Negotiation of the Abject Through the Representation of the Monstrous-Feminine in Ari Aster’S Midsommar
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NEGOTIATION OF THE ABJECT THROUGH THE REPRESENTATION OF THE MONSTROUS-FEMININE IN ARI ASTER’S MIDSOMMAR
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By KATARINA ANGGITA RACHMAPUTRI Student Number: 174214154
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA YOGYAKARTA 2021
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NEGOTIATION OF THE ABJECT THROUGH THE REPRESENTATION OF THE MONSTROUS-FEMININE IN ARI ASTER’S MIDSOMMAR
AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS
Submitted as a Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Sarjana Sastra in English Letters
By KATARINA ANGGITA RACHMAPUTRI Student Number: 174214154
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERS FACULTY OF LETTERS UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMA YOGYAKARTA 2021
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my deepest gratitude toward my thesis advisor,
Paulus Sarwoto, S.S., M.A., Ph.D., for his patient guidance and understanding during the completion of this thesis, and my thesis co-advisor and examiner, Dr.
Gabriel Fajar Sasmita Aji, S.S., M.Hum. and Sri Mulyani, Ph.D. respectively, for their thorough and insightful feedback. I am also indebted to the other lecturers of the English Letters Department, in particular Elisabeth Oseanita Pukan, S.S., M.A., for their constant care and support during my time in the university.
Finally, this thesis would not have been possible without constant help and support from my family; my friends, in particular Anggi, Aul, Bella, Dea, Deva,
Dimi, Fali, Fira, Galuh, Hestu, Hugo, Ilham, Kak Jo, Lauren, Lieie, Mikha, Nandha,
Nathan, Nia, Ninja, Ocha, Ryan, Sasha, Mbak Shuluh, Mbak Uti, Vanesa, Vinsen,
Vinska; and all the people who have made me feel held and at home. I am incredibly blessed to have them in my life.
Katarina Anggita Rachmaputri
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
TITLE PAGE ...... ii APPROVAL PAGE ...... iii ACCEPTANCE PAGE ...... iv STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY ...... v LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH .. vi ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ...... vii TABLE OF CONTENTS ...... viii LIST OF FIGURES ...... x ABSTRACT ...... xi ABSTRAK ...... xii
CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION ...... 1 A. Background of the Study ...... 1 B. Problem Formulation ...... 3 C. Objectives of the Study ...... 4 D. Definition of Terms ...... 4
CHAPTER II REVIEW OF LITERATURE ...... 6 A. Review of Related Studies ...... 6 B. Review of Related Theories ...... 12 1. Theory of Character and Characterization ...... 12 2. Film-making Techniques ...... 13 a. Shooting Angle ...... 13 b. Lighting ...... 14 c. Color ...... 16 3. Theory of the Monstrous-Feminine ...... 16 a. Bodily Wastes ...... 18 b. Boundary Transgressions ...... 18 c. The Maternal ...... 19 4. Theory of Abjection ...... 19 a. The Semiotic ...... 20 b. The Symbolic ...... 20 c. The Abject ...... 21 C. Theoretical Framework ...... 23
CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY ...... 25 A. Object of the Study ...... 25 B. Approach of the Study ...... 26 C. Method of the Study ...... 29
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CHAPTER IV ANALYSIS ...... 31 A. Characteristics of Dani and the Hårga in Midsommar ...... 31 1. Characteristics of Dani ...... 31 a. Anxious ...... 31 b. Dependent ...... 34 c. Vulnerable ...... 36 2. Characteristics of the Hårga ...... 38 a. Collectivist ...... 38 b. Extremely Conformist ...... 40 c. United with Nature ...... 42 d. Respectful toward Feminine Qualities ...... 45 B. Representation of the Monstrous-Feminine in Midsommar through the Characteristics of Dani Ardor and the Hårga ...... 47 1. Bodily Wastes ...... 48 2. Transgression of Boundaries ...... 50 3. The Maternal ...... 55 C. Negotiation of the Abject in Midsommar ...... 58 1. Dani’s Negotiation of the Abject as a Symbolic Subject ...... 58 2. Tension between the Symbolic and the Semiotic ...... 63 3. Breakdown of the Symbolic ...... 67 4. Patriarchal Construction of the Abject ...... 70
CHAPTER V CONCLUSION ...... 77
REFERENCES ...... 81
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LIST OF FIGURES
No Figure Page
1. Figure 1. The bottle of Ativan prescribed for Dani Ardor 32 2. Figure 2. Dani seeing the image of her sister’s face in the mirror 33 3. Figure 3. Dani’s dead family members in her nightmare 33 4. Figure 4. Dani’s distress in her nightmare 34 5. Figure 5. Dani cries with the Hårga women 36 6. Figure 6. Dani's smile at the end of Midsommar 37 7. Figure 7. The people of Hårga dressed in similar attire 39 8. Figure 8. Dani being crowned as May Queen 42 9. Figure 9. Ylva’s destroyed face upon impact 43 10. Figure 10. Dan’s destroyed face 43 11. Figure 11. Cremation of Ylva’s and Dan’s corpses 43 12. Figure 12. Tapestry portraying the Hårga love spell 45 13. Figure 13. Hårga men and women tending to the vegetable garden 46 14. Figure 14. Hårga men and women preparing a meal 46 15. Figure 15. Christian running away from the ritual 53 16. Figure 16. Dani crying in Christian’s lap 62 17. Figure 17. Aerial shot of the circuitous pathway to Hårga 63 18. Figure 18. The entrance to Hårga 63 19. Figure 19. Ylva and Dani staring into each other’s eyes 64 20. Figure 20. Ylva and Dani staring into each other’s eyes 64 21. Figure 21. Josh’s difficulty understanding the Affects language 66 22. Figure 22. Inga (center), with the red phallic symbol on her dress 68 23. Figure 23. The entrance of the temple into the fertility ritual 69 24. Figure 24. Change in shooting angle (Midsommar, 2019, 27:32) 72 25. Figure 25. Change in shooting angle (Midsommar, 2019, 27:52) 72 26. Figure 26. Banner signaling Dani’s group’s arrival in Hälsingland 73 27. Figure 27. Dani’s floral dress in front of the burning temple 74
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ABSTRACT
RACHMAPUTRI, KATARINA ANGGITA. (2021). Negotiation of the Abject through the Representation of the Monstrous-Feminine in Ari Aster’s Midsommar. Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
The monstrous-feminine is the portrayal of female monsters in horror literature produced within patriarchal cultures. According to Creed (1993) and Kristeva (1982), feminine qualities are seen as abject, or threatening the stability of the patriarchal Symbolic order, the world of speaking language and culture, thus causing a return to the repressed maternal dependence. The monstrous-feminine is the focal point of various horror literary works, including the film Midsommar (2019). The film is about a grieving young woman named Dani Ardor, who visits an isolated Swedish commune called Hårga, along with her emotionally abusive boyfriend Christian and his friends. The commune’s support enables her to leave Christian, who is made a human sacrifice for the Hårga’s midsummer ritual. Dani resolves the tension with the monstrous-feminine by joining the Hårga, symbolizing the collapse of the Symbolic order.
This study has three objectives. Firstly, to find the characteristics of Dani and the Hårga in Midsommar. Secondly, to find how the monstrous-feminine is represented through those characteristics. Thirdly, to find how the representation of the monstrous-feminine shows the negotiation of the abject in Midsommar.
The study uses the psychoanalytic feminist approach. Primary data from the Midsommar script and film were analyzed. To address the first objective, theory of characterization and theory of film-making techniques are used. Creed’s theory of the monstrous-feminine is then used to find how the monstrous-feminine is represented in Midsommar. Finally, the aforementioned theories and Kristeva’s theory of abjection are applied to find how the negotiation of the abject is shown.
It was found that Dani’s joining the Hårga shows the return to the symbolic. The characteristics of Dani are anxious, dependent, and vulnerable, while the Hårga is collectivist, extremely conformist, united with nature, and respectful toward feminine qualities. These characteristics reveal the three traits of the abject monstrous-feminine, namely bodily wastes, transgression of boundaries, and the maternal. This representation of the monstrous-feminine through Dani and the Hårga shows the negotiation of the abject through Dani’s interaction with the Symbolic, represented by her boyfriend Christian and his friends, and the Semiotic, represented by the Hårga. The negotiation is resolved in the breakdown of the Symbolic order through Dani’s integration with the Hårga and Christian’s death.
Keywords: abjection, horror film, monstrous feminine, psychoanalytic feminism
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ABSTRAK
RACHMAPUTRI, KATARINA ANGGITA. (2021). Negotiation of the Abject through the Representation of the Monstrous-Feminine in Ari Aster’s Midsommar. Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas Sanata Dharma.
Monstrous-feminine adalah perwujudan monster perempuan dalam karya sastra horror dalam kultur patriarkal. Menurut Creed (1993) dan Kristeva (1982), sifat feminin dipandang sebagai abject (hina), atau mengancam stabilitas tatanan bahasa dan budaya Simbolik yang patriarkal sehingga individual kembali ke ketergantungan kepada ibu. Monstrous-feminine adalah titik fokus berbagai karya sastra horor, termasuk film Midsommar (2019) yang mengisahkan wanita muda bernama Dani Ardor yang mengunjungi sebuah komunitas Swedia terisolasi bernama Hårga bersama kekasihnya yang kasar, Christian, dan teman-temannya. Dukungan komunitas tersebut memungkinkan Dani untuk meninggalkan Christian yang menjadi pengorbanan manusia untuk ritual pertengahan musim panas Hårga. Dani menyelesaikan tekanan dengan monstrous-feminine dengan bergabung bersama Hårga, menyimbolkan runtuhnya tatanan Simbolik.
Penelitian ini memiliki tiga tujuan. Yang pertama adalah menemukan karakteristik Dani dan Hårga dalam Midsommar. Kedua adalah menemukan bagaimana monstrous-feminine direpresentasikan melalui karakteristik Dani dan Hårga. Yang terakhir adalah menemukan bagaimana representasi monstrous- feminine menunjukkan negosiasi kehinaan dalam Midsommar.
Penelitian ini menggunakan pendekatan feminisme psikoanalisis. Data utama yang dikumpulkan dari naskah dan film Midsommar dianalisis. Untuk mencapai tujuan pertama, teori karakterisasi dan teori teknik pembuatan film digunakan. Teori monstrous-feminine Creed digunakan untuk menemukan bagaimana monstrous-feminine direpresentasikan dalam Midsommar. Selanjutnya, teori-teori tersebut dan teori kehinaan Kristeva diterapkan untuk menemukan bagaimana negosiasi kehinaan ditunjukkan dalam film tersebut.
Karakteristik Dani adalah cemas, bergantung pada orang lain, dan rapuh, sedangkan Hårga memiliki karakteristik kolektivis, sangat konformis, bersatu dengan alam, dan menghargai sifat feminin. Karakteristik-karakteristik tersebut menunjukkan tiga aspek monstrous-feminine, yaitu kotoran tubuh, pelanggaran batas, dan sifat keibuan. Representasi ini menunjukkan negosiasi kehinaan melalui interaksi Dani dengan ranah Simbolik, yang diwakili oleh Christian dan teman- temannya, dan ranah Semiotik, yang diwakili oleh Hårga. Negosiasi berakhir dengan kehancuran ranah Simbolik melalui integrasi Dani dengan Hårga dan kematian Christian.
Keywords: abjection, horror film, monstrous feminine, psychoanalytic feminism
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CHAPTER I
INTRODUCTION
A. Background of the Study
Since the 1980s, horror literature has attracted increasing attention from scholars. Western horror literature in particular have been studied through a psychoanalytic approach, based on Freud’s notion that the horror genre express repressed anxieties (Cavell, 1987, p. 10). These fears are frequently presented in the form of monsters.
