portrayed by either a sexually mature woman or an elderly woman. Though, as stated, there is a sort of cultural expectation for women to carefully balance and maintain a combination of attributes from both. the white swan, and the black swan archetypes, it is evident that most parents wish to only see their daughters embody the white swan, as many parents struggle watching their daughters grow up and assert control over their lives and bodies.
Throughout the film, Nina's mother infantilizes Nina. Nina is an adult, presumably in her late teens or early twenties, though throughout the film, her mother treats her as far younger than her age. Nina's mother keeps Nina emotionally stunted in her maturity, which contributes to Nina's confusion and anxiety surrounding the Blacks.
role as the black swan represents a maturity that Nina is stifled from branching into as she is so accustomed to the perceived safety of this infantilization. Barbara Creed comments on this type of dynamic within horror in their book The Monstrous Feminine. In these films, Psycho, Carrie, The Birds, the maternal figure is constructed as the monstrous feminine. By refusing to relinquish her hold on her child, she prevents it from taking up its proper place.
in relation to the symbolic. Partially consumed by the desire to remain locked in a blissful relationship with the mother and partially terrified of separation, the child finds it easy to succumb to the comforting pleasure of the dyadic relationship. Nina's mother throughout the film repeatedly diminishes her daughter's capabilities in subtle yet jarring ways. When Nina arrives home after her audition for the role of the swan queen, upset that it didn't go well, her mother comforts her.
Though moments later, as Nina is preparing to rehearse in the living room, she can overhear her mother on the phone with an administrator of the ballet company Nina attends, stating, You can't expect these girls to come back from break and dance like Beth McIntyre. It's completely unrealistic. I mean, they can do the work, but they don't have Beth's magic.
Nina is in the other room, and she overhears this conversation, and her mother knows she can hear. Nina then begins to rehearse and while she does, she cracks her toenail and is unable to finish the variation. Her mother helps her bandage her foot and says that Nina is working too hard. Nina talks about Lily. If that girl wouldn't have barged in, to which her mother quickly replies, I'm sure she didn't mean to.
Her mother quickly changes the subject, beginning to reminisce on when Nina first started ballet. And if it wasn't for her mother taking her to each class, she would have been completely lost. Her mother redirects the conversation to center herself, which is something her mother frequently does.
Nina ignores her mother's comment and explains that she's going to tell Tomas that she finished the dance. Her mother replies, you don't need to lie. It won't convince him one way or the other. As her mother says this, it feels in some way that her mother is trying to sabotage Nina, as she then tells her that maybe she'll get one of the smaller parts, and either way, she'll shine.
It is awed the way that Nina's mother is so convinced that Nina won't get a larger role in the ballet when she really doesn't know what the outcome will be and especially when the audition didn't even go that badly considering Thomas told Nina her white swan was so good that she would certainly be cast as the white swan had it been a traditional casting. Later when Nina is ultimately cast as the swan queen she calls her mother immediately and her is ecstatic. When Nina arrives home that night, her mother surprises her with a cake to celebrate. Nina seems happy to share this moment with her mother until her mother begins to cut her a big slice of cake and requests a smaller slice. But her mother ignores Nina and continues to cut her a large slice of cake.
Nina once again asks for a smaller portion, but her mother brushes her off by stating, It's just celebration, it's just this once. urging Nina to eat the cake. Nina tries to explain that her stomach is still unsettled from the big day and her mother's smile drops and her personality splits. Fine, then it's garbage, her mother says as she lifts the cake and carries it over to the garbage can. Nina begins immediately apologizing and pleading with her mother, expressing gratitude for the cake.
Her mother stops and puts the cake back on the counter. I'm just so proud of you, she says, a smile back on her face. It looks so yummy, Nina reassures her mother.
Her mother then puts some frosting on her finger and feeds it to Nina as Nina smiles a seemingly forced smile. This scene is important because it is a moment when Nina is attempting to assert bodily autonomy and her mother ignores her and eventually becomes upset at Nina. This then forces Nina to backtrack and apologize for a reasonable request. This behavior is consistent with Nina's mother as she displays a consistent desire for control over Nina's body and punishes Nina when she is not given that control. After Nina arrives home from a gala that she attended with Thomas, her mother helps her get undressed from the gala, taking the pins out of her hair and the earrings from her ears.
As her mother goes to unzip Nina's dress, Nina again attempts to assert bodily autonomy by declaring that she is able to undress herself. Though her mother ignores Nina's request and as she removes Nina's dress, she notices the scratches on Nina's back. Nina attempts to reassure her that it's just a rash and her mother gets angry and starts scolding her, expressing that it's a disgusting habit.
She drags Nina to the bathroom and cuts Nina's nails. It's all this pressure. I knew it would be too much.
She scolds Nina in the bathroom as if Nina is a child who has misbehaved. Nina is wearing only a mask. underwear and attempts to cover her body. This is a clear dissonance in the age in which Nina's mother treats her and her actual age.
Nina sits in the bathroom having her nails cut by her mother being treated like a child though she attempts to cover her body as she is visibly a woman. We once again see an example of Nina attempting to assert bodily autonomy by stating she can undress herself and being punished for her body not belonging to her mother. Her mother behaves as if when Nina scratches her own body, she is somehow tarnishing a precious item that belongs to her mother. As her mother angrily scolds her, she trims her nails too deeply and accidentally cuts Nina. As Nina begins to bleed, we see a sudden shift again in her mother's demeanor.
Her mother kisses her hand, saying sorry and asking if she's alright. After this moment, we see Nina repeatedly cutting and filing her nails. Likely paranoid that her mother will scold her again if she doesn't, though despite her efforts, the scratches on her back persist. These scratches are to me emblematic of the inner black swan attempting to scratch her way out of Nina's body, and as Nina files her nails, she attempts to tame the beast of womanhood that claws through her girlish exterior. Her mother's overbearing nature is again displayed when Nina awakens the next morning and begins touching herself as Thomas had instructed her to do the night before in a supposed attempt to connect her to the seductive nature of the black swan role.
As she touches herself Nina opens her eyes and gasps as she sees her mother asleep in the corner of the room. She covers herself with the blanket mortified. This scene displays the way in which Nina is in some ways stunted by her mother's overbearing nature.
She is unable to explore herself and her body due to the domineering presence of her mother. Her mother is unable to let go of the child Nina once was, and keeps Nina in a state of childishness by being overprotective, controlling, and by constantly infantilizing her daughter. Due to this, Nina is unable to step fully into her womanhood.
and is perhaps the origin of the stifling of the black swan within her. Later in the film, Nina sits in the living room with her mother, and her mother asks if Thomas has tried anything with her. She adds that he has a reputation with girls, and she's worried that she's been spending so many late nights at his studio.
