Prisoners: Symbolism Done Right

foreign fascinated us for tens of thousands of years from ancient wall drawings to Greek and Roman mythology to Modern film mazes and labyrinths have on some level always strongly resonated with The Human Experience hinting at a symbolical layer deeper than the merely physical experience you get from exploring its corridors which is the reason why I got intrigued by Denise wilner's 2013 film prisoners and how it uses mazes as a symbol and prisoners we never get to see a maze in its physical form in fact the maze is not even really explicitly mentioned at all until

later in the story it looks really amazed at a math guy thing for mazes remaining in the background for the better first half of the film yet its significance should not be understated as Denise Phil Murph himself seems to have somewhat of a mild obsession with these puzzles with characters having to venture through both physical and mental corridors trying not to lose themselves in search of answers answers about family about what's right and what's wrong about life death what connects us through language and about faith in the face of evil villanov's puzzle was one that

focuses on the metaphorical and the psychological symbolism of the maze rather than having it directly manifest itself in its physical form now most western May symbolism seems to be derived from the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur which tells the story of Theseus who needs to find and kill away monstrous beast at the center of a labyrinth using a thread of hair from his lover ariatni to make sure he doesn't get lost along the way now compare that to the story of prisoners which is about the kidnapping of two daughters and how the characters

involved choose to react in order to get them back the main focus here is place on two characters colored over a religious and protective dad who will do anything to keep his family safe and who will ultimately find the monster of his world with the help of a young girl and Loki an ace detective with a troubled background test with the mission to solve the mystery and find the missing kids so on a metaphorical level the Maze and prisoners then seems to Loosely Echo this age-old Greek myth both these men set out on a search

using their own respective belief systems to lead them through the metaphorical Maze of mystery and morality hoping to find the truth at the center and to confront those responsible for the kidnapping a perhaps more strikingly similar connection can be found in Nordic mythology involving a maiden or a princess stuck in the center of a maze again guarded by a monstrous creature of sorts the late Poe with Robert Graves argued that what these various stories have in common is that they share a journey of the main character into both a physical as well as a mental

underworld Keller's search for his daughter might be a physical one but as his faith is challenged and he's forced to front the darker more violent parts of his nature his journey into the Maze of the underworld increasingly becomes a mental one so much so that his goals to protect his family almost ends up destroying it as he neglects his traumatized wife and increasingly regresses back into Old destructive habits and places until he literally descends into his own darkest Place imaginable helpless and unable to save his daughter Loki on the other hand has to unravel the

truth by descending into a more physical hell trying to find order and disorder and literally facing off against the forces of the devil making children disappears The War we wage with God the maze here seems to be a symbol for the chaos that Jones has set up on their victims until they killed him off with the Venom of a snake the archetypal symbol for the devil indeed the archetype of the Maze and prisoners seems to stand for the opposite of paradise or in the words of playwright Eugene UNESCO if goodness is order evil must be

disorder a straight path or the Maze and as if this Insight the vilnov utilized the symbol to explore the Morality In the psychological nature of his characters Keller starts off as an openly devout Christian which is made quite obvious through his usage of prayers the abundance of Christian symbolism surrounding him his metaphorically appropriate job as a carpenter and through the names of his wife and mother moreover Keller was shown to have a proclivity for orderliness and preparedness both traits are consciously Define his character hurry for the best prepare for the worst however as I've shown

Keller's journey is one of increasing amounts of disorder a quest that shakes his faith to its core as he sees himself forced to perform ever-escalating brutalities on the person he suspects holds the key to his daughter are you making me do this it's only at the end of this journey when he's in his darkest place that he finally surrenders and returns to his faith in God detective Loki goes down a decidedly different path of the maze his faith is based in both the Christian as well as the Pagan the eight pointed star tattoo on his

neck referring to such things as Redemption humility strength and compassion his Mason ring representing the search for enlightenment and rationality aligning perfectly with his character and opposing the more emotionally based Keller his odd name in turn comes from the Nordic god Loki a cunning trickster and occasional helper of other gods and even though the ace detective has shown not to be immune to frustration he never truly breaks away from his beliefs which ultimately helped him in finding the missing children and solving the mystery so besides acting as a symbol for the physical and metaphorical journey

