The Esoteric Messages In ‘Labyrinth’
By Jessie Desmond (aka GoldenAerie)
In this essay, I’m going to walk you through Labyrinth and examine all of the
esoteric messages that I can find throughout the film. I am going to assume that you have seen Labyrinth. If you haven’t, then watch it before reading
this. This is going to be a lengthy
piece that you can read while watching the film. I’ve highlighted some key figures by giving
them a header.
OWL
Before the story even begins we are presented with a barn
owl. It flies through the credits until
it leads us to a park where it watches Sarah, the heroine of the story,
practice her play. Owls are associated
with intelligence, wisdom, magic, darkness/evil, deception, and the ability to
traverse worlds. This is almost
universal throughout all world cultures.
In Labyrinth, the owl (as we
soon learn) is to be one of Jareth’s forms.
The owl embodies all of the qualities listed because it is Jareth.
The owl form is how Jareth travels to and from the Underground
to the Aboveground. Aboveground, this is
how Jareth travels, revealing himself only to those to wish someone away.
SARAH
Sarah is a young, naïve girl who is on the verge of growing
up. She is the virgin, the blank slate,
and the dreamer. Virgins are associated
with purity, honor, self-restraint, sacrifice, and value. When we see Sarah she is dressed in white,
pushing us further into accepting that she is playing the young maiden. This is a common theme that is often found in
fantasy stories such as Lily from Legend. She lives in a dream world that other
dreamers often pick up on quickly, this is noted by her reciting lines from a
play called The Labyrinth to her dog,
Merlin.
Merlin is, of course, one of the most popular wizards in all
literature. It’s not long before we
learn that Sarah really likes Arthurian legend, when she reveals that she has a
collection of dolls that all have names of the knights of the round table, in
particular “Lancelot”. This leads one to
ask “Is Sarah a representation of Guinevere?”
Oddly enough, the name Guinevere (French/Cornish/Welsh) translates into
Jennifer (English) and Jennifer Connolly played Sarah.
Before we move forward too much, let’s go back to the park
for a moment. The park is home to five
obelisks that we can see and two swans.
Swans are symbols of beauty, grace, love, light, and purity. The swans are a representation of Sarah,
while Jareth is represented in the park by the owl. Obelisks are an ancient symbol of power,
magic, and knowledge. It’s thought that
the obelisk was created in reference to the sun god Ra, as a solid sun
beam. Obelisks are thought to be rather
phallic and in this case, we could interpret them as potential suitors that
Sarah literally doesn’t notice and gives them absolutely no value – a hint at
her naivety and innocent nature.
The park clocktower chimes 7 o’clock and Sarah hurries
home. The number seven is associated
with creation and is a number that connects humans to the divine. In this scene, the number seven is used to
connect Sarah to Jareth, even without her knowing about it. The number 7 is a very powerful number and is
associated with chakras, the rainbow, sins, virtues, sacraments, and the stages
of alchemy.
STEPMOTHER
Sarah’s stepmother takes the role of a slightly wicked
stepmother and she instantly recognizes this.
In fact, she tells her husband this, though he seems not to really
care. The father is disassociated from
his family on an emotional level. He
“talks to Sarah”, but it’s not even an effort.
He basically just tells her that they’re going out for the night and
they’ll be back later. It’s very
peculiar behavior. If the father was a
card in the tarot deck, he would be Justice (from the major arcane). The Justice card is noted for temperance and
strength. Strangely enough, often times
in fan fiction, the father is given the career of lawyer. The stepmother, if she too were a tarot card,
would be The Wheel of Fortune (from the major arcane). The Wheel of Fortune card symbolizes a
180-degree change. The stepmother is
Toby’s loving mother and Sarah’s evil stepmother. She snaps at Sarah and then is calm around
her husband. She is an adult, yet she is
almost as dramatic as Sarah (a young girl).
When Sarah enters the house, two framed illustrations of
what appears to be the same female frame Sarah and her Stepmother. These two drawings symbolize “the house of
women”, meaning that this fight is typical between women. This also shows us that it’s the women who
rule this household, whether we’re talking about Sarah or her stepmother. After this little skirmish, Sarah runs to her
room.
Sarah’s room is her sanctuary. We understand that she must spend a bit of
time in her room since it is overly filled with various things. Immediately, we are shown a firey doll, a
Ludo doll, a music box with a spinning girl in a white gown, Where The Wild Things Are, Sir Didymus
doll, a wooden labyrinth game, The Wizard
of Oz, various fairy tales, Hoggle bookend, a scrapbook filled with photos
and articles about Sarah’s mother and her mother’s boyfriend, a figurine of
Jareth (near a moon sticker), and Sarah with her trinkets (near a star
sticker). The obvious thing here is that
we’re getting a preview of what is to come.