Nina lies, telling her that he hasn't tried anything. Her mother then explains that she doesn't want Nina making the same mistakes she did, referring to getting pregnant. Nina says, thanks, sarcastically.
Her mother attempts to reassure her. No, not like that. I just mean as far as my career was concerned. Nina mumbles, what career? Her mother looks up hurt.
The one I gave up to have you. 28. So? And only in the...
Only what? Nothing. What? Nothing.
Her mother again redirects the conversation to make Nina's achievements about herself. She redirects the conversation to remind Nina of the sacrifice she made in order to have her in an attempt to garner sympathy from Nina. Directly after this, her mother asks how Nina's skin is.
This is an attempt to embarrass Nina and take back control of the conversation by taking control of Nina's body. Nina attempts to reassure her mother that her skin is fine, to which her mother responds by demanding Nina take off her shirt. Her mother attempts to gain control of the situation by controlling Nina's bodily autonomy, embarrassing her, and patronizing her as she has done repeatedly in the film.
But for the first time in the film, Nina sternly says no and her mother is taken aback. The tension in this moment is broken when the doorbell rings. Her mother answers the door and promptly closes it after a brief interaction.
Suspicious, Nina asks who it was and her mother says no one. Nina walks to the door and checks. To her surprise, it's Lily.
Lily apologizes for speaking to Thomas about her and offers to take her out to dinner to make up for it. Nina begins to decline when her mother pokes her head out, saying she needs to rest. In defiance, Nina quickly grabs her coat and rushes out with Lily.
Whilst out, Nina ends up drinking and doing drugs until the late hours of the night. Nina eventually returns home, visibly drunk and giggling. Her mother is angry and questions her on where she's been and what she's doing.
Her mother starts yelling at her and slaps her. In the conversation, Nina also alludes to sleeping with men, which further infuriates her mother. The act of engaging in substance use and is in this context the ultimate form of Nina asserting her bodily autonomy.
Nina runs to her room and slams the door. Her mother attempts to come in, but Nina places a board in front of the door so it can't be opened. The bedroom in fiction is often used to express an extension of the body, especially for adolescents and young people as it is the only space that is truly their own.
Therefore, by shutting her mother out of her room and locking her out, this is a further assertion of Nina's bodily autonomy, meaning as keeping her mother out of her space especially as her mother persistently invades nina's privacy nina awakens the next morning late and hungover as her mother didn't wake her up as she usually would when nina arrives home that night she plays her childhood music box and lays on her bed suddenly she throws the box on the floor she gathers all of her stuffed animals and throws them down the garbage chute this is an important moment as stated nina is emotionally stunted into girlhood due to the dominating nature of her mother which is why she is able to tap into the childlike innocence and purity of the white swan with ease, but experiences blockages when attempting to access her inner black swan. As stated, the bedroom is often used as an extension of the body in fiction, especially for young characters. Nina's bedroom is likewise reflective of her inner reality of being stuck in girlhood.
When one glances at Nina's bedroom, one would sooner believe that the room belonged to a young child rather than an adult woman in her 20s. Nina discarding her childhood items and iconography from her room is therefore a further assertion of her bodily autonomy, freeing herself from the grasp of her mother, pulling her towards the safety of girlhood as she continues to step into her womanhood. Later on in the film, when Nina is having a series of hallucinations, she hears whimpering coming from her mother's painting room.
The room is empty, though suddenly the paintings come to life and start talking to her and crying, echoing the words of her mother. Nina screams for them to stop and starts ripping them down. Nina turns around and her mother is there questioning what she's doing. Nina runs to her room and locks the door. Her mother tells her to open the door and Nina tells her to go away.
Nina begins to contort into a creature. Her eyes turn red and feathers begin to sprout from her skin. Her mother opens the door and attempts to enter but Nina screams at her and slams the door on her. Nina backs away and continues her metamorphosis into a creature, her legs contort into a swan-like posture, causing her to fall on the floor and pass out. The broken ballerina from her music box also lay on the floor, twirling.
Nina now repeatedly keeping her mother out of her bedroom as the film progresses is a further example of Nina stepping into womanhood, which allows her to transform. For girls, during and after adolescence, our most significant transformation often occur in the isolation of our bedrooms. In the next scene, Nina wakes up with socks on her hands placed there by her mother. This reestablishes the infantilization of Nina by her mother as she makes an extreme attempt to gain back control of her daughter's bodily autonomy.
The socks on Nina's hands are reminiscent of the mittens a mother would place on their infant baby to prevent them from scratching themselves in their sleep. The same reason Nina's mother put the socks on her. Nina's mother sits in the room watching over her and Nina is concerned and confused.
She questions where the clock is and what time it is though her mother tells her not to worry. This show is tonight. To which her mother explains that she called the theater and told them Nina wasn't feeling well. Nina pushes her mother off and goes to the door when she realizes the handle is missing.
Nina's mother attempts to assert dominance by ordering Nina to stay in the room until she feels better, again referencing the way in which Nina's room is a metaphor for her psyche and her body. Her mother forcing her way in and locking them both inside is representative of a overbearing nature and the way she is abusively forcing herself onto Nina. Nina questions where the handle is and begins looking around for it.
This role is destroying you. What happened to my sweet girl? Nina shoves past her, trying to retrieve the door handle. She's gone. Nina yells as she crushes her mother's hand.
Her mother tries to stop her from leaving. You can't handle this! I can't?
I'm the Swan Queen. You're the one who never left the call. This interaction is important, as the question, where is my sweet girl, is a question many parents ask themselves, especially when it comes to their daughters.
Once their daughters hit puberty and begin to transform from a docile child to a more independent person, Nina's mother wishes for Nina to stay frozen in a perpetual state of girlhood, but fails to realize that this is suffocating her daughter. I am reminded of a passage in Jude Doyle's novel Dead Blondes and Bad Mothers when discussing the film Carrie. When Carrie shows signs of falling in love or embracing her sexuality, Margaret comes at her with a butcher knife. She would rather see her daughter dead than in control of her own body.
This is the last time we see Nina's mother until the final scene of the film. Nina is dancing the white swan in the final dance of the dying swan, the scene in which the white swan herself. She dances her final dance beautifully. As she stands on the cliff, her stomach bleeds. She bids farewell to her dancers.
She looks out into the audience and makes eye contact for the first time with her mother. Her mother is crying, as is Nina. Nina jumps and the audience erupts in applause. Nina and her mother act as reflections to each other. Nina's mother sees herself in her daughter.