The word monster is derived from the Latin word monstrum that has two meanings: “abnormal or supernatural in appearance” and “wonder” (Merriam-
Webster, 1991, p. 310). Monsters are creatures that terrify because of their abnormal appearance or character, but they also arouse wonder because they transgress the boundaries of proper social norms: the boundary between the human and the inhuman; between normal and supernatural; between what is acceptable and what is taboo. In horror literature, the defeat of the monster symbolizes the defeat of repressed fears of transgressing the boundaries of norms.
Cultures within patriarchal societies frequently depict women as monsters in literature, such as Medusa from Greek mythology and Eve, the first woman according to the Bible. Creed (1986, p. 1) coined the term monstrous-feminine for this. The abject monstrous-feminine evokes horror through her transgression of stereotypes associated with traditional gender roles assigned to women. Her feminine traits and appearance are exaggerated and portrayed as abnormal. Medusa
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had snakes as hair and a gaze that turned men into stone; Eve succumbed to Satan’s temptation, causing her to unleash evil into the world (Tyson, 2006, p. 92). The monstrous-feminine is an abject, or something that both threatens and attracts
(Kristeva, 1982, cited in Creed, 1993, p. 1-2).
According to Creed, the monstrous-feminine is an abject because she
“crosses or threatens to cross the border” (Creed, 1993, p. 3). The role of the monstrous-feminine is to represent the negotiation between the Symbolic Order, the civilized world of culture, and the primal world of the abject, which threatens its stability. The monstrous-feminine symbolizes the border between good and evil, normal and supernatural, culture and nature. When the boundary is crossed, the protagonist must defeat her so as to restore the stability of the Symbolic. As an abject, the monstrous-feminine is seen as repulsive and destructive, yet her monstrosity also evokes wonder and attracts her victims. This dual nature is the focal point of various literary works of the horror genre, including horror films.
A recent example of the abject monstrous-feminine is found in Aster’s psychological horror film Midsommar (2019). Midsommar is about a young
American woman named Dani Ardor who has an emotionally abusive boyfriend named Christian. In a visit with Christian and his friends to the Swedish commune of Hårga, Dani is crowned the May Queen of the midsommar (“midsummer” in
Swedish) celebration and welcomed into the community. In the end, Christian is made a human sacrifice by the Hårga by Dani’s order as May Queen.
According to the writer and director of Midsommar, Ari Aster, the film is an allegory of break-up. Christian’s death and Dani’s entrance into the Hårga are
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symbolic of ending an unhealthy relationship and finding a more empathetic support system (Aster, 2019, quoted in Ransome, 2019). Likewise, several reviewers posited that the Hårga’s status as the villain of the film is ambiguous as the community shows the empathy Dani needs but Christian cannot provide; some also propounded that Midsommar shows women empowerment, as the heroine finds support among Hårga women to leave her boyfriend (Brody, 2019; Rao, 2019;
Willmore, 2019).
However, this study argues that rather than women empowerment,
Midsommar ultimately panders to the patriarchal representation of the Hårga as an abject monstrous-feminine figure. Using the psychoanalytic feminist approach, this research examines how the Hårga represents the abject monstrous-feminine in
Midsommar film and script. The benefit of this research is to contribute to the growth of horror literature.
B. Problem Formulation
Based on the background of the study, the study aims to address the following problems:
1. What are the characteristics of Dani and the Hårga as depicted in
Midsommar?
2. How is the monstrous-feminine represented through the characteristics of
Dani and the Hårga in Midsommar?
3. How does the representation of the monstrous-feminine show the
negotiation of the abject in Midsommar?
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C. Objectives of the Study
This research has two objectives. The first objective is to find how the monstrous-feminine is represented in Midsommar. The second objective is to find how the monstrous-feminine show the negotiation of the abject in Midsommar.
D. Definition of Terms
In order to avoid misunderstanding, it is necessary to provide the definitions of some important terms that are used in the study.
The first term is the abject. The abject is what threatens the integrity of the subject in a patriarchal society (Kristeva, 1982, cited in Creed, 1993, p. 11-12).
Abjection is a part of psychosexual development whereby the infant rejects its dependence on the mother and everything related to the maternal so as to become a proper and complete subject in the patriarchal realm of civilized society. However, the subject retains an unconscious fascination with the abject and continues to be both attracted and disgusted by it. This continual fascination has to be negotiated to prevent the individual from returning to maternal dependence.
The second term is monstrous-feminine. Creed (1986, p. 1) defines the monstrous-feminine as the patriarchal representation of female monsters.
Patriarchal discourses frequently portray women as monstrous figures through their sexual and reproductive functions. Creed builds upon Freud’s notion that the female genital arouses the male castration anxiety, arguing that the monstrous-feminine is the castrator that represents men’s fear of being castrated. The monstrous-feminine represents the subject’s unconscious anxiety about the abject. In horror films, the abject is negotiated through the characters’ defeat or triumph over the monstrous-
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feminine figure, which is symbolic of the breakdown or the restoration of the integrity of the subject respectively.
The third term is negotiation. Negotiation refers to the processes through which an individual attempts to assert and reaches an agreement regarding their desired self-image (Goffman, 1959, p. 111). In the context of abjection, an individual undergoes negotiation to assert and secure their position as a subject in the Symbolic order and repress the abject (Kristeva, 1982, p. 17).
The last terms are represent and representation. To represent is “to present or describe somebody or something in a particular way” (Evison & Cowie, 2010).
Thus, representation is a particular description of a person or an object. In literature, representation is the verbal formation produced by ideological and cultural constructs to “reproduce, confirm, and propagate the complex power structures of domination and subordination which characterize a given society” where the literary work is produced (Abrams & Harpham, 2012, p. 210).
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CHAPTER II
REVIEW OF LITERATURE
This chapter is divided into three parts. The first part, review of related studies, identifies the similarities and differences between this research and related studies. The second part, review of related theories, explains the theories used in this research. Lastly, the theoretical framework describes how the approach and theories are used in analyzing the data.
A. Review of Related Studies
This research examines the representation of the monstrous-feminine in
Midsommar. Therefore, the researcher includes three other studies conducted by other researchers that apply the theory of the monstrous-feminine on horror films, so as to further validate and enhance the findings in order to answer the problem formulation and draw a conclusion.
The first related study is a journal article by Spadoni entitled Midsommar:
Thing Theory (2020). The study analyzes the application of film-making techniques in the portrayal of the Hårga to create the horror in Midsommar. The study found that the film utilized shooting angle, lighting, and colors to blur the boundaries between dead objects and living beings. For instance, the use of bright colors, constant natural light, and fusing elements of nature such as blood and flowers into the Hårga rituals “flatten the playing field between persons and objects” (Spadoni,
2020, p. 718), thus creating “a form of dead-aliveness” in “a happy, bucolic place
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… that is so elemental it is otherworldly … not Sweden but the Other in all its nightmarish inscrutability and menace” (p. 723).
Although this study focuses on cinematography, the blurring of the boundary between living subjects and objects and between reality and fantasy created by the cinematography is similar to the notion of the abject monstrous- feminine. The monstrous-feminine is also an Other that transgresses borders. In analyzing the representation of the monstrous-feminine and the negotiation of the abject in Midsommar, the researcher also uses the theory of cinematography. Thus,
Spadoni’s study on the film is deemed a relevant study for this thesis.
The second related study is a 2018 journal article by Chusna and Mahmudah entitled Female Monsters: Figuring Female Transgression in Jennifer’s Body
(2009) and The Witch (2015). Using the psychoanalytic feminist approach, this study examines how the monstrous-feminine is depicted in two horror films,
Jennifer’s Body and The Witch. Kristeva’s theory of abjection (1982) and Creed’s theory of the monstrous-feminine (1993) are used to analyze how the characterization and narrative aspects of the two films represent abjection and the monstrous-feminine.
The study finds that the monstrous-feminine is depicted through the use of monstrous images and the acts of the main characters of each film (Chusna &
Mahmudah, 2018, p. 11-14). In Jennifer’s Body, a beautiful young woman named
Jennifer performs monstrous acts such as expelling body waste and murdering and devouring her male schoolmates. In The Witch, Thomasin, the adolescent daughter
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of a devout Christian family, makes a contract with the devil. Both characters are sexualized by the patriarchal, male-dominated society they live in.
The study concludes that the main characters in the two films are abject because they transgress patriarchal boundaries (Chusna & Mahmudah, 2018, p. 15).
In using their sexual bodies to negotiate their role in the Symbolic realm of patriarchal society, they also threaten the stability of identity and religiosity and are transformed from subjects to “abject” as they simultaneously exist within the boundary of the patriarchal order and beyond it.
[t]he monsters in both horror films use their sexual body to threaten the stability of identity and religiosity; the monsters also exhibit fluidity between these borders—be they in the boundary or beyond. (Chusna & Mahmudah, 2018, p. 16).
Both the study and this research use the feminist approach to analyze horror films, using Creed’s theory of the monstrous-feminine as the main theory and
Kristeva’s theory of abjection as a supporting theory. This study also analyzes the negotiation of the abject by female monstrous characters. Nonetheless, there are several differences between the related study and this research. Firstly, the characters analyzed in the research are individuals, while this research analyzes the characteristics of a group of people. However, though the Hårga is a community, it encourages groupthink and highly discourages individuality (Aster, 2019, p. 50).
Hence, it could be treated as an individual entity which embodies the monstrous- feminine. Therefore, Creed’s theory is still applicable.
The second related study is a journal article by Wee (2011) entitled
Patriarchy and the Horror of the Monstrous Feminine. This study compares the
Japanese movie Ringu (1998) and its American remake, The Ring (2002), in
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particular the plot divergence between the two versions and the cultural, social, and ideological differences that shape the Eastern and Western views of monstrous- femininity and women’s societal roles in the two films. Both depict violent monstrous-feminine figures that reflect a misogynist patriarchal perspective of women who fail to conform to gender roles (Wee, 2011, p. 152). However, the
Japanese original shows a more ambiguous portrayal of the key monstrous- feminine figure, Sadako. Her monstrosity emerges to defend her mother against her father’s humiliation and failure to provide for his family. Sadako’s monstrosity is considered an acceptable response against men “in positions of authority who have failed to act appropriately” according to gender roles prescribed by Confucian values (p. 154). Thus, Sadako may be interpreted as “a potential figure of resistance against conservative patriarchy” (p. 151).
In contrast, the American remake shows the “tradition of conjoining monstrosity, death, motherhood and the feminine” in Western horror literature
(Wee, 2011, p. 151). The female characters of The Ring are constructed as
“irrational, unnatural and destructive (female) forces” from the start of the film (p.
159). In contrast, the male characters are “rational individuals who place their faith in science”. Reason, logic, and science is commonly aligned with the masculine in
Western patriarchal cultures, while women are said to be dominated by emotions
(p. 160). That the male characters of The Ring are haunted and/or killed by monstrous feminine figures represents “a reality in which evil exists and takes a female form that must be feared and repudiated” (p. 163). Thus, while Ringu and
The Ring are both products of patriarchal societies, there are distinctions between
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the patriarchal perspectives of Confucian and Western societies, as well as the ways in which the beliefs are perpetuated and exercised. Wee concluded that
there are noteworthy distinctions that characterize each culture’s patriarchal perspective, as well as the ways in which these patriarchal beliefs are indexed, endorsed and practiced (Wee, 2011, p. 163).
Both Wee’s research and this research use the psychoanalytic feminist approach to examine the way monstrous-feminine figures negotiate their role in patriarchal societies. Furthermore, Midsommar’s male characters are also rational individuals with a scientific inclination, while the feminine figures are portrayed as emotional and monstrous.
The difference between the two studies is that this study only focuses on the
Western patriarchal view of the monstrous-feminine because the main characters are Americans, rather than comparing between two cultures. Furthermore, Wee focuses on the cultural differences rather than the abject characteristic of the monstrous-feminine figures in Ringu and The Ring. In contrast, this research applies
Kristeva’s theory of abjection to analyze how the monstrous-feminine is represented and how this representation shows the negotiation of the abject.