Jareth, in this scene, is being represented by the
moon. In the tarot, the moon card is
associated with fear, illusions, imagination, and bewilderment. The moon will guide you through the unknown
depths of night. The owl and moon are
associated with each other since the owl hunts at night and can see through the
darkness.
Sarah, in the same scene, is represented by the star. In the tarot, the star card is associated
with hope, generosity, inspiration, and serenity. In the darkest of nights, it’s the stars that
reassure us, that help us navigate.
Sarah’s parents take off for the night and Sarah has to cull
a screaming half brother, Toby. Sarah is
not a big fan of Toby. She’s roughly 13
years older than Toby and has no real place in her life for Toby. The number 13 will play a big role in the
film and I’ll pick up on it in a little bit.
Toby is the replacement for Sarah.
Toby already has had more parental attention in the film than Sarah,
from both parents; on the flip side of this, Sarah is seeking out more
independence throughout the film. Sarah is
trying to figure out her life and herself; Toby is a bit of a nuisance, a
hindrance, to this progressive effort.
Aggravated, Sarah shares the nutshell version of her play with Toby. Sarah doesn’t understand her own words when
she recites “Say your right words...”
Sarah indeed says the “right words”, a wish for the goblins to take Toby
away (right now), and her wish is granted.
We all know to “be careful what you wish for because it may
come true” and, in this case, it’s surprisingly exactly what Sarah wants: a
fairytale story. Goblins silently and
effectively steal Toby away. They may
seem silly in the film, but they are surprisingly awesome at their job. In a flash of lightning and burst of thunder,
the white barn owl from earlier flies to the window, claws at it until it
opens, and transforms (with a little glitter) into Jareth, The Goblin King.
JARETH
Jareth is a beautiful blonde, otherworldly man who rules
over the goblins. He doesn’t seem to be
a goblin and there’s an overwhelming sense that he is not human. The best guess is that he is one of the
Fae. He has wild hair and wild make-up,
his clothes are also a bit wild. When he
first appears, he in clad all in black and looks fairly menacing. There is an immediate sense that he is a
sorcerer because he transforms from owl to man, he knows about the goblins in
the room, conjures up a snake, and does some outlandish juggling with a
crystal. He is also a representation of
the horned shaman. This will be
explained later - during the ballroom scene.
Snakes have been used in symbolic ways all through
history. They represent fear and danger;
they can represent the devil, evil, immortality, temptation, and
medicine/health. For our purposes,
Jareth’s snake is simply fear and danger since it changes into a scarf when
Sarah touches it - a simple scare tactic.
As soon as Jareth realizes that she isn’t scared, he turns
to negotiations. He pulls out a crystal,
dazzles Sarah (and the audience) with some contact juggling, and then offers
Sarah her dreams. This is another
tribute to Jareth being represented by the moon since dreams come at
night. What Jareth neglected to mention
is that sometimes dreams are sour nightmares.
Sarah is tempted by the crystal, but doesn’t take it. Crystal balls are an occult tool for
scrying. Jareth gives her instructions
on this “If you turn it this way, it will show you your dreams.” Does Sarah have the power to see her dreams? Would she really want to?
Sarah tells Jareth that she wants her brother back. It’s not very convincing and Jareth, trying
one more time with Sarah, invites her to the game. He gives her 13 hours to solve the labyrinth
before her baby brother becomes “one of us” forever. By “one of us”, we feel that he means a
goblin, but he could just mean a citizen of the labyrinth/Underground. Changing one’s species seems like a bit of a
challenge. This threat may seem a little
light, but it is cloaked in fairy lore.
The fae are known for stealing/abduction humans. It’s generally thought that, while the fae
are said to be pretty sexual, they have incredible difficulty in reproducing
with each other. Humans can aid them in
conceiving children.
Before Sarah even realizes it, she is whisked away to the
Underground, the labyrinth, this new magical fairy land. Jareth looms beside her, looking like a grim
reaper next to a dead tree with a barren wasteland behind him. He emphasizes the 13 hours by conjuring up a
13 hour clock. 13 is the number of luck,
whether good or bad.
When we look out at the labyrinth, which Sarah says “it
doesn’t look that far”, we can see obelisks outside of the labyrinth
walls. With obelisks being physical
representations of the sun, we can see that the sun remains on the outside of
the labyrinth since the labyrinth is ruled by the moon (Jareth). When we venture into the labyrinth, there are
indeed obelisks in the labyrinth as well.
You wouldn’t be able to see the moon if it wasn’t for the sunlight
reflecting off of it.