Nina has her mother's passion for ballet, and Nina represents what her mother wishes she could have been or what she may have been. It is insinuated through her conversation in the living room that her mother wasn't getting the success in her career that she aspired for and she eventually sacrificed her career in order to have her daughter Nina. Nina represents to Erica what she wishes she was or perhaps what she could have been. For this reason, feelings of jealousy over Nina's success are continuously triggered and this manifests in her mother. subtly trying to sabotage her or remind Nina of the role she played in her success and how Nina wouldn't be successful if it wasn't for her and all the sacrifices she made for her daughter.
Likewise, these negative feelings manifest as the need to control Nina and her body. What she eats, what she wears, how she cuts her nails, where she goes, etc. Nina, on the other hand, sees herself reflected in her mother, though as a reflection of what she may become if she doesn't work hard enough.
If she doesn't work hard enough, if she doesn't dedicate herself fully to her craft, she believes she will end up like her mother. Nina's mother acts as one side of a polarity, pulling Nina towards the confines and safety of girlhood, the white swan. To be docile, sweet, innocent, and safe.
Though on the other side of that coin is Lily, who tempts Nina into her womanhood and to embracing her darker side, the black swan. Chapter 3, Nina vs. Lily, The Temptation into Womanhood. Lily and Nina embody an incredibly complex and multifaceted dynamic, symbolic of many aspects of girlhood and womanhood.
This chapter will be broken up into three sections, first exploring Lily's role as a temptress. As I expressed earlier, this film potently explores the dichotomy of feminine archetypes, primarily the ingenue and the seductress. Lily on a surface level seemingly embodies the role of Odile, the black swan within the ballet, and the seductress who hopes to sabotage Odette, the white swan, ultimately leading to her death.
And though Lily does act as a seductress, I believe it is not Thomas Lily seduces but rather she seduces Nina into embracing her darker nature. Secondly, Nina and Lily are the most potent examples of the Madonna and the whore within the film. Very much opposites, though still very similar.
They act as inverted reflections of the other. Though they are constantly compared to one another in a way that is reflective of the way in which the Madonna and the whore are contrasted culturally. And the way in which the ideal woman must balance these roles.
Thirdly, I will explore the way in which Lily embodies a disillusionment of the self. The way in which Nina falsely projects her own reality onto Lily and how this disillusionment ultimately leads to her own downfall and a false perception of reality. Part 1. Lily as temptress into womanhood. Lily juxtaposes the dynamic Nina has with her mother who attempts to keep Nina within the confines of girlhood symbolized by the white swan.
Nina's mother and Lily act as polaric forces pulling Nina in the opposite direction of girlhood and womanhood, between the white swan and the black swan, between innocence and deviance, between purity and seduction. This polarity is additionally emblematic of the battle going on internally within Nina, as I will further explore in the next chapters. She feels the safety and comfort of the white swan, her girlhood, and her womanhood.
though she feels curious and tempted by the black swan within her, her womanhood. Lily is, in a sense, emblematic of the black swan that lay dormant within Nina, waiting to come out. Lily is the reflection of Nina that Nina refuses to see.
This is showcased in the way that Lily's face frequently morphs into Nina's throughout the film. Lily, in a way, does act as a temptress, though not towards Thomas, as Nina leads us to believe. Lily is a temptress in the sense that she tempts Nina into embracing the black swan within her.
In this way, I find the dynamic between Lily and Nina to be very similar to the dynamic in the 2003 film 13. Nina being very similar to honor student Tracy and Lily. Lily being similar to cool girl Evie. In this way, Nina and Lily's dynamic similarly walks a fine line between rivalry and idolatry.
Often specific to dynamics between women, especially young women, Nina and Lily express the feeling of confused, envy-fueled obsession with another woman, not knowing if you want to kill her, kiss her, or be her. The party scenes are the most prominent scenes within the movie that cement Lily as a temptress, not towards Thomas but to Nina, and as a juxtaposing force from Nina's mother. Lily shows up at Nina's house in an attempt to apologize for speaking to Thomas to go easy on Nina without Nina's permission and offers to take her out for dinner to make up for it.
Nina initially begins to decline though when her mother pokes her head out saying she needs to rest, Nina quickly grabs her coat and rushes out with Lily. Lily offers Nina a spare black tank top to wear out. Nina goes to the bathroom to put on the spare black tank top Lily gave her, a metaphor for her transition into the black swan. This is the first time we see her wearing black, as opposed to the light pink and white shades she's usually wearing, symbolizing girlhood. While in the bathroom, Nina ignores a call from her mother and comes back upstairs where she sees Lily spiking her drink with the powder from the pills she tried to give Nina earlier.
Though one could rightfully perceive the spiking of the drink to be sabotage, Nina does witness this and does make the decision for herself to consume the drugged drink. After their night out, when Nina arrives home, she is with Lily and the two enter the house giggling. Her mother is angry and questions her. Nina looks to Lily for what to say.
Nina is deviant and her mother starts yelling at her and slaps her. Nina runs to her room and closes the door, placing a board in front of the door so it can't be opened. Nina begins making out with Lily and the girls engage in intercourse. From the moment the girls go out to the moment they go home, Lily is acting as the antithesis of what Nina's mother represents. As stated before, Lily and Nina's mother act as magnets, pulling Nina between the two parts of her rivaling identity.
Nina's mother pulls her towards the safety and security of girlhood, while Lily tempts her into budding and suppressed womanhood. With Lily, we witness Nina gain the bodily autonomy she has been robbed of by her mother and by her dedication to her craft. Whereas before we saw her anxious about consuming a piece of cake and caged by her diligent routines, we now witness her drinking, staying out late, and having sex.
Where she usually abides by her mother, meekly apologizing for things that aren't her fault, or staying quiet to keep her mother happy, we now witness as Nina ignores her mother's calls, fights back and locks her mother out of her room, asserting control over herself and severing the childlike dependency she has on her mother. Though it is later revealed that Lily's presence within Nina's home was a hallucination, her presence is still important as it was the belief that Lily was with her that gave Nina the confidence to stick up for herself and assert her bodily autonomy against her mother. Lily's presence pulled something out within Nina that has been stifled and suppressed for a long time. awakening the black swan that lay dormant within her. Part 2. Nina and Lily as the Madonna and the Lily and Nina additionally are the most potent contrasted symbols of the Madonna and the within the film.
In the way in which Thomas fetishistically expects them to perfectly embody the qualities of the other as he merges the white swan and the black swan to create the idyllic swan queen, this is emblematic of the way in which women are expected to perfectly encapsulate and balance these two archetypes. And the way in which women who embody the Madonna versus the whore in their archetypal entirety are often socially pitted against each other as rivals for male attention and validation. within puritanical patriarchal society after thomas announced that he will be adapting swan lake and unconventionally having one curl play both the white swan and the black swan he selects the girls he wishes to audition for him in the audition nina excels at odette as expected she perfectly encapsulates the energy of the white swan leroy whispers to her if i was only guessing the white swan should be yours but i'm not now show me your black swan nina Nina begins to dance the black swan and Tomas is less impressed, beginning to yell corrections at her when suddenly a dancer enters the studio.