The third study is a master’s thesis by Nicholson, titled The Horrific
“Mother/Monster” and the Spaces Between in Ridley Scott’s Alien and James
Cameron’s Aliens (2014). The study examines the portrayal of monstrous- femininity in two films, Alien (1979) and Aliens (1986).
According to Nicholson, the villainous Alien Mother in the two films is an example of the face of the monstrous-feminine that Creed calls the archaic mother, a maternal figure who “conceives all by herself, the original parent, the godhead of
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fertility and the origin of procreation. She is outside the morality and the law”
(Creed, 1993, p. 27, quoted in Nicholson, 2011, p. 5). Likewise, the Alien Mother does not need a male to conceive her monstrous offspring. Rather, it forcefully implants its embryo into a male character in Alien, Kane, who later dies when the alien offspring bursts from his body. The rape, impregnation, and death of Kane shows the male fear of female power, especially that of childbirth, which perverts the feminine ability to give birth into a monstrous maternal figure that consumes what it creates and expels it as garbage.
The depiction of the Alien Mother as an archaic mother is also shown through the film-making techniques (Nicholson, 2011, p. 10-14). Initially in Alien, the mostly male crew stay safely in “within the technological enclosure of the
Nostromo”, which is in stark contrast with the threatening deadly exterior of the outer space (Torry, 1994, p. 345, cited in Nicholson, 2011, p. 12). From a phallogocentric perspective, the space is feminine, with its unknown depths signifying how female bodies are “prone to disease because they are too open to the world; they are liable to infect, because their interiors can flow out onto others”
(Csiscery-Ronay, 2002, pp. 86-87, cited in Nicholson, 2011, p. 12). However, the danger is brought inside after Kane, implanted with the alien embryo, returns to the spaceship. The integrity of male body is feminized and violated with the rape of
Kane, which occurs after
Kane leaves the safety of the “paternal/male” company to the changeable, unpredictable “feminine” wilds of space, thus embodying the ultimate phallocentric horror of rape and male birth (Nicholson, 2011, p. 13).
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Likewise, the spaceship The Derelict in Aliens is shown to have a dark and most interior space, much like that of a womb (Nicholson, 2011, p. 12). This monstrous-feminine space is where the crewmembers face the aliens, reflecting the fear of an archaic mother that swallows and destroys life. Conversely, the triumph of the protagonists of Alien and Aliens over the aliens negates the abject, thus representing the restoration of the Symbolic order.
While Alien and Aliens are science fiction films, a similar approach could be applied to this research. This research also studies the representation of the monstrous-feminine and the negotiation of abjection.
B. Review of Related Theories
1. Theory of Character and Characterization
Characters are the most human element in a film. According to Petrie and
Boggs (2008, p. 49), characters must be realistic, relatable, and reflect human nature. There are eight methods of characterization in films, namely appearance, dialogue, external actions, internal actions, reaction of other characters, contrast through dramatic foils, caricature and leitmotif, and choice of name (pp. 50-53).
The first five are pertinent to the object of the study.
The first relevant method is appearance. A major aspect of film characterization is exposed through appearance or the immediate visual impression the audience forms of the characters based on the actors’ facial features, dress, physique, mannerisms, and gestures (Petrie & Boggs, 2008, p. 50). Dialogue is what the characters say and how they say it. Word choice, stress, pitch, and pause in their speech can reveal their true thoughts, feelings, and attitudes. Vocabulary, sentence
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structure, and dialects reveal their thought process and social, economic, and educational background (p. 50). Furthermore, since appearances are often misleading, external actions might be a better indicator of a character’s true nature.
It must be assumed that characters’ actions are in line with their overall personality.
Some actions are more important in showing characterization than others. The inner dimension of “action” is also often crucial in truly understanding a character. Inner action happens in characters’ thoughts and emotions, and consists of secrets, thoughts, memories, aspirations, and fantasies. It is usually shown through visual elements such as shots or montages (pp. 51-52). Lastly, characterization may be shown through other characters’ reactions to a character’s actions (p. 52).
2. Film-making Techniques
Cinematic language consists of film-making techniques, or “the process of capturing moving images on a film or a digital storage device” (Barsam &
Monahan, 2010, p. 226). They enable the audience to interpret the message of the film through its visual elements. This research focuses on the elements of shooting angle, lighting, and color to analyze their effects in relation to the portrayal of the
Hårga in Midsommar. a. Shooting Angle
The shooting angle is “the level and height of the camera in relation to the subject being photographed” (Barsam & Monahan, 2010, p. 242). It is a framing element that is used to focus on certain parts of the film. There are several common film-making techniques on shooting angle, including close-up shot, extreme long shot, dolly shot, aerial shot, zoom, and eye-level shot. Close-up shot is to capture
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the emotion of a character by generally focusing on the face, the head, or other body parts such as the eye or the mouth to “provide an exclusive view of the character's emotion or state of mind” (p. 252). Conversely, an extreme long shot or establishing shot is taken from a great distance, thus focusing on the subject’s “relationship to the surrounding” (p. 251). Dolly shot or tracking shot is used to show a moving object or surrounding (p. 267), while aerial shot shows a bird’s-eye view of a scene as if the audience is omniscient (p. 264). In contrast, the zoom technique magnifies an object to create a dramatic effect (pp. 268-269). Lastly, eye-level shot is “made from the observer’s eye level” and “implies that the camera’s attitude toward the subject being photographed is neutral” (p. 259). b. Lighting
The next element is lighting. Film lighting creates a “sense of cinematic space” by enhancing the texture, depth, and mood in a scene. This is done through its three major properties, namely its source, quality, direction, and style (Barsam
& Monahan, 2010, pp. 218-219).
Light sources can be natural and artificial (Barsam & Monahan, 2010, pp.
219-220). Artificial sources of light are called instruments. There are two basic kinds of light instruments, namely focusable spotlights and floodlights. Focusable spotlights produce hard or mirror-like light which has distinct shadows. On the other hand, floodlights produce soft, diffuse, almost shadowless light.
Light quality refers to whether the light is hard or soft (Barsam & Monahan,
2010, p. 220). Hard light shines directly on the subject, creating sharp details and a high contrast between illumination and shadow. It is generally used in serious or
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tragic scenes. In contrast, soft light hits the subject from various directions, creating soft details and low contrast. Typically, it is employed in romantic stories.
The next element is direction. Light can hit a subject from the front, side, back, below, above, or any direction. Direction also refers to the angle at which the light is thrown. Frontal lighting creates a flat effect, while side lighting enhances texture. Lighting from behind can cast an illusion of separation between the subject and the background. Additionally, lighting from below may result in an eerie or ominous effect, while lighting from above emphasizes the subject’s appearance, creating a threatening mood. The angle also contributes to creating contrasts and shadows which set the mood of a scene (Barsam & Monahan, 2010, pp. 220-223).
One of the most frequently used style of lighting directions is the three-point system (Barsam & Monahan, 2010, pp. 220-224). It is used to throw glamorous light on film characters. This system uses three sources of light, namely backlight, key light, and fill light. The key light, also known as the main or source light, is the primary source of lighting. Key light creates hard shadows. On the other hand, the fill light is placed at the opposite side of the camera from the key light. It functions to adjust the depth of the shadows cast by the key light. The balance between the key and fill lights, and therefore that between illumination and shadow, is called the lighting ratio. When little or no fill light is utilized, there is a high contrast between the illumination and the deep shadow. This is known as low-key lighting and creates a gloomy mood. In contrast, high-key lighting, where equal intensity of fill and key lights are used, creates low contrast between illumination and shadow. The last source of light in the three-point lighting system is the backlight. It is the least
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essential, but it is used to highlight the edges of the subject to separate it from the background and enhance its depth. c. Color
The last relevant film-making technique is the use of colors. The audience’s responses to colors “are not purely visual responses; they are also psychological or even physiological” (Petrie & Boggs, 2008, p. 196).
Colors have several functions in films. Firstly, they attract attention. A saturated or high-intensity color is “so unadulterated and strong that it is as pure as it can be” (Petrie & Boggs, 2008, p. 196). A color that has lowered intensity is said to be desaturated or muted. Objects with saturated colors are placed against a contrasting or muted background to capture attention (p. 200). Secondly, colors may create an illusion of three-dimensionality (p. 201). Colors such as red, orange, and yellow are advancing colors. Objects with advancing colors in high intensity appear larger and closer to the camera than they are. On the other hand, receding colors such as pale blue or green make objects look smaller and farther from the camera. Lastly, color schemes or certain combinations of colors create “predictable and consistent visual effects” (p. 204). Many directors incorporate a certain type of color harmony in cinematography, production design, and costumes to create a certain desired mood.
3. Theory of the Monstrous-Feminine
The monstrous-feminine is “what is it about women that is shocking, terrifying, horrific, abject” (Creed, 1993, p. 1). Creed argues that unlike male monstrous subjects, feminine-coded monsters in literature are informed by their
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gender and subsequently influenced by societal notions of gender roles. In the horror genre, the female body is frequently exaggerated and portrayed as grotesque to disturb and fascinate the audience.
The notion of the monstrous-feminine is related to Freud’s position that “no human male being is spared the fright of castration at the sight of the female genital”
(1953-1966, p. 154, cited in Creed, 1993, p. 3-4). Freud argues that the absence of phallus means women’s genitals are castrated, thus representing an incomplete man. The female body’s incompleteness is thus seen as a threat against the male body, and this unconscious fear is translated into societal gender norms. However,
Creed asserts that this anxiety arises because women actively terrify as castrators instead. In her argument, she cites widespread myths around the world about the vagina dentata, a toothed vagina that castrates men who penetrate it. Women’s sexuality is complete in itself, but its difference from that of men renders it unable to be completely controlled by patriarchy. This difference is seen as both threatening and fascinating.
Creed argues that horror films feature exaggerations of the female body and reproductive function to emphasize the connection between the maternal and the abject (1993, p. 7). The abject is what deems as threatening to the identity of the self as a member of the patriarchal realm of society, known as the Symbolic order
(Kristeva, 1982, cited in Creed, 1993, p. 11-12). It is rooted in the self’s repressed unconscious desire to reunite with the mother while also fearing the loss of identity that it entails, resulting in the female body being seen as threatening in a patriarchal society (p. 49). Therefore, the figuration of the monstrous-feminine is rooted in the
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threat that the female body poses. For the wholeness of one’s identity, as well as the Symbolic, to be restored, the monstrous-feminine has to be defeated by the protagonist, thus banishing the abject.
There are three aspects that identify the monstrous-feminine: bodily wastes, boundary transgressions, and the maternal (Creed, 1993, pp. 10-13). These aspects were based on Kristeva’s theory of abjection. a. Bodily Wastes
Firstly, monstrous-feminine figures in films are often depicted with imageries of bodily wastes such as blood, feces, breast milk, and dead bodies.
Bodily wastes are abject because they are unclean and they show the human body’s debt to nature (pp. 10-11). The ultimate abjection is the corpse, as it encroaches the boundary between life and death and reminds the self of its materiality. b. Boundary Transgressions
The second aspect is boundary transgressions (Creed, 1993, pp. 11-12). In the patriarchal symbolic realm of society, boundaries are clearly defined by social structures. The monstrous-feminine crosses borders, such as that between socially acceptable and unacceptable gender expression and sexuality; natural and supernatural; human and non-human; and the clean and the deformed body. For instance, Medusa from Greek mythology violates the border between human and monster as well as that between the natural and supernatural with her snake hair and petrifying gaze.
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c. The Maternal
The final aspect is the maternal, as feminine monstrosity is almost always represented through the reproductive function (Creed, 1993, pp. 13-14). Maternal figures are frequently portrayed as a monster as she can threaten the wholeness of identity by making the infant forever dependent on her. Furthermore, the female body itself threatens the boundary between society and what it considers taboo.
Women are able to menstruate, give birth, and lactate. Not only that, but the mother plays an important role in toilet-training, which again is closely related to bodily waste such as urine and feces.
