In Bruno Bettleheim’s The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, I was impressed by the fact that the three pig brothers in the fairy tale of the same name are identified as the three stages of development for a kid to progress from the pleasure principle to the reality principle (Bettleheim, 1991: 43), which conforms to the psychoanalytic perspective. Bettleheim, in his research about fairy tales, points out numerous fairy tales whose narrative features a psychological development of a child during its Oedipal Complex with the characters symbolizing different stages of that development. And since the way Fairy Tale narrative possess the ability to evoke both its audiences conscious and unconscious mind, why not try to look at a film narrative using the theory of psychoanalysis? – I wonder.
As much as the analysis of Bettleheim about fairy tale amaze me with the unconscious notion concealed in fairy tales, The Shawshank Redemption surprises me with all its symbolic characters and details in the film. The film narrates a story of a banker name Andy Dufresne who is charged with murder of his wife and her lover despite the fact that he did not really commit his crime. Thus, Dufresne is thrown in to Shawshank prison, where he meets Red – who later becomes his good friend – and Norton – warden of the Shawshank prison. Red appeals to audiences as an experienced and wise man who knows much about life in prison and is also able to fetch everything from outside the jail for prisoners in exchange of cigarettes. And since the story of the film is narrated through a Voice Over of Red, this character transcend from a core character in the film to a story teller. This reminds many of us of the fairy tale tellers who are usually old and knows a lot about life and society. According to Red, he can even help Dufresne get Rita Hayworth from the outside. In terms of narrative, Red is also a crucial character that leads the audiences in the way they should watch the film as well as helps provide exposition of the information in the film. And since the audiences identifies Red as the teller of the film unconsciously, they would know to place most of their focus on Dufresne who is the real protagonist.
Another noteworthy detail that makes the motif of Shawshank redemption so likened to that of a fairy tale is the symbolic reincarnation of the protagonist after his death. If in The red riding hood, the innocent girl with her red cap, who is also the protagonist, comes back to life after being eaten by the evil wolf to enjoy a better life (Bettleheim, 1991: 182), then in The Shawshank Redemption, it is also the innocent Dufresne who successfully breaks the prison to freedom after being imprisoned for 2 life sentences back-to-back. If it seems obvious that your life will be meaningless if you are serving two times life sentence, then the act of successfully breaking out of the prison to freedom means having another life after escaping hell. Moreover, Dufresne also refers being in prison to coming back to infancy. Thus, when he finally managed to escape from all the restriction of the prison by crawling in a 500-yard tube of shit-smelling foulness, it feels like he is like a baby just churned out of his mom’s tummy through a sticky tube that leads to the vagina.
Last but not least, the difference between the fate of Brook and Red in the same house cannot be ignored. If in Hansel and Gretel, the death of the witch in the gingerbread house is actually the death of the evil mom in the figment of young kids during his development so that the same but more kind and caring reincarnate again (Bettleheim, 1991: 163), it is in The Shawshank Redemption that Brooks stand for the old, immature stage that dies away before the new and more mature one arrives. This new stage is symbolized by the character Red. And if fairy tale, through symbolic events and characters, can unconsciously touches its audiences and inform them of the personality, so can this film do.
The Shawshank Redemption is a totally worth watching film in many regards. One of these regard is associated with the film narrative ingeniously improvised. By using the approach of Bruno Bettleheim to analyze fairy tales to consider the film, the covert meaning of Shawshank Redemption is revealed as clear as ever. This explains for the film’s persisting popularity despite its poor box office performance.
Reference:
Bettleheim, Bruno. 1991. The uses of enchantment: the meaning and importance of fairy tales. London: Penguin
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