Jareth gives Sarah one last chance to go home by telling her
to “turn back before it’s too late”, but it is out of the question. Sarah doesn’t want to turn back, she wants to
go forward, make progress, know the future.
Jareth accepts this without question and fades away. Sarah hurriedly gets started on her journey.
HOGGLE
Hoggle is a man who is not a man (not a human anyway). We assume he is a Dwarf, but in the novel he
is called a Gnome. Regardless, he is a
fae character with four faces. Hoggle,
of course, has his own face, but his vest contains three faces. The first thing that comes to mind, in
regards to four faces, are cherubim (from the Bible). Cherubim are a group of angels who are
usually depicted as being a little chubby and small like infants or
children. In the Bible, look at Ezekiel,
you will find that they have four faces as well. Cherubim are protective deities, guardians of
places, messengers, and were often used to depict storm winds.
When Sarah comes across Hoggle, we find that he is the
guardian of the entrance to the Labyrinth.
Despite this important job, he shows us a bit of humanity by peeing in
the garden pool and taking care of the garden.
He gives Sarah a bit of flack when she wants to get into the
labyrinth. It’s all about saying the
right words – again. As soon as she says
“the right words”, Hoggle helps her out.
Hoggle doesn’t seem like a magical figure, but he definitely
is. He isn’t a sorcerer, but he has some
kind of low-grade magic. The labyrinth
gates appear when he points to where they are – they weren’t there before. Hoggle follows Sarah into the beginning of
the labyrinth, but when he leaves her alone, his power is shown again when he
simply makes a gesture and the labyrinth gates shut on their own. Later on in the film, Hoggle will show us
more of his low-grade magic.
If we take a good look at Hoggle, we find that he wears a
poet shirt, a vest, breeches, shoes, and a skull cap. Did you notice that he also has a strap
across his chest that holds a bunch of stuff?
Let’s talk about Hoggle’s trinkets.
Hoggle has a few pouches, a cornuto hand, a pipe, a canister, a few
keys, and a belt purse. The cornuto
hand, also called a “horned hand”, is often used to represent bull/devil
horns. It’s a charm against the evil eye
and for extra protection. It also has
links to lunar deities since it can be a gesture to represent the crescent
moon. Pouches, canister, purse,
pipe…..ah, the keys. The keys are there
to enforce his role as the gatekeeper and guardian.
DIRECTION
Sarah is presented with two obvious directions, left and
right. She goes to her right. The labyrinth itself has deep, ancient
meaning. Labyrinths were seen as a sign
of power, a trap for evil spirits, and a symbol for a long journey to commune with
gods. In our modern era, Labyrinths are
using in meditation and the journey to reach enlightenment. Many people will think of the Minotaur, the
bull-headed man who was forced to live in a labyrinth by King Minos. The labyrinth, in the film, is magical, wild,
alive, and has strong nature connections.
This is depicted by the constant glitter, the constant changing walls,
the groomed and ungroomed plant life, and insistence of dangers (constant
spider webbing, the Forbidden Forest, and even the Bog of Eternal Stench). One could easily say that this is a metaphor
for life, but I believe it’s more of a metaphor for a stint of personal
growth. These dangers and the beauty is
what Sarah can deal with at this point in her life. The dangers may be greater if she was older,
which is hinted at by the ever-changing nature of the Labyrinth itself.
Sarah begins her journey and instantly has an epiphany – don’t take anything for granted. Throughout the labyrinth, because it is a
labyrinth, Sarah has constant epiphanies throughout the film. Sarah’s next big concept to understand is - things aren’t always what they seem; she
is told this by a little blue worm. In
dream interpretation guides, worms are associated with low self-esteem,
personal issues, and skewed self-image.
The worm is wearing a bright red scarf and scarves are generally
interpreted as being some sort of self-restriction or feeling muffled. At this point in the labyrinth, Sarah has
these associated feelings, but facing these feelings pushes her forward on her
quest. It’s a little obstacle, he’s a
little worm, and as soon as Sarah continues on her quest she becomes more
self-confident. She almost overcomes the
worm as an obstacle, but doesn’t question him when he says “Don’t go that
way!” It’s as if she second guesses
herself, taking the longer route to the castle.
The Labyrinth is a challenge within itself of decision
making. Many people in life have trouble
making decisions that are worthwhile.
After Sarah gains a little extra knowledge from the worm, she finds
herself deep in the stone maze. Stones,
as we know, are strong, hard, and lifeless.