4. Theory of Abjection
According to Kristeva (1982), there are two modes in the signifying process, namely the Semiotic and the Symbolic. The Semiotic is the extra-verbal way through which affects and bodily energy manifest in language, such as articulation and emotional delivery (p. 27). The Semiotic may be expressed through a speaking language. However, the syntactic rules of language are not applicable to it. On the other hand, the Symbolic is a mode of signifying that relies on language as a system of signs. It is subject to grammar and syntax, and it aims to express meaning verbally and directly.
Thus, the Semiotic realm could be seen as a way of expression that stems from the unconscious, while the Symbolic is a conscious way of expression through language. As speaking subjects, individuals primarily use the symbolic mode of expression to state an expression. However, this symbolic position can be destabilized by semiotic drives (Kristeva, 1982, p. 27). The destabilization of this
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symbolic position happens in a process called abjection. Kristeva’s models of the
Semiotic, the Symbolic, and abjection are explained in the following parts. a. The Semiotic
The Semiotic is the way emotions and instincts are involved in extra-verbal utterances. An example is when an infant expresses itself through babbles, imitating its parents’ rhythm of speech. Kristeva (1982, pp. 17-19) posited that the semiotic mode of expression originated from the semiotic chora, the realm of the individual self that is formed from physical drives and natural desires. The semiotic chora is related to Freud’s pre-oedipal stage and Lacan’s pre-mirror stage. In the semiotic chora, the infant has not yet understood that it is separate from its mother and its surroundings. Because at this stage human beings operate by instincts, it is closely associated with nature.
The infant then experiences thetic break when it begins to realize that it is a self or a subject separate from others (objects) (Kristeva, 1982, p. 21). The thetic break is similar to entrance into Lacan’s mirror stage. After the infant recognizes itself as an individual being in its mirror image, it starts developing a sense of identity separate from its mother. The infant adopts language to identify itself and the world it lives in, and it enters the Symbolic as a speaking subject. b. The Symbolic
The Symbolic realm is the domain of articulate language that differentiates between the signified and the signifier (Kristeva, 1982, cited in Creed, 1993, p. 11).
It is associated with civilization, culture, and social structures, which are built upon
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language. After an infant recognizes itself as a separate being, it becomes a speaking subject and adopts verbal language to identify itself and the world around it.
Lacan (2006, p. 12) proposed the concept of the phallus as a signifier of the
Symbolic order or the social world of culture and linguistic communication.
Language is patriarchal as it privileges the masculine in the construction of meaning and social relations. To enter the Symbolic, the civilized world which values patriarchal law and structure, the body has to be complete, clean, and proper
(Kristeva, 1982, cited in Creed, 1993, p. 11-12).
Upon adopting verbal language, the language separates the self from the
Semiotic as the infant develops its identity as a member of the Symbolic realm
(Kristeva, 1982, cited in Creed, 1993, p. 11-12). This process of separating and suppressing semiotic significations is called abjection, which is explained in the next part. c. The Abject
Abjection is the reaction triggered by disgust due to the threat of a breakdown in meaning caused by the loss of the distinction between subject and object, or between the self and the other (Kristeva, 1982, p. 3-4). When an individual undergoes the process of abjection, they reject the things that threaten the integrity of the self, so that the self can be a whole and proper subject.
Abjection starts with an infant severing its tie with its mother. To enter the
Symbolic, the civilized world which values patriarchal law and structure, the body has to be complete, clean, and proper (1982, cited in Creed, 1993, p. 11-12).
Previously one with the mother, the infant starts becoming its own subject after
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experiencing thetic break (Kristeva, 1982, p. 21). After recognizing itself as a separate being, the infant adopts verbal language to identify itself and the world around it. The adoption of the symbolic mode of signification represses the
Semiotic as the infant develops its identity as a member of the Symbolic realm.
This process of separating and suppressing semiotic significations is called abjection. By making the Semiotic abject, the individual rejects what threatens their integrity as a whole and proper symbolic subject. Abjection starts when the infant rejects and represses the maternal and all that it entails to enter the patriarchal world of the Symbolic. Any threat in the breakdown of symbolic meaning triggers a feeling of disgust, so as to prevent the destabilization of the individual’s position in the symbolic realm and the loss of distinction between the self and the other.
However, the abject is located between the subject, which is a part of the self, and the object, which exists independently of the self. According to Kristeva
(1982, p. 17), the subject continues to go back and forth between the Semiotic and the Symbolic, even after entering the latter. Semiotic modes of signification continues to express itself in communication, such as through emotional drives.
Bodily waste, another signifier of the Semiotic due to its link to the maternal, is a part of the human body. In particular, women are close to the abject because of their sexual and reproductive differences from men. They are able to lactate, give birth, and take the role of the mother.
Therefore, the abject remains a part of the subject that cannot be completely rejected. Similarly, the subject sustains an unconscious fascination with the abject.
However, the abject threatens the boundary between the self and the other. When
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the subject confronts the abject, he both fears and identifies with it; the abject
“beckons to [the subject] and ends up engulfing him” (Kristeva, 1982, p. 4) if the stability of the Symbolic is not returned. This anxiety can be resolved through
“poetic catharsis” with literature, which allows the subject to safely reckon with the repressed desire to return to the abject maternal (p. 15).
C. Theoretical Framework
To find how the monstrous-feminine is represented in Midsommar, the theories of characterization and film-making techniques are used in this research to identify the characteristics of Dani Ardor and the Hårga, which are then further analyzed using Creed’s theory of the monstrous-feminine. The Hårga as a whole is treated as a single entity, given that the community has no concept of personal ownership and encourages extreme hive-mindedness (Aster, 2019, p. 50). The previous theories as well as Kristeva’s theory of abjection are then applied to examine how the negotiation of abjection is represented in Midsommar.
Creed’s and Kristeva’s theories are suitable for analyzing a horror movie to reveal the underlying patriarchal anxieties that it reflects. Kristeva propounded that the speaking subject retains a continual fascination with the abject due to constantly oscillating between the Semiotic and the Symbolic, which can be resolved through
“poetic catharsis” with literature, which allows the subject to safely reckon with the repressed desire to return to the abject maternal (1982, p. 15). Expanding on this concept, Creed proposed that representations of the monstrous-feminine in popular fiction, including horror films, enable “a more accurate picture of the fears and fantasies that dominate our cultural imaginary” (1993, p. 166). In horror films such
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as Midsommar, feminine qualities are portrayed as monstrous through characterization and film-making techniques. This coding of the feminine as monstrous is an attempt to re-enact and repress the desire to return to the abject maternal, which threatens the Symbolic order. With the defeat of the monstrous figure in the hands of the horror protagonist, the maternal desire is subdued and the stability of the Symbolic order is restored. As a result, the horror film “unveils the origins of patriarchy” in the maternal desire that threatens the subject’s integrity (p.
164). On this account, the analysis of the monstrous-feminine and abjection in
Midsommar presented in this research contributes to the growing scholarship of psychoanalytic feminist studies of horror films.
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CHAPTER III
METHODOLOGY
This chapter is divided into three parts. The first part explains the object of the study. The second part describes the approach of the study. Lastly, the third part contains the theoretical framework of the study.
A. Object of the Study
Midsommar is a 2019 psychological horror film directed and written by Ari
Aster (“Midsommar (2019) - IMDb”, n.d.). It is about a young woman named Dani
Ardor. Dani’s sister, who has bipolar disorder, murders their parents and then commits suicide. Dani’s sole remaining source of emotional support is Christian, her emotionally distant boyfriend.
Christian’s friend, fellow anthropology student Pelle, invites him and their friends Mark and Josh to Hårga, the small, isolated Swedish commune where he grows up for a special midsommar ritual that is only held every 90 years. The trip was spurred by Josh’s interest in studying European midsummer traditions. Dani confronts Christian for not telling her, but he lies that he wanted to surprise her with an invitation to join the trip. As a result, Dani joins the group of men.
In Hårga, Dani and Christian grow more distant as she becomes increasingly involved in village activities and is crowned their May Queen. She slowly recovers from her grief with the help of the Hårga. Later, it is revealed that the ritual requires nine sacrifices. Four are outsiders, and four are Hårga. As the May Queen, Dani has the right to choose the last sacrifice, either a Hårga or Christian, the last outsider.
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The film ends with the burning of the sacrifices. Dani is overwhelmed by the situation but slowly breaks into a smile, indicating that she has found her new family in the Hårga and let go of her grief.
Midsommar receives a score of 83% in the aggregated review website
Rotten Tomatoes and generally favourable reviews (“Midsommar (2019) - Rotten
Tomatoes”, n.d.). It has also received 55 nominations in various awards and won
25 of them (“Midsommar (2019) - IMDb”, n.d.). Based on the cultural value of the film, the researcher deems Midsommar a worthy medium to explore the portrayal of feminine monstrosity in contemporary horror films.
Some critics view Midsommar as a women empowerment film, as Dani is able to break away from her abusive boyfriend with the acceptance of the matriarchal Hårga society, especially the women (Brody, 2019; Rao, 2019;
Willmore, 2019). However, this research argues while superficially Midsommar appears to depict women in an empowered light, the portrayal has underlying patriarchal anxieties about the feminine.
B. Approach of the Study
To answer the problem formulation of this research, the researcher uses psychoanalytic feminist approach, which combines feminist and psychoanalytic approaches. Feminism is an ideology that examines the historical and cultural subordination of women in order to expose the prejudices resulting from patriarchal premises. The aim of feminism is to eradicate sexism and achieve universal equality between men and women (Humm, 1992, p. 1). Feminist literary criticism applies feminism and its principles to critique the language of literature and examine how
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power imbalances between men and women in a given culture are reflected in or challenged by literary works (Guerin, 1999, p. 196). On the other hand, psychoanalytic literary criticism proposes that literary works contain imagined fulfillment of wishes that are repressed in the unconscious realm because they are either denied by reality or made taboo by social standards of morality (Abrams &
Harpham, 2012, p. 290).
As a combination of the aforementioned approaches, psychoanalytic feminism posits that the cause of men’s needs to dominate women and women’s subordination lies in the unconscious realm. This branch of feminism is concerned with the ways through which gender is constructed, as well as the social and political factors that sustain patriarchy (Wolff, 2007, p. 1). The concept of masculinity and femininity in the unconscious mind is “reinforced by the continual repetition or reiteration of relational dynamics” formed through childhood experience, family relations, and linguistic patterns (Zakin, 2011).
The oppression is also integrated into society, thus creating and perpetuating patriarchy, a system of society that privileges men (Tyson, 2006, p. 122). Men hold the power while women are seen as inferior and relegated to domestic duties.
Patriarchy positions men as the default, the Subject, and therefore women are
Othered. By studying the psyche and the cultural influences shaping women’s multiple roles in society, a societal change could be achieved to eliminate the oppression of women (Wolff, 2007, p. 5).
A large part of psychoanalytic feminism is aligned with the works of French feminists such as Kristeva, on whom Lacan’s works on psychoanalysis have been
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a prominent influence (Zakin, 2011). Such feminists challenge phallogocentrism, a patriarchal way of thinking in which the construction of meaning is centered on the masculine (Felman, 1975, p. 3).
The term phallogocentrism is a portmanteau of phallocentrism, a worldview that privileges the masculine point of view (Ruthven, 1990, p. 54), and logocentrism, the Western metaphysics tradition that focuses on language in the construction of meaning (Josephson-Storm, 2017, p. 221). In Lacanian psychoanalysis, the phallus or the masculine is a signifier of the Symbolic order or the social world of culture and linguistic communication (Lacan, 2006, p. 12).
Language is patriarchal because it privileges the masculine in the construction of meaning (logos) and social relations. Once a child understands language and accepts the rules of the patriarchal society, it is able to deal with interpersonal relationships and navigate social relations based on norms.
Psychoanalytic feminist criticism challenges patriarchal constructions of gender and sexuality that oppress women, which are encoded in language.
