Freud And Star Wars

Psychoanalytic Criticism on Featured Film, Star Wars

A Myth-Freudian Criticism

Star Wars is a classic movie written and directed by George Lucas that encompasses a vast array of archetypes and phallic/yonic symbols that yield fascinating "between the lines" interpretations. An analysis of such archetypes reveals a great deal of what the main characters are thinking.

The synopsis of the movie is as such: The story commences with Princess Leia escort ship being boarded by Empire in hope to gain the hidden construction plans of the Death Star that the princess intercepted. Prior to her imprisonment she hid the plans and a note in the memory circuit of R2-D2. Luke Skywalker locates the droid and finds Obi Wan Kenobi. Both Obi Wan Kenobi and Luke recruit Han Solo. Their collective mission is to furnish the plans of the Death Star to the rebel force so they can expose a weakness before the Death Star destroys the planet, Alderan, the princess's hometown. The finale involves a grand celebration in which Luke and Han are being presented with a medal of honor for their heroic efforts in destroying the Empire's weapon of mass destruction, the Death Star.

Archetypes stem from the mind of Carl Jung. Archetypal or the collective unconscious is a pool of universal memories that everyone shares, a network of files. Universal characters with common attributes constitute an archetypical character, such as in Star Wars the heroic character is Luke Skywalker, who is on a quest to search his own history and to save the princess. Luke Skywalker has the common heroic attribute of a special power as Luke finds himself well within the force and the fact that in his hometown planet of Tatooine he excels as a terrific landspeeder pilot at his age. Luke also has received kudos for his marksmanship skills. Princess Leia represents the victim and a martyr as she risks her life by providing the construction plans of the Death Star to rebel forces. Han Solo is quite a character he represents a rotten apple turned do-gooder, throughout the movie his character transgresses from a money-hungry smuggler to a well-hearted hero that helps achieve the goals of the rebels. Chewbacca is a wookie, a furry creature that is Han Solo's first mate on the Millennium Falcon , who represents the hero's best friend (mans' best friend) such as a typical dog, it is weird how we can understand a dog even though he does not speak. Han Solo despite Chewbacca's speech impediment understands him. Regarding Han Solo's space ship, Millennium Falcon it also represents something spectacular that can achieve improbable (regarding its speed) measures, such technology and transportation usually accompanies heroes in movies. Obi Wan Kenobi fit perfectly as the old wise man. Obi Wan Kenobi is of a dying breed, he represent the good side of the force as he is a powerful Jedi Knight who mentors Luke Skywalker and attempts to give him a crash course lesson on the religion. Obi Wan Kenobi is the wise man, who throughout the movie provides us with many quick-witted anecdotes and philosophical statements such as, "who is the fool, the person who is to be the fool or the fool that follows him." The outcast is also portrayed in the film as the Jawas and Tusken Raiders. These are two different species of sand people. The Jawas are short people that go around combing the desert for anything that can be sold. They are not violent people. The Tusken Raiders are violent cliff dwellers that wait to ambush anyone passing to steal and kidnap them and their possessions. They are outcast because they have committed several crimes against humans in the city on planet Tatooine, and because of the Tusken Raiders actions the Jawas too must pay and live off in the desert. The last archetype is the figure of the devil and evil, which Darth Vader and Emperor Palatine both represent. Darth Vader is a member of the siths, which are Jedi Knight that have fallen into the dark side of the force and exploit the powers of the force to perform irrational and egregious acts. Emperor Palatine is the head of this pact and mandates many acts of violence for which Lord Darth Vader must accomplish.

Images such as colors, numbers, and location are forms of archetypes that represent a universal symbol that every human has within his collective unconsciousness. Colors are abundant in movies, (unless they are in black and white) Star Wars excels in the selection of colors that best fits the psychological profile of the character. For example, both Luke Skywalker and Princess Leia are wearing white tunics that represent purity and honesty in their character. Luke Skywalker is a daring hero who is honest and his only concern is for the safe retrieval of the Princess without concern for monetary compensation, as Han Solo does. Princess Leia only concern is for the people of Alderan and the support of the rebellion movement without concern for her own life. Han Solo and the Imperial Storm Troopers are wearing a mainly white with black stripes, indicating a mixed conscious feeling. Han Solo is debating whether it is his benefit to proceed ahead and only does so when he finds out that Leia is royalty, yielding him a great fortune that is Han Solo. Han Solo's shadow revealed through that money hungry side he has built in his unconscious is later repressed as he comes to his senses realizing his wrongdoings. C3-P0 is a humanoid that is in charge of human-droid relations, so it is only fair if he were to be personified with human attributes such as his color, golden. The golden color seems to indicate to things that C3-P0 is rich in his vast array of languages and abilities and the color serves to give the impression of human skin. Darth Vader is wearing a black protective suit with a black cape; this is suggestive of an evil or devil-like character, which is usually represented by this color. Emperor Palatine is wearing a dark black cloak that conceals his face from public view as Darth Vader does with his mask. The whole idea of Darth Vader and Emperor Palatine burying their face is indicative of a persona. The persona that Darth Vader shows to the world is that he is an evil and wicked sith lord that is out to reck havoc on the rebel forces, but lest we forget