She is late. The disruption causes Nina to lose focus and go over slightly on her ankle. Tomas introduces Lily to the girls as a new dancer within the company and orders Lily to get warmed up. Lily says, no, it's okay. I'm good.
Her demeanor is cool and casual. She embodies everything that is opposite of the controlled and disciplined Nina. Nina asks Thomas if she should go again as she was disrupted. Thomas declines, saying he's seen enough, dismissing Nina. Afterwards, as her mother helps her bandage her foot, her mother says, You're working yourself too hard.
We all have off days. We all have off days. That girl hadn't barged in. I'm sure she didn't mean to. In these scenes we witness the seeds of animosity towards Lily being planted in Nina's mind as she already begins to see Nina as a threat.
Throughout the film the consistent contrast and comparison of Nina and Lily persists. Nina is ultimately cast as the Swan Queen though as she prepares for the role Thomas repeatedly uses Lily as a reference for what Nina needs to embody for her performance as the Black Swan. For example, soon after she is cast as the Swan Queen, Nina overhears a rehearsal and walks onto the balcony overlooking the rehearsal space. She watches Lily, who is rehearsing. Her hair is down, she looks carefree, her movements are effortless, free-spirited, and fun.
She has a wide, genuine smile on her face. Leroy approaches from behind Nina. I watch the way she moves.
Imprecise, but effortless. she's not faking it. intentionally comparing Lily to Nina and pointing out what Nina lacks in her own performance. where Nina is controlled and poised, Lily is intuitive and free. not only is this emblematic of the pressure for Nina to perfectly balance the Madonna and the whore, it additionally creates a greater wedge between Nina and Lily.
the constant comparison deepens Nina's animosity towards Lily and as her animosity grows, so do her delusions about Lily. When Nina sits on the studio floor crying after a bad rehearsal with Thomas, a shadowy figure enters the studio, soon revealed to be Lily. Nina explains that she's had a hard day and Lily attempts to comfort her by saying Thomas is a prick.
Nina grows slightly defensive and says he's brilliant, to which Lily replies, sure, but he's not all warm and fuzzy. What? You don't know it? Someone's hot for teacher. Nina doesn't take the comment well and leaves.
The next day, Nina is rehearsing and Tomas makes them perform the same dance over and over without any direction or corrections. Eventually, Nina stops and asks if he has any corrections for them and Tomas, seemingly irritated, explains that Lily spoke to him. Lily told me that she saw you crying. That you were very upset and that I should take it easy on you.
Nina explains that she didn't say that, but Thomas is annoyed, saying perhaps Nina should take a break. She shouldn't have said anything. No, you shouldn't be whining in the first place.
I didn't. You could be brilliant, but you're a coward. Now stop saying that!
That's exactly what I'm talking about! Stop being so f***ing weak! Nina goes to the dressing room looking for Lily, and in this moment we see, interestingly, that Lily has Nina's old vanity table.
Nina asks Lily about what she said to Thomas, and Lily says that she was just trying to help, to which Nina says she shouldn't have said anything. We see that Nina's animosity towards Lily continues to escalate. One could interpret Lily's actions as devious and ill-intended, but her intentions are purposely blurred and skewed through Nina's unreliable narration and perception.
Later on in the movie, Nina wakes up late after her night out with Lily. She arrives late to the studio and finds Lily dancing her... role in rehearsal.
Nina apologizes for being late and Tomas sternly tells her to get warmed up. Nina watches as Lily performs the black swan in rehearsal. Tomas comments on how well Lily did. That was good. Lily approaches Nina immediately and says hey he just asked me to step in attempting to reassure her.
When Nina takes her place the rehearsal continues as normal. Tomas makes eye contact with Lily as Nina performs. Once again, the consistent comparison of Nina to Lily leads Nina to become increasingly disillusioned by Lily and leads to Nina projecting herself and her own insecurities onto Lily as she grows mad from paranoia. This leads to a persistent inability for Nina to decipher reality from fiction as she begins to hallucinate.
Part 3, Lily as Nina's false projection of herself. Lily is very obviously intended to be on a surface level the most prominent mirror image of Nina aside from Nina herself. They are very much alike and yet at the same time opposites, inverted like a reflection.
Lily is intentionally very emblematic of Odile or the Black Swan from the ballet as the threat of Lily replacing her continuously haunts Nina. In the same way, Odile tricks the prince and replaces Odette in the Swan Lake Ballet leading to Odette's death. Though in my opinion, Lily is not the true antagonist of the story, rather Lily acts as a gateway for Nina discovering and revealing the darker side of herself. We are first introduced to Lily on the subway.
Nina notices the back of a girl's head and from behind the girl looks uncomfortably like Nina herself. This confuses Nina as she looks slightly unsettled. She tries to catch a glimpse of the girl, but she exits the subway train before she can get a clear view. That day, a dancer enters the dressing room and Nina quickly recognizes the girl as her doppelganger from the subway. The girl who looks strangely similar to herself.
This physical similarity continues to feed into the idea of the inverted reflection. Throughout the film, Nina hallucinates that Lily's face morphs into her own. The first time Lily's face morphs into Nina's is when the two are sleeping together. After Lily's face morphs into Nina's own, her doppelganger shoves a pillow on top of her face as if to suffocate her. The film cuts to black and Nina wakes up late to go to the studio.
She is confused as to where Lily is as she believes she slept over, but Lily confirms that she did not sleep over and that she went home with a guy named Tom, thus indicating that their sex was merely a hallucination, as was their intimacy in the cab on the way to Nina's house. As a result of her paranoia, Nina's animosity towards Lily grows as she becomes increasingly paranoid that Lily is trying to sabotage her and steal her role as the swan queen. As Nina is getting fitted for her swan costumes, Lily enters the fitting room and Nina questions what she is doing in the fitting room. Lily explains that she was made Nina's alternative should she get sick or injured before the show. Nina storms out of the room upset as she rushes to find Thomas.
When she finds Tomas, she pleads for Lily not to be her alternate, claiming that Lily wants her role as the Swan Queen. Tomas attempts to reassure her that Lily is not out to get her, though states every dancer in the world wants her role. Nina continues to plead with Tomas, stating that Lily is trying to replace her, but once again Tomas attempts to reassure her that no one is out to get her and tells her to go home and rest. Nina doesn't follow Tomas'advice and stays late to rehearse.
As she is alone in the studio, the lights cut and she begins to see figures in the darkness. She has another hallucination, seeing Lily and Tomas having sex backstage. Leroy turns into Rothbart and Nina rushes into her dressing room crying.