into the Underworld the maze also comes to represent a psychological struggle in the human brain Stanley Kubrick showed this in connection with the growing Insanity of Jack Torrance in The Shining but it's also a symbolism that has ample historical grounding both Christian and Pagan faiths around the world have used the symbol of a linear one-way Labyrinth as a meditative pathway towards the center towards God self-individualization and the Tree of Life psychoanalyst Carl Jung recognized labyrinths and similar figures or centers called mandalas as a universally recurring archetype always standing for a transformation wholeness and the totality

of an individual's reality these symbols can appear on the most common of household objects and things like pillows sweaters and picture frames but are also expressed through religion such as the Christian cross and the Tree of Life The Wooden cross as I've shown is already abundantly represented in prisoners but so is a tree of life in fact Vilnius spares no expense focusing his lens on trees making them part of the plot and having his main character interact with its substance trees undeniably take on an important role in the film and it's no coincidence that they

too are connected to the Mandela symbol and by extension the Labyrinth their physical form is also a direct metaphor for the human nervous system and psychological state of our characters their Barren leafless branches aligning with their mood and mental state which brings us back to the maze used by the Joneses now it's important to note that this particular maze is not a simple linear one far from it there's a connection okay connection is it's the last maze in the book I did it it's unsolvable there's no way out their LSD influenced maze process is specifically

designed to mentally block their victims in their journey toward self-individualization it's a form of mind control that can help explain why Alex seems to be stuck in the mind over 10 year old and why Bobby Taylor although physically free is still obsessively trying to find a way out of his own mental health but the maze is not just a tool for the Joneses to imprison children and lure in their parents it also goes to show how some of the characters had been stuck in there all along it's revealed that Keller's dad committed suicide in his

house when Keller himself was still a teen the contrast between his tidy house and his dilapidated Parental Home and Keller's unwillingness to renovate the place like I keep telling your mother it's an old building Fortune to fix it up reveal to us that the death of his father has still not been resolved in his mind kill herselfgrove as a teen has been stunted by this drama and in a way he is as much a prisoner as Alex Jones and Bobby Taylor has repressed feelings of rage and despair are awakened by the kidnapping of his daughter

even Keller's name meaning basement in German speaks to his character his hidden away mental trauma and foreshadows his Destiny perfectly Holly Jones on her turn has been a prisoner of her own respective mace for quite some time after their son died of cancer the once devout Christians lost our faith and decided best to drag as many people into their mental health as possible even detective Loki seems to have struggled with his own maze during his troubled childhood hey you know what I spent six years at Huntington Boys Home Father you know the Huntington boys all

right huh hurting a [ __ ] like you'd be a real treat for me the difference here is that Loki is the only one of these characters who liken the story of Andrea gis's labyrinzo has elevated himself from the mental trap raising his Consciousness in the process it's only fitting that he grows up to be an ace detective tasked with helping and guiding others out of the maze if the Joneses are the Servants of the devil and Trauma Loki is the servant of God and Enlightenment the maze is an incredibly relevant archetypal symbol of The

Human Experience it has been for thousands of years and it continues to do so in our world and in films like prisoners the Niceville Nerf and writer Aaron guzikowski have shown that through adequate perhaps at times instinctive knowledge of his symbol a film can take on equality that has the ability to make us wonder about it long after the credits roll and not just because the symbol fits well with its story but more importantly because it expresses a truth about the human experience that universally resonates with us as human beings and Our Endless struggle and

journey towards a higher self in the words of the late jungian psychoanalyst Edward C Whitman one of the oldest images of The Mystery of Life Death transformation and return is the Labyrinth it depicts the way to the unknown Center the mystery of death and rebirth the risk of the search the danger of losing the way the quests the finding and the ability to return alright guys that's the end of yet another video essay if you enjoy our content consider supporting us on patreon with just a dollar a video in return you'll receive two of these

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