As we can see in the film, the color of the stone nearly looks identical,
allowing us to reason that Sarah is wandering around a sea of tan-neutral. According to a variety of dream symbolism
books and websites, stones generally have two meanings: 1. Some kind of
obstacle and 2. A symbol of instability or a lack of foundation. In this case, this is just a small portion of
the Labyrinth (small obstacle) that happens to all look the same, but once
Sarah passes through this obstacle she will have a better foundation for
everything – her quest, her life, etc.
Sarah passes by a confusing stone post with knotty old man hands
pointing in every direction possible.
Trying to figure out how to get through this confusing
hard-space, she begins marking floor tiles with red lipstick. Red lipstick, since it has been around, has
always seemed to represent female sexuality, while other colors such as pink is
a little more feminine purity (or other meanings depending on color). As Sarah wanders aimlessly through the stone
maze, little angry goblins that Sarah does not notice continue to change her
marks – turning them or making them disappear.
This is a statement that growing
up too quickly, trying to become a sexual female is not always progression, as
it can leave you wandering aimlessly.
As soon as Sarah realizes that she’s been fooled, she continues on just
as she is.
It seems as though Sarah, for the most part, deals with the
path in front of her after the stone maze.
She might ask for help, but she isn’t discouraged when she doesn’t get a
solid answer. Oddly enough, it is Sir
Didymus who seems to know the way to castle (see SIR DIDYMUS).
MAGIC DANCE
It’s no surprise that Jareth sings in this film since he is
some sort of Fae and is also played by David Bowie. In Fae lore, songs can be used for musical
entertainment and for spells. Jareth’s
song is about Sarah, though with baby Toby present one might assume that he is
singing about the literal baby in the room.
The song, while entertaining, seems to keep his goblins in check. For one instant they all seem to be
functioning as a unit instead of the rambunctious idle-handed goblins that the
scene opens on.
The song itself reveals that Jareth has been watching Sarah
for some time and that he wants to help her, but wasn’t sure what to do. He sings that she was “crying hard as babe
could cry” because her “love had gone” leaving her saddened and no one knew how
to make her happy again. Jareth, unable
to figure out a spell that would instantly solve her problem, decides on a
“magic dance” – a prelude to the future ballroom scene. Jareth actually sings “put that baby spell on
me” and “put that magic jump on me” meaning that he is willing to take on
Sarah’s sadness.
This might seem a declaration of love, it truly might be,
but the Fae are known for being intense tricksters. He might feel something for Sarah, but opt to
take whatever pains her leaving her indebted to him.
KNIGHT & KNAVE
It’s almost immediately after Jareth’s song that Sarah runs
into Jim/Tim and Alph/Ralph. Jim and Tim
reveal that they hold no answers to the puzzle that is presented to Sarah. There are two doors behind each
shield-wielding double knight. One way
leads to the castle and the other leads to “certain death”. When Sarah asks Jim and Tim which door leads
where, she is told that they don’t know, but Alph and Ralph know. Alph tells her that she can’t ask both of
them, only one of them. Ralph informs
her that one of them always tells the truth and one of them always lies. Sarah is left to figure out who is the liar.
This logic puzzle is easily solved by figuring out who to
believe. Ralph truthfully tells her that
one of them always tells the truth and one of them always lies. These are the rules of the game. This means that Sarah could actually ask both
Alph and Ralph questions, if she picked up on that. Again, like her moment with the worm, she
misses this small opportunity to have a well-rounded answer. The banter between Alph and Ralph fits firmly
into place if you follow this logic algorithm.
Jim, Tim, Alph, and Ralph are set up to look like living
playing cards. In nearly all esoteric
modalities, cards symbolize “taking a gamble” since you don’t usually know what
is going to be played next or one might try to sway the outcome by holding
cards close to themselves like in poker.
HELPING HANDS & THE OUBLIETTE
As soon as Sarah figures out the Knight & Knave puzzle,
she utters that simple phrase “it’s a piece of cake” and, of course, nothing
ever is. She falls down a pit and is
caught by living hands, the Helping Hands.
Most interpretations of hands will tell you that hands can serve many
purposes: assistance, direction, and holding one back. Hands are also capable of making gestures of
spell protection, spell casting, and curse/hex avoidance. There are other cases of special hand symbols
like the Hamsa hand which features a hand with an all-seeing eye in the
palm. Its general use is for protection,
power, strength, and to avoid the evil eye.
According to popular websites on graveyard symbols, clasped hands means
“farewell to an earthly existence”, Cohanim hands (a gesture seen in some of
the faces made by the helping hands) is reference to the Jewish tribe of Aaron,
and pointing hands usually refer to an ascension or descension from Heaven.