According to Kristeva, every individual constantly oscillates between the Semiotic and the Symbolic modes of language (1982, p. 15). The Semiotic, which is coded as feminine, is related to the instinctive, non-verbal modes of communication when the individual is still dependent on the mother, which is repressed once an individual understands speaking language, the Symbolic mode of communication that prevails in the social world of culture. However, the tension between the Symbolic and the
Semiotic, which threatens the stability of the former, can be resolved through
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literature, which allows an individual to fulfil their repressed desire to return to the maternal realm of the Semiotic without threatening their position in the Symbolic.
The psychoanalytic feminist approach is suitable for this research because it examines the representation of the monstrous-feminine in Midsommar. The monstrous-feminine is defined by Creed as the portrayal of the feminine as hideous and terrifying in the horror genre (Creed, 1986, p. 1). The monstrous-feminine has its roots in patriarchal anxieties about the breakdown of the Symbolic. Therefore, to analyze the monstrous-feminine in Midsommar, the psychoanalytic feminist approach is a suitable approach.
C. Method of the Study
The researcher uses the library research method. The primary sources of this research are the 2019 film Midsommar and its screenplay, directed and written by
Aster respectively. Interviews with the crew involved with the making of the film are also used. The secondary sources are books and studies that are related to the theories of character and characterization, psychoanalytic feminist approach, and the monstrous-feminine. Some of the most important sources are The Art of
Watching Films (Petrie & Boggs, 2008); Looking at Movies (Barsam & Monahan,
2015); The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis (Creed, 1993), and Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection (Kristeva, 1982).
The researcher carried out the following steps. Firstly, primary data collected from Midsommar script and film were classified, arranged, and analyzed in order to answer the problem formulation. To address the first research question, the theories of characterization and film-making techniques and Creed’s theory of
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the monstrous-feminine are used in order to find how the monstrous-feminine is represented in Midsommar. Next, to address the second research question, the previous theories and Kristeva’s theory of abjection are applied to find how the representation of the monstrous-feminine shows the negotiation of abjection.
Finally, the researcher concluded the findings of the study.
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CHAPTER IV
ANALYSIS
This chapter consists of two parts. The first part answers the first research question by analyzing the characteristics of the theory of characterization (Petrie &
Boggs, 2008) and theory of film-making techniques (Barsam & Monahan, 2010).
The second part examines how the monstrous-feminine is represented in
Midsommar through the theory of the monstrous-feminine (Creed, 1993). The last part addresses the second research question to find how the representation of the monstrous-feminine shows the negotiation of the abject in Midsommar using the theory of abjection (Kristeva, 1982).
A. Characteristics of Dani and the Hårga in Midsommar
1. Characteristics of Dani
By applying the theory of characterization and theory of film-making techniques, it is found that Dani Ardor, the main character of Midsommar, has three main characteristics. She is anxious, dependent, and vulnerable. a. Anxious
Dani’s characteristics are mostly informed by her anxiety and trauma. She suffers from anxiety disorder due to the stress of being her sister’s caregiver and
Christian’s indifference toward her. This is shown through dialogue, the characters’ actions, and film-making techniques.
Dani’s anxiety is rooted in the difficulties she faces in caring for her mentally ill sister. At the start of the film, Dani’s sister Terri, who has bipolar
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disorder, sends her a message that indicates that makes Dani worried that Terri is fighting with their parents and she becomes suicidal again. From the call between
Christian and Dani below, it is clear that the incident is not the first suicidal behavior that Terri shows toward her parents, which explains why Dani has to look after her.
Furthermore, Christian’s response shows that he does not care about Dani’s situation, even blaming her for her sister’s behavior.
DANI. I’ve now sent her three emails and still no response... I’m starting to get a little nervous. CHRISTIAN (V.O.). She does this every other day, Dani. And only because you let her. DANI. Well, I don’t LET her. She’s bipolar. … And even you admit this last email was different... CHRISTIAN (V.O.). Okay, but is it, though? It’s still another clear ploy for attention - just like every other panic attack she’s given you. (Aster, 2018, p. 6)
It is possible that the stress of taking care of Terri is what causes Dani’s anxiety disorder, which is shown through her action of taking Ativan, a medication prescribed for the illness (APA, 2015, p. 611).
Figure 1. The bottle of Ativan prescribed for Dani Ardor
After sending the message, Terri murders their parents and then commits suicide, which traumatizes Dani. As a result, Dani’s anxiety disorder is exacerbated by her preoccupation with grief. Her anxiety attacks are triggered by reminders of her family. For instance, during a panic attack after Christian’s friend Mark
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mentions the word “family”, she hallucinates her dead sister (Figure 2). Dani’s internal actions are portrayed through her hallucination. Furthermore, the use of saturated advancing colors and contrast through hard light show the intensity of
Dani’s psychological distress and blurs the border between her physical reality and hallucination (Barsam & Monahan, 2010, p. 220; Petrie & Boggs, 2008, p. 196).
Figure 2. Dani seeing the image of her sister’s face in the mirror
Not only that, watching two elders die in the Hårga suicide ritual or
Ättestupa triggers Dani’s anxiety. She is reminded of her family members’ corpses, which subsequently emerges in a nightmare. In the nightmare, she watches in horror as her parents and sister take the place of the dead elders’ corpse in the Ättestupa
(Figure 3), but her scream is repressed and turned into smoke (Figure 4). This shows that her trauma is repressed and shows up in her dreams.
Thus, it can be concluded that Dani is a severely anxious individual due to the trauma she acquires from her family life and relationship.
Figure 3. Dani’s dead family members in her nightmare
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Figure 4. Dani’s distress in her nightmare b. Dependent
Dani’s trauma makes her unable to be reliant on other people for emotional support, which is evident in her interactions with Christian and his friends, as well as their actions. She stays with Christian because he is her only emotional support, although he and his friends disparage her.
MARK. That’s not her (Dani) again? Seriously? [Christian lets the call go.] That’s ridiculous, dude. She needs a therapist. CHRISTIAN. She has one. MARK. So she should call him! That’s insane, dude. She’s using you. (Aster, 2018, p. 6)
Evidently, Mark, Christian’s friend, sees Dani as a burden for needing emotional support. He thinks that Dani is “using” Christian despite the fact that she is mourning over a family tragedy. Likewise, Christian is indifferent, as he ignores
Dani’s call.
Christian’s indifference is further shown when he does not tell Dani that he is going on a two-week trip to Sweden during which her birthday would happen
(Aster, 2018, p. 40), until she finds out from his friends.
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DANI. ... I’m just trying to understand. CHRISTIAN. And I tried apologizing. DANI. I don’t need an apology. I just wanna talk about it. [Pause.] CHRISTIAN. I think I should just probably go home. [Dani looks helpless.] DANI. I’m not trying to attack you. CHRISTIAN. Well, it feels like that. DANI. Well...I’m sorry! I am sorry. … I’m going through all this stuff and I’ve been dealing with all this panic and I just - overreacted. I’m not trying to put pressure or accuse you of anything. I just got crazy for a second. CHRISTIAN. It’s okay. I’m sorry, too. It’s okay. [Beat.] ... I was gonna ask you to come with me. [Pause. Dani looks at him. He looks very tense.] DANI. To Sweden? [Christian nods a stiff “yes.”] You don’t want me to. CHRISTIAN. I just asked you. DANI. After I broke down crying! CHRISTIAN. Well...you ruined the surprise. [Dani searches Christian’s eyes. They aren’t especially warm.] I wanted it to be romantic. (Aster, 2018, p. 11-12)
When Dani asks Christian why he does not tell her, he makes her feel guilty by saying that he “feels like” she is “trying to attack” him, even though she is rightfully upset that he does not tell her about an important trip. Although Dani is not on the wrong, she still submits to his demands and apologizes for
“overreact[ing]” and “[getting] crazy”. In the end, he half-heartedly offers her to join the trip. While Dani knows that he does not actually want her to come with him and only says so to make her feel bad, she accepts his invitation in an attempt to amend their relationship.
From the above description, it is evident that Dani is dependent on Christian because of her traumatic experience. She does not have anyone left but Christian.
Thus, she stays with him and goes on a trip that she does not want to join, because she relies on him for emotional support.
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However, Dani’s dependence is later directed toward the Hårga rather than
Christian after she sees him and Maja having a sexual intercourse in the fertility ritual. A shocked Dani then experiences a panic attack. She is overcome by the grief she has been holding back from the death of her family and the end of her relationship with Christian. As she cries, young Hårga women hold her, mirror her anguish, and cry with her (Figure 15). At this moment, she is completely dependent on the women.
[Finally, Dani BREAKS DOWN into tears. Everything she’s bottled up, all the emotions that she’s labored to stifle - it all comes BURSTING out. She falls into deep, anguished SOBS. Still locked onto Dani’s gaze, Hanna also breaks down. She SOBS DEEPLY along with Dani. They are sympathetically connected. It’s remarkable, and very unsettling. The surrounding women have also started CRYING, although not as intensely as Hanna, who has absolutely fixed herself to Dani. The crying is infectious, and the deeper they go, the greater the outpour. It has become a circle of hysterical, weeping women. They moan and scream and cry. It’s positively TRIBAL.] (Aster, 2018, p. 107)
Figure 5. Dani cries with the Hårga women c. Vulnerable
Dani’s dependent nature makes her vulnerable. As previously mentioned, she goes along with Christian to Hårga in order to appease him. There, she is easily influenced by the commune members once she takes part in their activities. She trusts them enough to participate in their Maypole Dance ritual, and she even wins
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it and become the May Queen (Aster, 2018, p. 96). Eventually, this results in her joining the Hårga and turning against Christian.
Dani becomes dependent on the Hårga after she sees that Christian has cheated on her, and she is comforted by young Hårga women. Her vulnerability makes her easily influenced by the commune and shifts her dependence from
Christian to them. After that, Dani in her position as the May Queen chooses him to be the final sacrifice for the midsummer ritual. She is shown to smile in the final scene of Midsommar as she watches Christian and the other sacrifices are burned in the temple (Figure 6).
In the final scene, her appearance emphasizes her relief after ending her relationship with him. At first, she is uncomfortable with watching people die
(Figures 3 and 4). However, she has been influenced by the Hårga women and she now finds relief in Christian’s death as she has found new emotional support among the Hårga. Once she finds a more stable source of support, she becomes easily influenced to turn against Christian due to her vulnerable mental state.
Figure 6. Dani's smile at the end of Midsommar
Dani’s choice indicates that the solidarity shown by the Hårga women’s action is what convinces her to leave Christian. Her decision that her relationship is
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over and turn against him, whom she is initially dependent on, shows that she is easily influenced by the Hårga.
2. Characteristics of the Hårga
By applying the theory of characterization and theory of film-making techniques, it is found that the Hårga people have four main characteristics, namely collectivist, extremely conformist, united with nature, and respectful toward feminine qualities. a. Collectivist
The Hårga is a collectivist commune with no concept of personal possessions. Everything has to be shared equally with the other members of the commune, from material goods to experience and feelings. There is a large emphasis on the community rather than the individual:
PELLE. I had a family - here - where everyone embraced me and swept me up and … I was raised by a community that doesn’t bicker over what is theirs and what is not theirs. (Aster, 2018, p. 77)
The Hårga people live in communal houses inhabited by people of the same age group. (Aster, 2018, p. 44). As a self-sustaining commune, each member has his or her own role to contribute to the livelihood of the Hårga. Children belong to and are raised by the entire commune as a whole with no concept of personal possessions.
KARIN. The babies are raised here by everyone. (Aster, 2018, p. 43)
The people are also dressed uniformly, as seen in Figure 8, with the sole distinctive element being the unique embroidery of an individual’s personal rune.
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Hence, the concept of prioritizing community over the individual is inculcated from an early age, as evident in Pelle’s dialogue.
Figure 7. The people of Hårga dressed in similar attire
The Hårga’s collectivism also extends to emotions. They have a runic language called Affekts, which is based on a set of emotions that they call Affekts, or Affects in English (Aster, 2018, p. 83). Consequently, the Hårga place a strong emphasis on empathy. Emotions are shared by the members of the commune. When a Hårga experiences pain or agony, others will imitate the expression to share the suffering. This is evident in their rituals. For instance, when Ulf, a Hårga who is also sacrificed for the midsummer ritual, screams as his body burns, the other members of the commune share his pain and imitate his scream.
