Eurydice In Zimmerman's Metamorphoses
Mal acts in parallel to Eurydice, as both Cobb and an audience perceive her as a live person. However, through the progression of the film, a viewer recognizes Mal as a projection of Cobb’s subconscious. She has died in reality, yet the “unconscious is ignorant of death” (Johnston 39). Mal only follows him in dreams because Cobb, on a subconscious level, has told her to. This intersects with the final moments of Orpheus and Eurydice in Metamorphoses. Zimmerman draws upon Rilke’s poem in order to give agency and a voice to the typically silent Eurydice. Narrator Two states: She was no longer that woman with brown eyes who once had echoed through the poet’s songs, no longer the wide couch’s scent and island, and that man’s property no longer
(46-47).
The woman who walks down the path to the Overworld may physically appear to be Eurydice, but her death has wiped her clean of all previous memories. Orpheus sees the physical embodiment of Eurydice and projects his concept of her onto that image. Similarly, Cobb creates a projection of Mal. He designs a particular concept of “Mal” in his mind, which we see through the physical embodiment in the dreams which Cobb inhabits. Žižek would say that Cobb transforms his trauma into a “traumatic kernel” or a “psychotic projection of meaning into the real itself” (35). His subconscious takes the underlying meaning of the trauma, that Cobb bears sole responsibility of Mal’s death, and places that upon an image of Mal. Her projection compels Cobb to feel guilt and despair each time she appears as it forces him to recall why her image is there in the first place. At the same time, Cobb desires Mal even though her image causes him stress. Yet, he can never ‘attain’ her because she is dead. Žižek implies that the traumatic kernel remains at a distance only through obsessive activity which in and of itself remains a poor response to the trauma (35-36). Mal becomes the object a of Cobb’s desire after the trauma, and because the projection represents Mal it becomes a “hole in the real that sets symbolization into motion (Žižek 135).
(46-47).
The woman who walks down the path to the Overworld may physically appear to be Eurydice, but her death has wiped her clean of all previous memories. Orpheus sees the physical embodiment of Eurydice and projects his concept of her onto that image. Similarly, Cobb creates a projection of Mal. He designs a particular concept of “Mal” in his mind, which we see through the physical embodiment in the dreams which Cobb inhabits. Žižek would say that Cobb transforms his trauma into a “traumatic kernel” or a “psychotic projection of meaning into the real itself” (35). His subconscious takes the underlying meaning of the trauma, that Cobb bears sole responsibility of Mal’s death, and places that upon an image of Mal. Her projection compels Cobb to feel guilt and despair each time she appears as it forces him to recall why her image is there in the first place. At the same time, Cobb desires Mal even though her image causes him stress. Yet, he can never ‘attain’ her because she is dead. Žižek implies that the traumatic kernel remains at a distance only through obsessive activity which in and of itself remains a poor response to the trauma (35-36). Mal becomes the object a of Cobb’s desire after the trauma, and because the projection represents Mal it becomes a “hole in the real that sets symbolization into motion (Žižek 135).