She is frightened and rushes home. The next time we see Lily's face morph into Nina's own is during the opening performance. When the prince lifts her, she grows frightened as Lily's face transforms into her own face, causing her to fall. Nina returns to her dressing room and Lily is sitting in her vanity chair applying the makeup for the black swan. Nina tells her to get out and Lily begins to taunt her.
I'm just worried about the next act, I'm not sure you're feeling up for it. Nina pleads with her to stop and suddenly Lily's face transforms into Nina's, continuing to taunt her. From here she battles with herself, smashing her double into the mirror. Her double lay there lifeless and then opens her eyes and starts choking Nina.
Nina stabs her double with a shard of glass, declaring, it's my turn, her voice sounding almost demonic. Her double morphs back into Lily again, and she spits blood before falling on the floor, lifeless. Nina cries and hides Lily's body in the shower, panicked, before returning to doing her makeup for the stage where she performs her black swan beautifully.
As Nina later re-enters her dressing room, after her striking black swan performance, it is still destroyed, glass shattered, and she sees blood pooling under the bathroom door. She covers it with a white towel. As she does her makeup, she hears a knock.
It's Lily. Nina gasps. Lily excitedly and earnestly praised Nina for her fantastic performance. Nina confused. says nothing and closes the door.
She removes a towel that she placed over Lily's blood and it is completely clean. She opens the bathroom door and no one is there. Nina doesn't have time to investigate her own madness and begins getting ready for the finale.
When the ballet ends and Nina is revealed to be stabbed and bleeding from her stomach, it is Lily who notices her wound first and gasps. The shift in Lily's face to Nina's is emblematic of the way in which Nina was never fighting with Lily to begin with, but rather herself, as I will further explore in the final chapter. She was fighting with the deviant nature that lay suppressed within her that was awoken partially by Lily. Lily acts as a scapegoat for Nina's own insecurities and inner turmoil.
The reality is that Nina has been the Black Swan all along. Though her exterior is that of the white swan, her true nature is more similar to the black swan. Though Lily's exterior is more similar to the black swan on a surface level, she is ultimately more like the white swan than we initially expect.
Where Lily persistently displays kindness towards Nina, Nina is willing to sabotage and even kill to get what she desires. As Thomas says in the dressing room before Nina's performance, The only person standing in your way is you. It was never Lily Nina was fighting with. It was herself all along. She was always the Black Swan.
Chapter 4, Nina vs. Beth, The Impermanence of Youth. Nina and Beth's dynamic is one of the most compelling and revealing dynamics within the film. When one comes to analyze the relationship Nina has to Beth, one discovers that Nina has been the Black Swan all along, but more specifically, Beth's Black Swan.
Beth acts as a mirror into Nina's inevitable fate. Beth is the former muse of Timon Leroy, having previously been the principal dancer of the company. Though as what inevitably happens to all great dancers, the company feels as though she has aged out of her position and therefore must be replaced.
As much as Beth represents elements of the black swan, she is just as much the dying white swan in her final act. As does the white swan in the ballet, Beth attempts to decide once she is replaced. In one of the first scenes of the film, we see Nina arriving at the ballet studio where there is a photo of a ballerina as the white swan in the front of the building. Nina stares at the poster mesmerized. At a glance, one could almost mistake the girl in the photo for Nina herself as they look rather similar, though the girl is later revealed to be Beth McIntyre, the star of the company.
Moments later, Nina is in her dressing room with the other ballerinas and she overhears the girls gossiping about Beth. They primarily discuss Beth's age. They need to hire someone who's not approaching menopause, one dancer scoffs.
Nina tries to defend her. It's sad, Beth's such a beautiful dancer, to which one dancer replies, yeah, so is my grandmother. Nina quickly rebuttals with, Fontaine danced until her 50s, to which the dancer just merely rolls their eyes at Nina.
Later that day, whilst Nina is waiting in the hallway, she hears someone yelling in frustration. Beth is destroying her dressing room, upset that unbeknownst to Nina, she has been forced into retirement. Nina watches as Beth storms out of the room and once Beth is gone, she slips into her dressing room.
Nina stares at her reflection in the vanity mirror and surveys Beth's belongings, stealing a series of items including her lipstick, perfume, earrings, and a nail file. After her audition for the Swan Queen, Nina arrives home that night upset at how it went as she was unable to finish her Black Swan variation. Nina puts on her ballet shoes in the living room and she can hear her mother on the phone in the next room talking to one of the women who work for the ballet company.
She says you can't expect these girls to come back from break and dance like Beth McIntyre. It's completely unrealistic. I mean they can do the work but they don't have Beth's magic. Nina can hear this.
The next day we see Nina applying Beth's lipstick on the subway. She gazes at her reflection, a darkened version of herself staring back at her in the dim window reflection. perhaps an illusion for what is to come or a hint at her true nature. Nina arrives at the ballet studio and spots Thomas asking if she can speak to him.
He brings her to his office and Nina tells him that she practiced the black swan variation and lies saying that she finished it. Nina applying Beth's lipstick before talking to Thomas was intentional and mirrors the behavior of the black swan within the Swan Lake ballet. In this scene, Nina is the black swan and Thomas is the prince. In the ballet, Odile, the black swan, takes on the appearance of Odette in order to trick and seduce the prince into believing that she is Odette, the woman that he loves. In the same way, Nina is aware of the fondness that Thelma has for Beth.
She is his muse and the former star of the company. By wearing her lipstick, Nina hopes that some of Beth's magic will rub off on her and that Thelma will see something in her that reminds him of his aging star, or... little princess as he refers to Beth.
And this is not the first time that Nina uses this black swan strategy to imitate Beth. Nina is eventually cast as the swan queen and there is a gala held in which Thomas will introduce Nina to the public as his new star. Thomas addresses the crowd with Nina at his side.
Thomas begins to make a speech praising Beth for her work within the company and as Thomas'muse before announcing her retirement. He begins to address her as my little princess. And as he says this, Beth rolls her eyes, seemingly pissed off and overwhelmed with emotions, she begins to walk out of the room. Leroy continues, we honor you, you will be greatly missed and never forgotten.
But as we bid as you to one star, we welcome another. Taking the role of our swan queen, the exquisite Nina Sayers. Nina smiles and curtsies.
Leroy begins speaking again. You will soon have the pleasure of seeing her perform. But for now, please let's raise a glass to all of us. To Beth. To Nina to Beauty.
Nina is dressed in a white gown and diamond earrings. The diamond earrings in which she stole from Beth. Another example of Nina replicating Beth's appearance.
In this way, this scene in the film mirrors the scene in the ballet in which Odile attends the ball to seduce the prince and the court by masquerading herself as Odette. In the ballet, her masquerade is successful and the prince ultimately chooses the black swan as he mistakes her for Odette. Similarly, in this scene, we witness Thomas choose Nina over Beth as his new quote-unquote princess.