[Ulf is suddenly consumed by flames. He SCREAMS! … Ulf’s screams are heard from the Sacred House. Suddenly, every member of the Hårgan community (who is not singing) begins to SCREAM as well. Feeling Ulf’s pain, they emit a horrible chorus of wails.] (Aster, 2018, p. 114)
Having been integrated into the Hårga, Dani receives the same treatment from the commune when she cries over Christian (Figure 5). In contrast, the Hårga do not share Christian’s pain when he is burned at the end of the film (Aster, 2018, p. 114). It follows that the sharing of emotions is exclusive to the commune.
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b. Extremely Conformist
The Hårga’s collectivism has largely erased the concept of self, thus breeding extreme conformity. The community is very tight-knit because it enforces uniformity to an extreme degree. This conformity stems from how the way of life of the Hårga is controlled by the elders, who make decisions on behalf of the commune and monitor their religious practices. Each person is assigned by the elders a specific rune that corresponds with their role in the commune (Aster, 2018, p. 90). Their continuity is also contingent on the elders, as they decide who is eligible to procreate with the commune members to continue the line of the Hårga
(p. 96).
SIV. You have been approved to mate with [Maja]. CHRISTIAN. We haven’t even spoken. (pause) I have someone here with me. I’m with Dani. SIV. Dani will not know. I am not proposing marriage. You wouldn’t be approved for that. CHRISTIAN. So… you’re asking me to what? SIV. I’m asking you if you care to mate with Maja. It is a one-night offer. CHRISTIAN. …She’s very beautiful. SIV. She is very beautiful. (Aster, 2018, p. 96)
From the dialogue, it can be seen that the elders make important decisions on behalf of the commune, controlling the people and ensuring that everyone conforms to their decisions.
Another way through which the Hårga enforces conformity is through the use of hallucinogenic substances. Pelle’s friend Ingemar offers magic mushrooms and hallucinogenic tea to Dani and his friends upon their arrival at Hårga to acclimatize them to the midsummer celebration (Aster, 2018, p. 10). This scene implies that it is a regular custom to welcome guests. Before rituals, the Hårga also
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drink “spring water with special properties” which is prepared to “[break] down
[their] defenses and [open them] for the influence” (p. 97). It could be assumed that the spring water also contains hallucinogens that break down the boundary between physical reality and ecstasy, making those who take it more susceptible to surrender to the midsummer rites. In this way, it is easier to ensure that everyone complies with the rules and rituals of the commune.
Because of the extreme conformity, anyone who fails to comply with the
Hårga’s beliefs is severely punished. They have very little regard for the foreign guests, all of whom become human sacrifices for the midsummer ritual:
SIV. Thus, for every newblood [foreigner] sacrificed, we will dedicate one of our own. That is: four newbloods, four Hårgans, and one to be chosen by our Queen. (Aster, 2018, p. 111) The only exception is Dani, who is accepted by the people because she actively participates in the Hårga’s customs. One of them is the Maypole Dance, which is an important ritual where the agrarian Hårga crown a May Queen to bless their crops. After Dani wins the Maypole Dance, she is crowned the May Queen and honored by the Hårga (Figure 8). It is clear that she has been accepted by the commune as she is allowed to partake in an important ritual. This further highlights the extreme importance of conformity in the commune. Extreme conformity is enforced and rewarded, while anyone who fails to conform to the rules of the commune is severely punished.
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Figure 8. Dani being crowned as May Queen c. United with Nature
The way of life of the Hårga is aligned in harmony with nature. This is evident in their observation of two rituals, namely Ättestupa and the fertility ritual.
Firstly, the Hårga have an important ritual called Ättestupa. It is built upon their belief that their life cycle is based on the four seasons.
PELLE. We think of life like the seasons. You are a child until 18, and that’s the Spring. At some point we all do our Pilgrimage, and that’s between 18 and 36. That is Summer. Then, from 36 to 54, you’re of working age, which is Fall. And finally from 54 to 72, you become a mentor. (Aster, 2018, p. 44)
Because of the conformity to this season-based life cycle, the Hårga see death as a natural part of life. When a Hårga is 72 years old, it is accepted that the person’s life must end. During the midsummer celebration, he or she commits ritual suicide by jumping off a cliff in front of the entire community. The ritual, called
Ättestupa, is witnessed by the entire commune and the foreign guests (Aster, 2018, p. 56-59). In the film, Dani witnesses a woman called Ylva and a man called Dan jump off a cliff to their deaths, having reached the age of 72.
As the Hårga’s body hits the jagged rocks below, the face is destroyed upon impact, as what happens to the Ylva (Figure 9). On the other hand, Dan breaks his leg upon falling but does not die (Aster, 2018, p. 53). Another elder then orders
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three Hårga young people to deliver a cudgel on Dan’s head, destroying his face and killing him (Figure 10). After the ritual, the corpses are then cremated (Figure
11) and then the ash is scattered at the Rotvälta or the ancestral tree, fulfilling the theme of death as a way to give back to nature (Aster, 2018, p. 71).
Figure 9. Ylva’s destroyed face upon impact
Figure 10. Dan’s destroyed face
Figure 11. Cremation of Ylva’s and Dan’s corpses
The use of bright colors, which usually are used to show morality and goodness (Barsam & Monahan, 2010, p. 88), show that the ritual suicide is sacred and important. Suicide is considered horrific and taboo by the foreigners, but the
Hårga view it as a celebration to be cherished. They believe that, because death is
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inevitable, people have to surrender to it by committing suicide before their body is corrupted by age, thus giving their life back to nature. The name of the dead Hårga will be given to the next baby who is born in the commune, further showing their belief that life is a part of the cycle of nature.
SIV. But instead of getting old and dying with shame and pain and fear, we give our life. As a gesture. Out of gratefulness. Before it can spoil. … It does no good to die lashing back at the inevitable. … We view life as a circle. Okay? A recycle. One thing falls and another rises. The first man who jumped: his name was Olof. Yes? [Siv points to a PREGNANT WOMAN] That baby, who is not yet born, will inherit this name. He will be Olof. And if it is a girl, she will take the name of our last fallen lady, which was Dagmar. (Aster, 2018, p. 59) Furthermore, this belief is also reflected in their offering of human sacrifice as a form of gratitude to the sun during the midsummer celebration. The Hårga’s unity with nature is also reflected in the way they offer human sacrifice. To them, the offering of sacrifice is a form of giving back and showing gratitude to nature, from whom they have benefited.
SIV. On this, the day of our deity of purification, we gather to give special thanks to our treasured Sun. As an offering, we will today surrender nine human lives. [Christian’s eyes flare with terror. Dani’s expression is blank.] As Hårga takes, so Hårga also gives. Thus, for every newblood (foreigner) sacrificed, we will dedicate one of our own. That is: four newbloods, four Hårgans, and one to be chosen by our Queen. Nine in all, to die and be reborn in the great Cycle. [To the sacrifices] You will today be joined in harmony with everything. (Aster, 2018, p. 110)
This unity with nature is also shown through the fertility ritual. Once a woman is of age, she puts her pubic hair inside a meat pie and mixes her menstrual blood into a drink. She then serves the pie and the drink to a man as a love spell.
Then, they will copulate in a fertility ritual where the woman loses her virginity. It
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is an important part of courtship and procreation in the commune, as it marks the coming of age. It is portrayed in a tapestry that the commune takes care of (Figure
12). The reverence for menstrual blood, a natural bodily waste, in the fertility ritual shows that the Hårga revere their body’s ties to nature.
Figure 12. Tapestry portraying the Hårga love spell d. Respectful toward Feminine Qualities
The Hårga has high regard for feminine qualities. It is related to the community’s belief that they are one with nature, which is considered to have
“hermaphrodite” (Aster, 2018, p. 33) qualities due to its dual masculine and feminine traits. It is reflected in the way they dress. Men and women wear similar garments, as explained by Odd, one of the male elders of the commune.
ODD. Oh - my frock? Quite girly, no? Ha! [Explains] We do this as a tribute: … because of nature’s, em… [blushes at bad English] hermaphrodite?...qualities...? (Aster, 2018, p. 33) Typically, men take the role of the provider and women as the nurturer.
However, Hårga men and women are involved in both growing sustenance crops and preparing meals in the community kitchen, which reflect the role of the provider and the nurturer in a patriarchal society respectively (Figures 13 and 14).
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Figure 13. Hårga men and women tending to the vegetable garden
Figure 14. Hårga men and women preparing a meal Furthermore, some important public roles in the commune are accorded to women. Women have a crucial role in major rituals, proving that women do not only exist in the domestic sphere. The fertility ritual, for instance, is centered around the comfort of the young woman who comes of age. The ritual is supervised by female elders who support the young woman, making sure she is comfortable:
[Maja looks back at one of the WOMEN (50s). The woman smiles tenderly at her. This would be touching if it weren’t so weird. Maja offers the woman her HAND, and the woman supportively takes it into her hands. The woman lovingly presses her CHEEK against Maja’s open palm, CARESSING her face.] (Aster, 2018, p. 108)
In fact, the elder who oversees all rituals including the fertility ritual, Elder
Siv, is a woman. She holds a more important position than other elders, as she leads the rituals and informs people of their roles. As mentioned above, Siv represents the other elders to inform Christian that he has been approved to participate in the fertility ritual and offers him the chance to partake in it (Aster, 2018, p. 96).
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The May Queen is also a crucial and respected figure in the Hårga. She has the honor to give the blessing for the crops and livestock to ensure good harvest in the agrarian community:
SIV. Now it is traditional for the May Queen to bless our crops and livestock. (Aster, 2018, p. 103)
The May Queen is an important archetypal feminine role in pagan religions.
The feminine role cements the importance of fertility and nature in sustaining the agricultural life of the Hårga as the May Queen’s blessing is crucial to ensure their livelihood. Evidently, the title, which Dani takes up after winning the Maypole
Dance, is an important one for the commune.
The fact that important roles in upholding Hårga rituals are allocated to women in the commune shows the commune’s high regard toward women and feminine qualities. Women’s active participation in the Hårga public sphere is contrary to patriarchal societies, where women are placed in the domestic sphere and seen as inferior to men.
B. Representation of the Monstrous-Feminine in Midsommar through the
Characteristics of Dani Ardor and the Hårga
The research finds that Midsommar represents the monstrous-feminine mainly through the characters of Dani Ardor and the Hårga. To analyze the representation of the monstrous-feminine in Midsommar, this part discusses how the characteristics of the Hårga and Dani show the three aspects of the monstrous- feminine, namely bodily wastes, transgression of boundaries, and the maternal.
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1. Bodily Wastes
The first aspect of the abject monstrous-feminine is bodily wastes (Creed,
1993, p. 10). Bodily wastes such as blood, feces, and dead bodies are a part of the self that threatens its integrity. Bodily wastes are seen as a taboo because it is considered improper and unclean by society. Furthermore, they show the self’s
“debt to nature” (p. 11). In the phallogocentric binary of patriarchal society, nature is positioned as the opposite of culture. To be a proper part of society, bodily wastes must be ejected to “clean” the self. In Midsommar, this aspect of monstrous- femininity is shown in the Hårga’s unity with nature. It is also evident in Dani’s anxiety and vulnerability.
The Hårga defy the taboo surrounding bodily wastes as bodily wastes are given reverence through their rituals. Firstly, they accord the potent power to menstrual blood. Menstrual blood is mostly considered abject by human civilization because it is a reminder of a woman’s ability to carry a new life, thus marking the body’s debt to nature (Creed, 1993, pp. 10-11). As a bodily waste, menstrual blood is considered a polluting substance. Women’s ability to menstruate makes them carry a threat of pollution to men, therefore threaten the stability of another’s identity. Pubic hair, another type of bodily wastes, is also considered dirty by civilized society. However, both pubic hair and menstrual blood are used in the
Hårga fertility ritual, which is an important ritual of their commune. The Hårga see themselves as one with nature. Therefore, bodily wastes, which shows the human body’s debt to nature, is not considered a taboo.