The helping hands talk to Sarah by forming faces out of the
hands. They ask her which way she wants
to go, up or down. Choosing the path
that she is already on, Sarah chooses down.
Oddly enough, the hands laugh at her, as if they have some foresight as
to what lies in both directions.
Sarah is dropped into an oubliette. Hoggle defines oubliette as being “a place to
put people to forget about ‘em”. An
oubliette, historically, is also known as a bottle dungeon since it’s shaped a
bit like a bottle with the only hatch being high up. Before Sarah really has a chance to be good
and scared by the oubliette Hoggle appears and uses a bit of magic to get them
out of the dungeon. This is another
reference to Hoggle’s natural low-grade magic.
He uses a piece of wood to create two doorways! He opens it one way and it’s a closet, the
other way is an entrance/exit from the oubliette. Hoggle leads Sarah to safety, taking her
through an underground passage lined with False Alarms. The False Alarms provide false
directions. Hoggle calls them on this
and they respond that they know what they’re doing and it is just their
job. The False Alarms are giant stone
heads. They are fairly reminiscent of
the Easter Island heads and Polynesian tikis.
Could this be symbolism against “false idols” – false idols will lead
you in the wrong direction? The False
Alarms may also represent the heads of industry. They have been around for a long time, they
want to do their job, they don’t care who they hurt or misdirect, and they have
a flair for the dramatic. Another place
we see “talking heads” is on the news.
Perhaps we should take this as be weary of false news outlets, or check
your facts before believing what is in front of you. Another thought is that Hoggle is a man of
four faces, as stated earlier, so maybe faces/heads are his to exert power
over. He does not cower before the false
alarms, but simply waves them aside as if they are beneath him.
It’s during this time that Hoggle leads Sarah out of the
oubliette and is supposed to be taking her back to the beginning of the
Labyrinth as ordered by Jareth, but he is swayed by Sarah when she offers up
her plastic bracelet. To Hoggle, the
plastic bracelet is a rare item. We have
seen nothing of plastic in the Underground.
When Hoggle leads Sarah from the False Alarms to the underground tunnels,
they run into a begging goblin. In an
instant, the begging goblin is transformed into Jareth - who we can now
understand is a master of disguise.
Jareth is quick to notice the bracelet, Sarah’s object of bribery,
around Hoggle’s wrist. Jareth, as we
know, is able to travel between worlds, so we can understand that he is
probably familiar with plastic items and would never be swayed by anything
so...simple.
Once Jareth pushes Hoggle away, after his grovelling, Jareth
moves in to challenge Sarah. Sarah has
none of it and Jareth delivers the next threat: The Cleaners. The Cleaners is a circular device with
spinning blades that fills the tunnel.
Hoggle runs, Sarah follows, and we can see The Cleaners on a path of
certain destruction. Perhaps those False
Alarms weren’t completely lying.
Hoggle, using his low-grade magic, gets them through another
doorway. As The Cleaners pass, we can
see that it is powered by two armored goblins.
Luckily, there is a ladder and they decide to head upwards.
WISE MAN
Sarah and Hoggle emerge from a giant garden planter. A garden planter, as everyone knows, is where
one would grow plants. The vase is empty
and what “grows” is Sarah and Hoggle.
They have grown together, becoming friends, facing danger with each
other, and helping each other. They
still don’t fully trust one another yet, but they appear to be on a path of
friendship.
Once they climb out of the planter, they find themselves
confronted with the Wise Man and his Hat.
The Wise Man sits on a stone chair that looks like books. He is dressed in rags and looks fairly
unkempt. As soon as Sarah approaches,
the Wise Man gets excited that she’s “a young girl!” Even his Hat, really a bird of some sort, is
excited. This is an obvious play on the
theme of “recapturing youth”. Sarah asks
a few questions and the Wise Man provides vague, mysterious answers that seem
to have possibly inspired the character of The Sphinx from Mystery Men
(1999). Both have formulaic responses
for everything “If you want to go up, you must go down”, “the way forward is
sometimes the way back”, etc. The Hat is
actually a bird of bright colors, quite possibly a phoenix, and is very much a
smart-aleck. If the phoenix burns up and
dies, only to be reborn, is the Wise Man also tied to this fate? We will never know. The Wise Man “falls asleep” even though he
conveniently rattles his begger’s box and Sarah pays him for the advice that
she does not understand.
Sarah and Hoggle continue on their journey, only now they
have broken away from the stone maze and have entered the hedge maze. Hedges are leafy shrubbery that provide
excellent barriers and they can even be shaped into artisticly carved
topiary. Plants and hedges can mean
barriers, but also malleable barriers.
The increase of plants, of wilderness, signifies an increasing unknown.