At the end of the night, Nina waits in the hallway alone. She stares at a statue in the middle of the room depicting some sort of ominous angel-like creature. Nina turns and Beth is standing directly behind her. She's startled but says, I'm sorry to hear that you're leaving the company. But Beth doesn't receive her comment as genuine.
What'd you do to get this role? You always said you were such a frigid little girl. What did you do to make him change his mind? Did you suck his c**k?
Nina frowns. Not all of us have to. You fking whore. You're fking little whore. Tomas returns and questions what is going on.
Beth says she needs to talk to him and Tomas says he thinks that she should go home. No! Don't you do that! Don't you dismiss me like that! Upset with the way in which once his muse and star, she is now discarded and replaced.
Tomas responds, my little princess, please hold it together, he says as he walks back to Nina and begins to leave with her. I'm coming by later. I have something for you. It's a token of my appreciation.
Right. You make the most of it, Nina. A warning, not of anything Beth will do, but of Nina's inevitable fate as the White Swan, as the White Swan always dies and is always replaced.
The next day, when everyone is rehearsing, a ballerina runs into the studio crying. She says, Beth's in the hospital and there's been an accident. Toma later tells Nina that last night after the gala, Beth walked into traffic and was hit by a car, presumably an attempt to take her own life. That evening, Nina visits Beth in the hospital to give her flowers.
Beth lay in a hospital bed unconscious, surrounded by flowers, mirroring the way in which the white swan in her final dance of the dying swan takes her own life. when she is replaced by the black swan. The flowers surrounding her are reminiscent of flowers thrown on stage after one's final performance.
Nina gasps when she sees the injuries on Beth's legs. They are broken. She will never dance again. That same evening, Nina returns to her dressing room, the dressing room that once belonged to Beth.
She is at her vanity and places the items she stole from Beth before her, placing them back from where she stole them from as she looks in the mirror. She is the black swan who impersonated Beth. She wore her lipstick to seduce Thomas into giving her the role.
She wore her earrings when she was introduced at the gala. In her pursuit of perfection, she is perhaps more like the black swan than she realizes. Later towards the end of the film, when Nina is being haunted by her paranoia that Lily is trying to steal her role, Nina rushes out of the studio though as she exits the building she stops and stares at the photo of herself on the front of the building of the ballet, the same place where the photo of Beth used to be. Nina decides to visit Beth again in the hospital.
Believing that Beth is still unconscious, she leaves her a note beside her and returns her stolen items. Beth awakens and sees her and questions what she's doing. So sorry. I know how it feels now.
She's trying to replace me. What do I do? Beth stares at her, returning her belongings. You stole my things, she says in almost disbelief. Nina attempts to explain herself.
I was just trying to be perfect like you. Beth picks up a nail file. I'm not perfect. I'm nothing, she says as she stabs her face with the nail file.
Beth's face suddenly changes into Nina's as she stabs herself. Nothing, she repeats as she does. Nina runs into the escalator.
Later, her hands are covered in blood and she actually has the nail file, not Beth. She drops it and it's covered in blood. Nina goes home. She's paranoid and goes into the kitchen to wash her hands, evoking imagery of Lady Macbeth obsessively washing imaginary blood from her hands as an expression of her guilt for killing the king.
In a similar sense, we can assume Nina is not washing real blood from her hands, but a mirage of blood symbolizing her guilt for replacing Beth and being her black swan. The way in which Lady Macbeth cannot rid her hands of bloodstains are used to convey her declining psychological condition in the same sense that Nina's visions and hallucinations indicate the same. The scenes in which Beth is depicted as a murderous version of Nina's own self is the last time we see Beth. The broken ballerina draws parallels to Beth, though a mirrored opposite version. Like Beth, the ballerina figure is broken, though her legs remain intact, continuing to dance.
Whereas Beth's legs are broken and she will never dance again. The figure is a direct representation of Nina as the figure continues to dance without the top half of her body, without her head, insinuating Nina has lost her mind. Beth acts not only as Nina's fear of her inevitable fate as the white swan, but this dynamic can also be looked at as women's inevitable fear of aging within a culture in which women's value is synonymous with youth.
Within the film, ballet as a craft repeatedly mirrors the experience of womanhood. There is a fear that is ingrained within many women and femmes at a very young age, a fear that haunts us into adulthood both consciously and subconsciously, that no matter how much your partner loves you now, they may one day leave you for someone younger, more beautiful, of higher value. This is emphasized within Beth and Nina's dynamic because in the end, It didn't matter how talented, magical, and breathtaking Beth was, as is repeatedly emphasized throughout the film.
It didn't matter the history that her and Thomas had together, that she starred in his first ballet and was his muse since the beginning of his career. There was a girl so ready to replace her as soon as she was perceived as wilting. Though Thomas is still thriving in his career. Despite being older than Beth, he shows no signs of being perceived as washed up or old or retiring.
He is merely a genius of his craft who has likely yet to even enter his prime. As Susan Sontag wrote in The Double Standard of Aging, masculinity is identified with competence, autonomy, self-control, qualities which the disappearance of youth does not threaten. Competence in most of the activities expected from men Physical sports, accepted, increases with age. Femininity is identified with incompetence, helplessness, passivity, non-competitiveness, being nice. Age does not improve these qualities.
We see these qualities of masculinity perfectly embodied by Thomas. Though these qualities of femininity have faded in Beth as she has matured, they are, however, increased. incredibly prevalent within the girlish and emotionally stunted Nina.
To quote Sontag again, the desire to be the right age has a special urgency for a woman it never has for a man. A much greater part of her self-esteem and pleasure in life is threatened when she ceases to be young. Most men experience getting older with regret, apprehension, but most women experience it even more painfully with shame.
Aging is a man's destiny, something that must happen because he is a human being. For a woman, aging is not only her destiny, because she is that more narrowly defined kind of human being. A woman. It is also her vulnerability. Likewise, the destiny of the white swan is to be discarded, even mistakenly so.
In the context of performing the ballet, As seen with Beth, the destiny of the muse is to likewise be replaced and discarded. Once one ages out of the role, no matter how perfect one seems to be, they cannot outrun this destiny. Nina is aware of this.
She is aware of her destiny and it haunts her, driving her to madness. Chapter 5. Nina vs. Herself. The Feminine Urge to be Perfect.
Arguably the most important dynamic is the relationship with Nina and herself. As the relationship she has with the previously mentioned three women are largely a reflection and projection of the way that she feels about and perceives herself. Mirrors are the most prominent and important symbols within this film. Not only is this film filled to the brim with literal mirrors and reflections, but also the mirror images that take place as the women who reflect Nina's perceived reality back at her. These women act as mirrors shining a light on Nina's greatest desires and her greatest fears of what she may become or who she is meant to be.