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Furthermore, the Hårga’s unity with nature also results in their comfort with the concept of death. Corpse, another type of bodily waste, is considered “the ultimate abject” because it encroaches the boundary between life and death and reminds the self of its materiality (Creed, 1993, pp. 10-13). Death is the ultimate loss of individuation, as death means the self ceases to be a whole Subject in society.
In contrast, the Hårga do not have the same taboo about death because they accept death as a natural part of life, and they celebrate ritual suicides.
The character of Dani is also portrayed in close proximity to bodily wastes through her anxiety and vulnerability. As she grieves over her parents’ and sister’s deaths, she is put in close proximity with the abject. The image of her family members’ corpses emerges when her anxiety is triggered. For instance, as mentioned previously, she hallucinates her sister’s dead face after a panic attack, and she sees her family’s corpses in her nightmare after Ättestupa (Figures 3 and
4). However, her vulnerability and openness toward the Hårga’s influence creates a change in attitude. At the end of the film, Dani chooses Christian as a sacrifice after the Hårga. She smiles as she watches the sacrifices burn to death (Figure 6).
Here, her appearance emphasizes her relief after ending her relationship with
Christian. The juxtaposition between her repressed distress at her family members’ deaths in her nightmare and her open relief at Christian’s death draws the audience’s attention to her comfort with death, the ultimate abject.
It can therefore be concluded that the monstrous-feminine is represented in
Midsommar through the Hårga’s and Dani’s proximity and comfort with bodily waste, which is shown through their characteristics.
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2. Transgression of Boundaries
The representation of the monstrous-feminine in literature is shown to cross boundaries between what is considered acceptable and unacceptable (Creed, 1993, p. 11). The concept of a border is fundamental to the figuration of the monstrous- feminine in horror literature. While the specific definition of the border differs depending on the context of each work, it essentially separates the Symbolic order of society from threats to its stability. Boundaries are required to establish a “clean and proper” order and constitute subjectivity and the patriarchal laws of society (p.
12). Thus, what threatens to cross the border is abject, because it also threatens the stability of the Symbolic order and the identity of the individuals in the order. The
Hårga and Dani commit several such transgressions in Midsommar. They transgress boundaries between life and death, between proper and improper expressions of feminine gender roles and sexuality, and between the real and the unreal.
Firstly, the Hårga’s unity with nature means it constantly transgresses the boundary between life and death, as well as that between proper and improper expressions of feminine gender roles and sexuality.
The Hårga’s unity with nature means that they view death as a natural part of life and a way for their culture to give back to nature. They make suicide an important ritual. In this way, they could be said to transgresses the boundary between life and death. This boundary is central to the concept of the abject, because once an individual dies, he or she ceases to be a part of the Symbolic world of civilization (Creed, 1993, p. 10). What reminds the living individual of his or her
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materiality is monstrous because it threatens the individual’s position in the
Symbolic order.
The violation of the boundary between nature and culture also results in the
Hårga’s transgression of the boundary between proper and improper expressions of feminine gender roles and sexuality. Patriarchal ideology, which puts men as the default, controls women’s sexual desire and denies their bodily autonomy through repressive practices designed to curb their power (Creed, 1993, p. 162). One of them is the portrayal of the feminine as either the castrated, the domesticated and passive woman that conforms to societal gender roles, or the castrating, the savage and destructive woman, which in horror films is portrayed as the monstrous-feminine that threatens the family and other social institutions of patriarchy.
In contrast, the Hårga do not have binary gender roles. The importance of both masculine and feminine qualities is acknowledged. Furthermore, some of the most important roles in the commune are accorded to women, proving that women exist in the public sphere, not only the domestic. In contrast, patriarchal societies place women in the domestic sphere and men in the public sphere (Creed, 1993, p.
162). Thus, by the standards of the patriarchal ideology, the Hårga transgress proper gender roles with their ambiguous boundary between feminine and masculine qualities and roles.
Furthermore, the Hårga’s reverence toward feminine qualities also contributes to the transgression of the boundary between proper and improper expressions of feminine gender roles and sexuality. The passive role of women in patriarchy also translates to the sexual expression that is deemed proper for them.
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Lacanian psychoanalysis places the phallus as a symbol of power (Creed, 1993, p.
159). While the phallus is neutral, the penis symbolically assumes the function of the phallus in patriarchy because it represents a “lack” that women do not have
(Grosz, 1990, p. 117, cited in Creed, 1993, p. 159). This possession of the phallus is affirmed through sexual intercourse, whereby during penetration the phallus is temporarily given to the woman. However, this link between the penis and the phallus means that sexual intercourse both affirms the man’s possession of the phallus and the threat of castration, hence the mythical vagina dentata’s threat to
“castrate via incorporation” (p. 161).
Women’s sexual desire and threat are thus repressed through various practices such as the prescription of a passive sexual expression that is deemed proper for their sex. The monstrous-feminine, being the representation of feminine qualities that defy gender roles, is frequently portrayed as “deceptively treacherous” with “violence, sexual aggressiveness”, and other perversions of “masculine” characteristics (Britton, 1979, p. 51, cited in Creed, 1993, p. 161). This way, the monstrous-feminine represents the abject violation of gender boundaries.
In Midsommar, this violation is shown in Christian’s sexual intercourse with
Maja, a Hårga girl. Maja is portrayed as a beautiful, demure, and shy young girl who catches Christian’s attention, fitting the patriarchal image of the ideal virgin
(Aster, 2018, p. 38). However, her timidness stands in stark contrast against the nature of the ritual.
Although Christian comes to the ritual voluntarily, during the course of it he is stripped of agency. He and Maja are surrounded by naked older Hårga women
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who oversee and control the course of the ritual. They sing a harmonized, wordless hymn as Christian and Maja have sexual intercourse (pp. 107-108). After “giving” his phallus to Maja through intercourse, he is controlled by the women. As Maja approaches a climax, their wails grow louder and more aggressive. An old woman pushes Christian’s bottom, “urging him to thrust faster” (p. 108) and controlling his thrusts until he orgasms. In this scene, Christian has evidently lost his phallus and submits to the women who control the ritual. After the ritual “castrates” him,
Christian storms out with his hand covering his nakedness, representing his symbolic castration (Figure 9).
Figure 15. Christian running away from the ritual
The symbolic castration of Christian through the invasive ritual shows the male fear of female sexuality through a portrayal that perverts women’s ability to carry life (Creed, 1993, p. 27). Through the ritual, which shows an aggressive and unacceptable model of femininity according to patriarchal gender roles, the Hårga women have transgressed the boundary of gender and proper feminine sexual expression.
The last form of boundary violation is that of the border between the real and the unreal. This transgression is shown through Dani’s anxious behavior and the Hårga’s use of hallucinogenic substances to enforce conformity.
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As mentioned in the earlier part of the analysis, Dani suffers from anxiety disorder. The term disorder implies the disruption of order, which is a characteristic of the abject (Kristeva, 1982, cited in Creed, 1993, p. 11-12). Mental disorders violate the border between one’s internal mental state and the external, subjective reality. Dani’s anxiety disorder places her at the precarious border between her present reality and past memories and grief. When she is triggered or experiences a panic attack, she imagines her sister and parents.
Furthermore, the Hårga encourages such violation of the boundary between the real and unreal through their constant use of hallucinogenic substances. In this sense, the commune as a whole is a monstrous-feminine figure that violates the members’ individual agency by making keeping them in a state between reality and hallucination. Because this boundary between the real and unreal is transgressed, the “proper” and subjective laws that govern the civilized society cannot be enforced. This threatens the position of the individual under hallucinogenic substances in the Symbolic order, which necessitates the observance of strict social norms and codes (Creed, 1993,
Therefore, monstrous-femininity in Midsommar is also shown through the characteristics of the Hårga and Dani which shows three types of boundary transgressions. They transgress the boundaries between life and death, between proper and improper expressions of feminine gender roles and sexuality, and lastly between the real and the unreal.
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3. The Maternal
The final aspect of the monstrous-feminine is the maternal. Feminine monstrosity is almost always represented through the female reproductive function
(Creed, 1993, pp. 12-14). Abjection is first experienced when an infant attempts to break away from its relationship with its mother to become a separate subject, thus making the mother an abject. The woman as the mother can prevent the infant from becoming a proper subject by refusing to yield her hold of it. The infant’s position in the dyadic relationship is unstable because it is “[p]artly consumed by the desire to remain locked in a blissful relationship with the mother and partly terrified of separation” (p. 12). In Midsommar, this aspect of the monstrous-feminine is represented through the Hårga’s collectivist and extremely conformist nature, as well as through Dani’s vulnerable personality.
The relationship between the Hårga people with the commune represents that dyadic relationship between the child and the mother. In this relationship, the child does not have a concept of individuation yet (Creed, 1993, p. 12). In Hårga, this dynamic is replicated through their collectivist and extremely conformist nature. Being a collectivist society, they lack personal possessions and individual identifier. Having to share everything, there is not much room for individuation and the concept of self has largely been erased from among the Hårga. In this regard, the commune embodies an abject maternal figure. Its enforcement of self-erasure is reminiscent of the threat a mother poses on her child’s individuation (p. 13).
This erasure of self is further enforced through extreme conformity, ensuring that no one disobey the prescribed rituals. Just as a mother is able to make
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her infant forever dependent on her by discouraging its personal development, the
Hårga’s erasure of the concept of self ensures that the members are forever dependent on the commune and its leaders for important decisions. Hallucinogenic tea is served at every meal and special occasions, entrapping the people in a constant state of delirium and making them more dependent on the leaders, particularly the most revered elder Siv and the May Queen. Such dependence on the matriarchs further highlights the Hårga society’s role as a monstrous maternal figure. Anyone who is disobedient would be punished, as is the case for the foreigners, except Dani, who is vulnerable and becomes dependent on the Hårga. The extreme conformity and lack of individuation form a dynamic that mimics a mother’s refusal to yield control of her child, preventing it from achieving individuation (p. 13). The erasure is finalized at death, as when a Hårga commits the ritual suicide, their face is destroyed. The face is typically the most identifying feature for an individual.
Therefore, the representation of the monstrous-feminine is evident in the
Hårga’s collectivist and conformist nature, which makes its people—and eventually
Dani as well—unable to break free of the commune.
The maternal also ties the link between the previous two aspects of monstrous-femininity. Images of bodily delineate the border between “the maternal authority and the law of the father” (Creed, 1993, p. 12). Woman’s body has maternal functions, namely menstruating, lactating, being pregnant, and giving birth. In consequence, it is closer to the abject because of its acknowledgment of the “debt to nature”. Not only that, but the mother plays an important role in toilet- training, which again is closely related to bodily wastes such as urine and faeces.
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Bodily wastes evoke disgust as well as a “pleasure in breaking the taboo of filth” because they recall the state of unity with the mother, when the child experienced
“untrammelled pleasure in ‘playing’ with the body and its wastes” (p. 13). This is why the body always reminds one of the repressed desire to return to the maternal.
As explained in the previous parts of this analysis, bodily wastes are an important part of Hårga rituals. The people also see themselves as one with nature.
In this way, the Hårga represents the world of the maternal. The people, who have no sense of individuation and are dependent on the commune, are similar to an infant in a dyadic relationship with its mother. The commune as a whole is a maternal realm where the “taboo of filth” is broken and the Hårga people experience no shame in engaging with bodily wastes (Creed, 1993, p. 13).