LUDO
Sarah and Hoggle come upon a large beast hanging by one foot
in a tree with goblins tormenting him with nipper sticks. While we have seen tree branches litering the
ground, this is the first tree within the walls of the Labyrinth that we have
seen. Hoggle takes one look at what is
going on and runs away, leaving Sarah to deal with the situation. Ludo, the beast hanging from the tree, is in
the same position as the hanging man on the twelfth tarot card of the major
arcana. The hanging man of the tarot is
supposed to depict a traitor being hung upside down for his crime, but is
possibly the image of Odin who hung himself from a tree in order to gain
knowledge. Most interpret the card as
meaning the ultimate surrender, sacrifice, a potential gain of knowledge, and a
possible breaker of bad habits. Did Ludo
hang himself from the tree to gain knowledge, but found himself in an
unfortunate situation when the goblins found him OR was he strung up by the
goblins?
As Ludo howls, small rocks roll around, though Sarah doesn’t
notice it. She does eventually see a
rock and throws it at the goblins. The
goblins attack each other in a classic slapstick routine and run off. Sarah manages to calm Ludo and free him from
the tree. It’s actually Ludo who first
declares Sarah his friend. Sarah asks
Ludo if he knows how to get to the castle, but he does not.
THE DOOR KNOCKERS
It’s not long before Sarah and Ludo come across the two door
knockers. One has a ring in his mouth,
the other has one through his ears. For
any Muppet fans, they are similar to Statler and Waldorf. While it can be said that door knockers might
be keepers of the doors, I think there is something else going on; doors being
symbols of wealth, new ideas, and epiphanies.
According to a study on door knockers by the anthropology department at
Brown University, door knockers symbolize “welcome” and hospitality. Could the door knockers be welcoming and
proffering hospitality to loud mouths and to those stubborn enough not to
listen to others?
There wasn’t a trick behind these doors as there was with
the knight and knave doors.
FORBIDDEN FOREST
& THE FIERIES
The Forbidden Forest (that’s the name given to it in the
book) is dark and glittery with very large trees. While the forest seems to operate as any
forest should, it houses the only real violent threat that Sarah comes across –
the fieries. The Fieries make up the
Fire Gang. The Fieries are weird
creatures that have bright patches of fur and bare skin, huge ears, long
fingers, and almost bird-like beaky muzzles.
They appear to have reflective eyes, as a cat has, which indicates that
they have some sort of night vision. The
Fieries are able to set fires, as they demonstrate. They sing, they dance, and at first glance
they seem a bit goofy – until they begin removing their body parts. They seem to think that playing with their
body parts makes for a great time, so why not offer to remove parts of
Sarah? As their song ends, they start to
gang up on Sarah, telling her that they’re going to remove her head or her
ears. Obviously, if the gang had
proceeded to have “fun” with Sarah, she would have ended up injured or dead.
Most people assume that the Fieries represent “the wrong
people” or “the wrong crowd”, but they don’t do anything that the “wrong
people/crowd” do such as drink, smoke, or whatever else. They do manipulate their bodies, but they can
restore themselves. I think they represent
chaos and Sarah avoid this. It’s
important to note that chaos is not synonymous with evil, but it can be. Chaos is simply the opposite of order and
control.
THE PEACH
It’s during Sarah’s time in the Forbidden Forest that she
calls out to Hoggle – who isn’t too far away and hears her. Before he can get to her, Jareth appears and
orders him to give Sarah a peach. It
must be something that Jareth has done before since Hoggle is aware that it’s
probably not an ordinary peach, but an enchanted one. He even states that he “won’t do nothing to
harm her”.
Historically, peaches have had a great deal of symbolism
associated with them. The Chinese have
stories of the peaches of immortality.
Buddhists have included peaches as one of the “three blessed fruits” and
for them it symbolizes longevity. In
ancient Greece, peaches were a symbol for a good marriage and were usually
plentiful during weddings. It is also
associated with good luck, keeping spirits away, the heart, and good health. In fairy lore, eating food of the fairies is
a bad thing for humans. The magical food
is said to forever keep humans in the fairy land or the human could suffer from
madness that leads to death if they return home.
This particular peach induces a dream-like state in which
Sarah becomes transported into one of Jareth’s crystals. (See Ballroom) After the ballroom, when Sarah escapes, the
peach is shown to have a worm crawling out of it. Perhaps this is simply a symbol that the
spell from the peach has ceased. Worms,
though, can symbolize transformation and the body (or one’s self). Perhaps the worm symbolizes that a change has
occurred.