It was written in theory of the young girl. Nothing in the identity of the young girl truly belongs to her. even less her youth than her femininity.
She does not possess attributes, instead her attributes possess her. In this film we witness as Nina becomes possessed by her maddening self-awareness and strive for perfection. Over the course of the film, mirrors are repeatedly and overwhelmingly utilized. The first reflection of Nina is in the window of the subway.
Her reflection is dark and unclear. perhaps alluding to her dual nature as the black swan or perhaps alluding to her unclear perception of herself. we next see nina looking at her reflection in the vanity mirror of the dressing room.
she is surrounded by other ballerinas as they gossip about beth. at times the volume of mirrors in the room combined with the ballerinas almost give the reflection of a funhouse mirror cascading multiple reflections of nina when in reality they are individual reflections of other ballerinas Ballerinas in reality often do have a uniform look being of similar weight and age, so the film takes this a step further as there is a lack of variation in even hair color. They're all slim, young brunettes, just like Nina, perhaps a reflection of the reality in which she is disposable.
No matter what happens, there will always be another girl just like her to take her place. In one scene we watch as Nina prepares her pointe shoes and it is a beautiful example of the dichotomy of ballet and also the female experience. Most people are typically quite shocked and surprised to see how ballerinas prepare their pointe shoes.
From an outside perspective, pointe shoes are so delicate and beautiful. They're satin, pristine, and seemingly fragile. It is jarring to witness a ballerina pull out a knife and unapologetically slash the bottom of the shoe, snap the sole in half, and violently smash the shoe against a concrete floor. A reference to the way in which ballerinas are treated. They must be broken in through pain, blood, and tears.
For years, their bodies endure being pushed. to their physical limits and they often withstand the verbal abuse of teachers, all in hopes of having their moment on stage. Though just like the pointe shoe that is perfectly broken in, once the performance is over the shoe will eventually be discarded and replaced, an illusion as to what will inevitably happen to Nina. In the Swan Lake Ballet, when Odette is turned into a swan, the spell can only be broken if one who has never loved before swears to love Odette forever.
The fleeting nature of ballet prevents Nina from being loved forever. No matter how much Thomas loves her, she will inevitably be replaced, as Beth was before her. And therefore, like Odette, Nina is indebted to her cursed fate.
Earlier that day, when Nina is on the subway, we saw a woman who looked eerily similar to herself from behind. though was later revealed to be Lily. This is the first sign of Nina falsely seeing herself represented back to her in other people's faces. Later on that day she is walking home alone down a dark street when a person walks towards her.
As the woman walks by her she is dressed in black and wearing Nina's face. Nina looks back frightened. As the film progresses, Nina continues to encounter these doppelgangers reflected back at her in the bodies of other women and the severity in which they engage with her intensifies. The next time we see Nina looking at her own reflection is again the darkened reflection from the subway window as she applies Beth's lipstick as she is Beth's black swan. Nina is applying the lipstick as she prepares to meet with Tomas and ask for the role of the swan queen.
Tomas replies, The truth is when I look at you all I see is the white swan. You're beautiful, fearful, fragile, ideal casting. But the black swan?
It's a hard f***ing job to dance both. Nina says she can dance the black swan, though Thomas is doubtful, saying she never loses herself in the art form and is too disciplined. Nina admits, I just want to be perfect, and Thomas replies, perfection is not just about control. Nina tries to further defend herself when Thomas interrupts her by kissing her and she bites him. Thomas is shocked.
but slightly satisfied as she shows the glimmer of the feistiness of the black swan he was looking for. Nina is later revealed to have been cast as the swan queen leader that day. In rehearsals the next day, Nina is seen rehearsing the white swan dance. Toma praises her, thank you Nina, it's very nice, it's very nice, but I knew the white swan wouldn't be a problem. The real work will be the metamorphosis into her evil twin.
and I know I saw a flash of her yesterday so get ready to give me more of that bite. Metamorphosis is an interesting word choice here as metamorphosis can be generally used to describe the process of changing but also the term metamorphosis is used to describe the process in an insect or amphibian of transformation from an immature form to an adult form in two or more distinct stages. This ascribes further relevance to the idea discussed earlier that Nina is experiencing a sort of delayed puberty from her suppressed womanhood and can explain the way in which Nina's body has begun to change, not just her internal reality but her external.
When Nina attends the gala with Tomas, she goes to the bathroom and while she is washing her hands, she notices a strange hangnail. Nina pulls on the hangnail and rips a piece of skin the length of her entire finger off. She hurries to put her hands under the water but when she looks at her hands again, her finger is completely normal. This is perhaps when Nina begins to clearly be an unreliable narrator.
Later, when Nina is in the bath and tries to touch herself, she soon gives up and lays under the water. We see blood starting to drip onto the water and when Nina opens her eyes, a demon version of herself leans over her. This is perhaps manifest of the guilt she feels from exploring her body. as this act pulls her away from the safety of the archetype that she sits comfortably within, the pure and innocent Madonna. She lifts out of the water and it was her imagination, though her finger is bleeding.
She has fresh cuts on her back. She grabs scissors and cuts her nails. The camera pans to the mirror where her face is malicious and she intentionally cuts her finger.
Her face turns back to normal and she tries to stop her finger from bleeding. Nina looks in the mirror and her face grows slightly malicious again. When Nina is out partying with Lily, one of the men say, You haven't told me who you are. I'm a dancer. No, I mean your name.
This line is important as it reflects the fact that dance has become more of her identity than her name. After the night out, Nina begins to persistently hallucinate Lily as herself. When she hallucinates Lily and her being intimate, Lily's face morphs into her own and she puts a pillow over her face to suffocate her.
This is emblematic of the perceived threat that Lily is and also the reality of Nina's self-sabotage. When Nina is getting fitted for her swan queen costume, she stares at herself in the mirror, looking at the scratches on her back. As she examines herself in the mirror curiously, her reflection scratches back, though she does not. Later on, after the scene in which Beth chases her into her house and she locks herself in the room, she undergoes her most significant physical metamorphosis yet. As her mother bangs on her door, Nina yells at her to go away.
Nina begins to contort into a creature. Her eyes turn red and feathers begin to sprout from her skin. Nina backs away from the door and her legs contort into a swan-like posture, causing her to fall on the floor and pass out. Her broken ballerina box lays on the floor beside her, twirling. As mentioned before, the ballerina with the broken head is a symbol for Nina.
The ballerina in the music box is headless, though continues to twirl in her box. in the same way Nina continues to lose her mind through the pursuit of perfection as a dancer. She perseveres as she succumbs to madness. Nina's physical metamorphosis as she embraces her black swan nature can also be a reference to puberty. As mentioned earlier, she is caught between her girlhood and her womanhood, a feeling many girls in their teens and even early 20s can relate to.