BOG OF ETERNAL STENCH
Sarah and Hoggle get to the Bog of Eternal Stench (or BOES,
as fans call it) after Hoggle rescues Sarah from the Fieries and she rewards
him with a kiss. As most know, kisses
have power. They might awake a sleeping
princess or cure something that only true love’s kiss can cure. While Sarah’s kiss was only meant as a way of
saying “thank you” to Hoggle, Jareth (always watching) is jealous of Hoggle’s
friendship with Sarah and sends them to the BOES. Ludo is already there.
The BOES is a super smelly bog that we can imagine smells
like a fart or bathroom smells or something akin to that. The bog does make fart noises, so it’s a safe
assumption right? Hoggle fills us in
that if you come into contact with the bog water, you will smell bad for the
rest of your life. Hoggle, Ludo, and
Sarah all seem to have problems with the stench of the bog, but as they make
their way through the area it’s not hard to notice the large amount of birds –
blackbirds and vultures.
Is it strange that the best threat Jareth can come up with,
especially to Hoggle, is to throw him in the BOES? It’s not life-threatening, though one would
assume that someone smelly enough would be shunned in society.
The two who seem immune to the smell are none other than Sir
Didymus and his doggy-steed, Ambrosius.
SIR DIDYMUS
Sir Didymus is usually referred to in fanfics as a “fox-dog”
and looks a lot like a humanoid-fox with a white moustache, a patch over his
left eye, a bushy tail, and clothing reminiscent of 16th century
Europe. Ambrosius is a white sheep dog
that looks exactly like Sarah’s dog, Merlin.
Some could say that the dog is one in the same, as Geoffrey of Monmouth
wrote stories of Merlin Ambrosius in his book Historia Regum Britanniae.
Is Merlin/Ambrosius a magical protector for Sarah?
Sir Didymus is a knight.
We gather this by his title “Sir”.
If he lives in the Labyrinth, then he must be a knight for Jareth –
since we have no other nobility presented to us. He is governed with the task of guarding a
footbridge and he proudly states that “no one may cross without his
permission”.
Sir Didymus can be seen as the ace of swords in the tarot
deck. The ace of swords represents raw
power, victory, and cold intellect. He
is often thought of as a Don Quixote type of character since he is goofy and is
apt to dive into a fight when they reach the Goblin City. (See Goblin
City) I believe this is a misunderstood
attribute. Sir Didymus follows the
rules. In a D&D game, his character
would be lawful good – an attribute that can lead to a cold intellect. We can watch him stick to the rules when he
fights with Ludo, only allows bog passage after Sarah asks for his permission,
and at the castle when Sarah tells the group that she has to fight Jareth
alone, it’s the way that it is done.
As soon as Sarah asks for his permission, Sir Didymus and
Ambrosius volunteer to go with them.
Their initial task is finished and Sarah passed with flying colors. Sir Didymus is also very aware of where the
Goblin City and castle are.
BALLROOM
As the group of friends travel along, they get hungry. Hoggle takes the opportunity to give Sarah
the peach once Sir Didymus and Ludo move ahead of them. She takes a bite and quickly realizes that
something is not right with the fruit.
Hoggle runs away ashamed of himself.
Sarah finds herself whisked away to what appears to be a
fancy ballroom. The ball gowns, the
masks, the décor, might all seem fancy, but when you really look at everything
you realize that something isn’t right.
The chandeliers are dripping so much candle wax that a mess is being
made. The guests have been dancing for
who knows how long and some even appear to be drunk and/or horny. How long has this ball been going on?
A crystal ball is an orb, not exactly a ring. Perhaps this is Jareth’s version of a fairy
ring – an ongoing dance that fae folk can partake in. Humans who enter a fairy ring often lose
time, even emerging as an elderly person, though they swear up and down that
they were only gone for a short period of time.
Sarah wanders around, dances with Jareth, and is taunted by the party
go-ers until she is able to remember that she has an important task at hand –
when the clock strikes twelve.
Sarah wears an iridescent white ballgown and spends the
scene with a questioning look. She
represents innocence and naivety. Jareth
is clad in a gem encrusted frock coat of royal blue, the color of heroes. The crowd wears a variety of colors, but there
is one that sticks out: the masked man in a billowing white shirt with a goblin
skull mask and a tricorn hat. While
Jareth is acting very charming and plays a short game of cat and mouse with Sarah,
this masked man appears to be interested in Sarah. Is he another part of Jareth? Who is the masked man? With his skull mask, could he represent
death? Jareth’s mask is red with horns,
very devilish.
If Jareth is representative of Satan or the Devil and the
other man representative of Death, is the ballroom Hell? The dancers display the seven deadly sins in
various ways.
JUNKYARD
As soon as she shatters the crystal ball with a chair, Sarah
falls into the junkyard which is just outside the Goblin City gates. It looks to be exactly that – piles and piles
of junk that you might find at a landfill.
Sarah climbs down from the pile she landed on and meets the Junkyard
Lady, who is walking around with a pile of junk on her back like an exaggerated
bag lady.
Sarah still isn’t right in the head from the peach and the
Junkyard Lady takes advantage of this. The
Junkyard Lady symbolizes holding onto the past, which is fairly obvious. She begins to hand stuff to Sarah until she
shows Sarah a random door in the junk.
The door leads to a replica of Sarah’s room and Sarah isn’t sure if she
is having real experiences or if it’s all a dream. The terror behind the scene is that Sarah is
being buried alive by her own junk. She
has to literally climb out of the junk that has quickly built up.
Luckily for Sarah, Ludo and Sir Didymus are outside to help
pull her free. It’s a short lesson to
learn, but you cannot live in the past unless you want to carry all the burdens
of the past.
GOBLIN CITY
The Goblin City is just past the junkyard. Sleeping goblin soldiers were encountered
outside the outer gate, so there is the feeling that this isn’t an area that is
frequently travelled. The second gate
has automatic closing doors that end up forming a giant robot called
Humongous. He calls out “Who goes?”
repeatedly. He never does get an answer
from the group. Instead the robot swings
a giant axe at them and the defenses go up.
While there really isn’t any esoteric symbolism here, the
lesson that Sarah is supposed to learn is completely ignored. She should have announced herself to
Humongous the robot.
The Goblin City looks like a medieval city, but is also
reminiscent of the city design from The
Cabinet of Dr.Caligari. Streets are narrow,
buildings are made for the goblins, and there are a ton of structures. Sarah and Ludo, the tallest of the group, are
almost like giants. This could represent
that they are both beyond child-size things, or childhood.
It doesn’t take long for the goblin army to be sent
out. There’s the potential for harm, but
it’s almost as if the army is trying to frighten them and wrangle them in a
certain direction. Potentially fake a
losing battle on their behalf. It’s only
made worse when Ludo calls the rocks for extra assistance. Why is it not a true battle? The only things moving around the city are
cats and chickens – the citizens have been moved out. The empty city could represent isolation in
social situations.
CASTLE
We don’t see much of the castle interior. We do see an empty throne room and the Escher
room. There is a severe lack of castle
guards, if anyone is checking. The
Escher room is a random assortment of stairs and doorways that lead all over
the place. Gravity doesn’t work right,
as Jareth and Toby demonstrates. Jareth
sings and appears melancholy throughout the scene. Sarah can’t decide which direction to go and
tries moving in what she interprets as the proper upright direction. We never see her walk on the walls or go
upside-down or anything, though it’s possible since Toby is capable of doing
it. In an effort to change the outcome,
Sarah changes her perspective of thinking and jumps from a ledge.
Whatever jumping into the center of the Escher room
affected, it’s apparent that things have done a 180-degree turn. Instead of a solid room, the room is broken
apart. Instead of Jareth in black and
wine-red, he is in white and grey.
Instead of guessing at what she has to do, Sarah begins reciting the end
of the play she was reading in the beginning of the film.
Jareth tries to entice her with the gift of her dreams and
then makes the offer “fear me, love me, do as I say and I will be your slave”,
but Sarah refuses by ignoring him.
Instead she says “You have no power over me”. The offering of dreams can be interpreted as
being hypercritical over an important life issue and the need for personal
reflection and alternate thinking. This
being said, it is important to realize that dreams have connections to goals,
desires, nightmares, and raw emotions.
AFTERMATH
Sarah immediately finds herself in the family living room
back home. The clock is chiming midnight
and Jareth, as an owl, flies away. Sarah
rushes to check on Toby, who is asleep in his crib. After this, she goes to her room and is
feeling a bit sad that she had to leave the Labyrinth.
Is this a dream state?
Is she really back home? We hear
her parents come home and call out to her to see if she’s home. While most might overlook this as the call of
concerned parents, there is something not quite right. Toby is a baby, just learning to walk, and it
is midnight. Why would Sarah not be
home? Why would parents yell for their
daughter and risk waking the baby? Is it
a type of false awakening (dreaming that you awoke, but are still actually
dreaming)?
Sarah turns to her mirror and is able to have a conversation
with her friends. Mirrors are
classically used for scrying, a similar practice of attaining new knowledge
through a crystal ball. She reveals “I
need you, all of you.” After the
revelation, she turns around to find a menagerie of denizens from the Labyrinth
in her room. We see Jareth, in owl form,
outside her window, watching.