She has suppressed many aspects of her womanhood and therefore is experiencing an almost delayed puberty as she metamorphosizes into the Black Swan, not only emotionally but physically. This scene especially highlights this as the way Nina and her mother fight is a scene I'm sure most mothers and daughters can relate to in some sense. The way Nina screams at her mother, demanding her privacy as she undergoes rapid physical changes, and the way her mother is petrified by her daughter's sudden aggression and in a later scene her mother cries, what happened to my sweet girl in response to Nina's sudden shift in character, a question I'm sure many mothers ask themselves as their daughters become teenagers. I'm reminded of a quote by Mary Pfeiffer from the book Reviving Ophelia. Girls know they are losing themselves.
Girls become fragmented, their selves split into mysterious contradictions. They are sensitive and tender-hearted, mean and competitive, superficial and idealistic. They are confident in the morning and overwhelmed with anxiety by nightfall. They rush through their days with wild energy and then collapse into lethargy.
They try on new roles every week. This week, the good student. The next week, the delinquent.
And the next, the artist. As Nina prepares for the opening show, she notices her toes have become webbed. Her metamorphosis is getting worse. She's This continues.
After the first act, Nina returns to her dressing room where she finds Lily sitting at her vanity, perhaps referencing the way in which Nina stole Beth's vanity when she replaced her. Lily's face quickly morphs into Nina's own and the two fight until Nina eventually stabs her doppelganger with a shard of broken glass and the doppelganger turns back into Lily as she spits blood before laying lifeless on the floor. Nina cries as she is panicked and hides Lily's body in the shower.
Suddenly her eyes turn red and she gains focus. We next see Nina as she performs the black swan. She is completely changed. Her energy is unlike anything we've ever seen before.
She is powerful, seductive, even scary. Everyone is impressed with her transformation, praising her performance. As she exits the stage, she remains in this black swan essence, as if she has merged with the character, becoming one.
Her body begins to sprout chicken skin. She enters the stage again and as she turns her arms turn into black swan wings. As the camera pans out she has regular arms though her shadow has swan wings still, indicating that her metamorphosis is real although perhaps internal. Nina goes back on the stage and the audience throws flowers at her, showering her with the love and adoration that she'd so desperately crave. When Nina returns to her dressing room the room is still destroyed and the glass is shattered and blood- pooling under the bathroom.
Nina covers the blood with the white towel and begins her makeup for the finale as the white swan. Suddenly she hears a knock on the door and she's shocked to find Lily on the other side. Lily congratulates her on her amazing performance.
Nina slowly closes the door. Without a word, she is shocked. She removes the towel from the bathroom doorway and it is completely clean.
She opens the bathroom door and no one is there. Nina spirals as she questions her sanity. Tearing up, she looks down at her abdomen and her stomach is bleeding.
She looks down and she pulls a shard from her stomach. It wasn't Lily she stabbed, but rather herself. She sits down at the vanity, crying. She picks up her makeup and swipes it on her face. She stops crying and smiles.
The show must go on. Nina dances her final dance beautifully. All the framing is done purposely so that cinematic viewers can't see her stomach until the last moment.
As she stands on the cliff, preparing to jump, her stomach bleeds. She bids farewell to her dancers. She looks out into the audience and sees her mother crying. Mina is also crying. She jumps.
The crowd erupts in applause and Toma approaches her excited. My little princess, I always knew you had it in you, he says cupping her face. Come on, let's take your bow. He urges her as she lay, though the cheers quickly shift to concern. It is Lily who notices the wound first and gasps.
Toma looks down and sees the pool of blood. Get some help, he orders. What did you do? Nina says, As she looks at Thomas, her eyes then wander upwards towards the stage lights before she repeats, The crowd cheers her name. Thomas'declaration of adoration for Nina in her final moments parallel the end of the ballet when Prince Siegfried returns to the lake and makes a passionate apology after mistakenly confessing his love for the wrong girl, the Black Swan.
Odette forgives the prince, but his betrayal cannot be undone. Rather than remain a swan forever, she chooses to die. Thomas lovingly refers to Nina as his princess, but the damage has already been done.
Interestingly, Nina's death parallels Beth's. To Nina and Beth, their image is everything. The way they perceive themselves and the way others perceive them is what drives them to madness. Also, one may notice that the blood from Nina's stab wound never appeared in her Black Swan costume or inhibited her during the Black Swan performance. The blood only appeared after she had transformed back into the White Swan, as this was the part of herself that she killed when she believed she was fighting Lily.
She was her own Black Swan, leading to the death of the White Swan as seen in the ballet. As Tommaso aptly said to Nina before her opening performance, The only person standing in your way is you. It's time to let her go.
Lose yourself. Gia Tolentino wrote in her essay, Always Be Optimizing, These days it is perhaps even more psychologically seamless than ever for an ordinary woman to spend her life walking towards the idealized mirage of her own self-image. She can believe, reasonably enough, with the full encouragement of feminism, that she herself is the architect of the exquisite, constant, and often pleasurable type of power that this image holds over time. Her money?
her decisions, her selfhood, and her soul. This strive for perfection is the catalyst for Nina's madness. The obsessed artist takes form as Nina is driven to insanity through her pursuit of perfection as a ballerina. This obsession with perfection is what leads Lily, Beth, and her mother to become such significant reflections of her greatest fears, desires, and truths. One could see the art of ballet as an allegory for the female experience itself.
From the outside looking in, the art of ballet is delicate, beautiful, and dainty, the ultimate feminine art form. though closer examination will reveal the pain underneath, the skipped dinners and bloodied feet, the endless rehearsal tears, the ever-present haunting fear of not being good enough, of being anything short of perfect. Also that the ballerina, in spite of her cracked toenails, can maintain the illusion of effortlessness as she elegantly glides across the stage with a smile on her face.
Like ballet, womanhood is bleeding in isolation. skipped meals, and a masking of one's pain behind a smile, all in pursuit of idealized perfection. One must not disrupt the spectacle. The voyeuristic gaze of the audience must be satisfied.
To be perceived as a woman is to perform. As Thomas referenced in the beginning of the film, the white swan finds freedom only in her death. It is only in Nina's death that she finds freedom from her desire to be perfect.
As Sylvia Plath once wrote, the woman is perfected. Her dead body wears the smile of an accomplishment. Thank you for watching.
I hope you enjoyed this black swan deep dive. There are so many layers to this film and many aspects that I didn't even touch on. I would love to know your thoughts on this film below in the comment section, and thank you again to Incogni for sponsoring this video. Remember to click the link in my description for 60% off.
And that's all from me. Bye!