To sum up, the maternal aspect of the monstrous-feminine is represented in the Hårga’s characteristics as a matriarchal society that erases individuality. The maternal is the most prominent characteristic because of the way the Hårga society operates. The continuity of the commune is contingent on the members’ reliance on the commune as a whole. This reliance is enforced through a way of life and rituals that incorporate the other two aspects of the monstrous-feminine, namely bodily wastes and boundary transgressions. In Midsommar, the three aspects of the monstrous-feminine are evident through the characteristics of the Hårga, and also the characteristics of Dani who eventually joins the commune. Thus, it could be concluded that a representation of the monstrous-feminine is found through the characteristics of the Hårga and Dani Ardor.
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C. Negotiation of the Abject in Midsommar
The previous analysis has established that the monstrous-feminine is represented through the characteristics of the Hårga and Dani Ardor. The monstrous-feminine is a literary portrayal of Kristeva’s concept of the abject
(Creed, 1993, p. 7). Hence, the representation of the monstrous-feminine could be analyzed through the theory of abjection to examine how the representation shows the negotiation of the abject in Midsommar.
Kristeva believes that an individual is a subject-in-process: the speaking subject continues to oscillate between the Semiotic and the Symbolic, even after entering the latter (1982, p. 17). As a result, subjects-in-process are always negotiating the abject; the abject constantly “beckons to [the subject]” and therefore must be repressed to preserve the subject’s position in the Symbolic. Otherwise, the abject “ends up engulfing” the subject (p. 4).
In this section, the researcher examines the negotiation of abjection in
Midsommar through the protagonist Dani Ardor’s oscillation between the Symbolic realm, the realm of patriarchal structure, represented by her boyfriend Christian and the other visitors, and the repressed abject maternal, the semiotic, represented by the monstrous-feminine figures of the Hårga and Dani herself.
1. Dani’s Negotiation of the Abject as a Symbolic Subject
At the beginning of the film, Dani is shown to have a precarious position as a speaking subject within the Symbolic realm due to her proximity to the abject.
She suffers from anxiety disorder, which is worsened by her preoccupation with grief over the murder-suicide of her parents and sister (Aster, 2018, p. 4).
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In her analysis of abjection, Kristeva also refers to mental disorders, which disrupt the division between one’s internal mental state and external reality (1982, pp. 46-50). The term disorder itself implies the transgression of a key feature of the
Symbolic: order. Kristeva uses the term “psychosis” to describe a person who is consumed by the Semiotic to the point that they are irrational and out of touch with reality. The subject’s grip on the symbolic is weak. They are “[a]n ego, wounded to the point of annulment, barricaded and untouchable, cowers somewhere”.
Similarly, as explained in the previous part of this analysis, Dani is unable to establish a boundary between her present reality and past memories and grief. As previously mentioned, she sees a therapist for her anxiety disorder due to the stress of looking after her sister Terri, who has bipolar disorder and suicidal tendencies.
Suffering from psychosis, Terri is driven by her disorder to murder their parents and then end her own life. Through the murder-suicide, she has yielded to the abject and irrevocably destroyed her and her parents’ position as Symbolic subjects. Her action places Dani in close proximity to the abject by pushing her further into grief and anxiety.
In the treatment of the mental disorder, psychosis is made abject. To negotiate with the abject, Dani’s condition is pathologized and cast away through treatment. This is a form of what Kristeva calls a purification rite, which casts away the taboo to restore the subject to a “self and clean” state (1982, p. 65). Purification is “something only the Logos is capable of” (p. 27). It is an effort to restore the self’s position in the patriarchal Symbolic world of society, which is characterized by logic and order.
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Much of Western philosophical thoughts is built upon logocentrism, or the predominance of logos or reason. Language and “reason” are coded as masculine, while “irrational” and “emotional” ways of seeing the world are feminine, hence phallogocentrism or the construction of meaning centered on the masculine.
Hysterics and madness are traditionally seen as the “feminine” opposition to male reason (Small, 1996, p. 117). Psychological disorder itself has been associated with women since the nineteenth century, when hysterics, which was derived from the
Greek word for uterus, was believed to be curable through marriage and domestication. The association between psychological disorder, the feminine, and the abject has long been established in accordance to phallogocentrism.
Fittingly, therapy is what Christian’s friend Mark suggests for Dani.
Christian and his friends, Josh, and Mark, are coded as patriarchal, thereby establishing them as representations of the Symbolic realm. Mark accuses Dani of
“using” or emotionally manipulating Christian to give her attention (Aster, 2018, p.
6). Christian and his friends, who quite tellingly are men from a patriarchal society where the display of emotion is discouraged, are unable to understand Dani’s grief.
MARK. … you’ve been wanting out of this stupid relationship for the last year, and then you can find some new chick who actually likes sex and who doesn’t drag you through a million hoops a day. JOSH. [takes a break from reading his dog-eared copy of Primitive Mentality (by Lucien Lévy-Bruhl)] Do you think a masochistic part of you might be playing out this drama to distract you from the work you actually need to be doing? CHRISTIAN. And what work do I actually need to do, Josh? JOSH. Your prospectus maybe? Your PhD...? [An attractive WAITRESS (early 20s) brings over the check. … She HOLDS the smile with Christian and walks bashfully off. Mark definitely caught that.] MARK. Dude. You could be getting that girl pregnant right now. (Aster, 2018, p. 5)
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Christian and Mark see women as passive sex objects, as implied in “getting that girl pregnant” and Mark’s suggestion that Christian “find some new chick who actually likes sex” (Aster, 2018, p. 5). Sex is something that men initiate and women receive, reflecting the traditional patriarchal view of sex.
Not only that, but Christian and his friends are anthropology students who view the Hårga from a detached, scientific perspective. In particular, Josh, with his solely academic interest in the Hårga, represents the centeredness of logos in the
Symbolic realm. He calls Christian and Dani’s relationship problem a “drama” that
“distract[s Christian]” the academic work that he “actually need[s] to be doing” for his Ph.D program (Aster, 2018, p. 5). In fact, the reason the group goes to Sweden is primarily to accompany Josh, who wants to observe Pelle’s community for his thesis on midsummer traditions.
DANI. What are you doing your thesis on, again? JOSH. Uhhhh - well! My focus is actually on European midsummer traditions. Which was basically the impetus behind this whole trip. (Aster, 2018, p. 7)
Because the men are coded as representations of the patriarchal Symbolic, they reject Dani, whose position in the Symbolic is made unstable by her proximity to the abject. Her relationship with Christian is the only factor that validates her position in the Symbolic, yet it is also in a precarious situation. Christian has been wanting to end the relationship “for the last year” (Aster, 2018, p. 5), but cannot do so because of the murder-suicide. As seen in Figure 16, he only comforts Dani because his girlfriend is grieving, but he is detached from the situation. He is looking somewhere else. The use of backlighting highlights his detachment from
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the situation, while the use of dark colors emphasizes his worry that he is doomed to be trapped in the relationship.
[Dani’s sobs are possessed of a profound despair. It’s so intense that it looks painful - dangerous even. … Christian’s eyes are wide with worry. A worry that goes beyond Dani’s well-being. He stares into space, imagining a future that he’s being chained to. He looks TRAPPED]. (Aster, 2018, p. 7)
Figure 16. Dani crying in Christian’s lap
To negotiate her unstable position and validate her place in the Symbolic,
Dani attempts to act according to the “acceptable” expression of femininity by appeasing Christian. Although she confronts Christian for not telling her about his trip to Sweden in the summer after his family’s deaths, she quickly apologizes after he says that he feels that Dani is “trying to attack [him]” (Aster, 2018, p. 11).
Christian’s emotionally abusive nature is obvious in the way he manipulates Dani into forgiving, although he is the one who is in the wrong for not telling Dani about his trip. She submits to his demands and apologizes for “overreact[ing]” and
“[getting] crazy”, even agreeing to join him to Sweden. By maintaining her relationship with Christian, her last tie to the Symbolic order, Dani strengthens her position as a Symbolic subject.
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2. Tension between the Symbolic and the Semiotic
Upon the arrival of Dani, Christian, and their friends in Hårga, they encounter the abject through the commune’s rituals. Therefore, their entrance to
Hårga is representative of the clash between the Symbolic and the Semiotic. It creates tension between the two realms, resulting in a need to negotiate the abject.
Their arrival itself is symbolic of the primal creation scene in the form of a birth (Creed, 1993, p. 18). To get to the isolated commune, they have to go through a labyrinthine passage engulfed by a dense forest, as if the path itself were alive
(Figure 17). The aerial shot used in this scene gives the viewer an omniscient view of the “birthing” process. Then they enter the commune through an entrance that is shaped like a vaginal opening (Figure 18), signifying their “birth” into the maternal world of the Hårga.
Figure 17. Aerial shot of the circuitous pathway to Hårga
Figure 18. The entrance to Hårga
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Even though the guests were mesmerized by the seemingly tranquil Hårga, tension starts to arise when they have their first encounter with the abject through the Ättestupa. It is the first event that marks the Hårga as the abject, the border where the Symbolic and the Semiotic meet and create the tension in the film.
Before Ylva, the first elder, jumps, it appears that she and Dani are staring into each other’s eyes. The shots in Figures 19 and 20 are taken from specific angles such that the audience is involved in the stare, drawing attention to Dani’s facial expression. She experiences panic, which escalated into dissociation upon Ylva’s death: she “looks like she’s been knocked out of her body” (Aster, 2018, p. 53).
Figure 19. Ylva and Dani staring into each other’s eyes
Figure 20. Ylva and Dani staring into each other’s eyes
Here, Dani experiences abjection. Ylva’s gruesome death triggers a panic attack which causes her to dissociate and lose her grip from reality. Yet, she is unable to look away from the scene and keeps staring at Ylva until her death. The death is a reminder of Dani’s proximity to the abject via her family’s equally gruesome death. The contrast between the celebration of death and Dani’s
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nightmare of her family’s deaths (Figure 3) further highlights this tension between the Symbolic and the Semiotic. In encountering the border between the Symbolic and the Semiotic, she finds the abject within her (Kristeva, 1982, p. 5).
In contrast, Christian and his friends have a different reaction to their encounter with the abject. Even though they are also disturbed by the Ättestupa, they are “more excited than troubled” (Aster, 2018, p. 54). Not only Josh, but
Christian also becomes interested in doing his thesis on the Hårga after Siv explains the reasoning behind the ritual (p. 65). Christian and Josh argue because Josh, who has had the idea for a long time, accuses his friend of “appropriat[ing his] actual work for … [a] shortcut” (Aster, 2018, p. 58).
Clearly, Christian and his friends’ interests are motivated by their own selfish goals. They show no attempt to partake in the local customs. Mark, who is only interested in the Hårga women, offends the commune by peeing on the ancestral tree.
PELLE. All of our dead are tied to that tree. MARK. But it’s dead. It’s a dead fucking tree. I didn’t realize it was special. I just had to pee. PELLE. I know, but it’s important to us. … You wouldn’t pee on a gravestone, right? MARK. Well, no, of course not. (Aster, 2018, p. 72)
Despite this, Mark does not show any remorse to Ulf, the Hårga elder who guards the rotvälta he has desecrated. This escalates the tension between the
Symbolic and the Semiotic, which later ends in Mark’s death.
[Mark has noticed ULF staring at him from a distance. Ulf has murder in his eyes.] MARK. [to Josh] Fuck. Somebody’s still sore about “the ancestral tree.”
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(Aster, 2018, p. 72)
While Josh tries to study the Affects language of the Hårga, his motive is self-interested, and he finds difficulty understanding it. The close-up shot on his face highlights his confusion by focusing on his scowl and furrowed brow (Figure
21). His and Christian’s scientific regard in the Hårga society again highlights the distinction between the Symbolic, where logos and culture prevail, and the irrational and “barbaric” Semiotic, where the taboo of bodily wastes is transgressed.
[Josh looks tensely at his NOTES. He stares at a line that reads: Affects — runic combinations, “emotional sheet music”.] (Aster, 2018, p. 87)
Figure 21. Josh’s difficulty understanding the Affects language
Again, the distinction between the Symbolic and the Semiotic is highlighted in Josh’s inability to understand the Affects language, which causes his internal tension. Western patriarchal thought associates emotions, which is positioned as the opposite of logos, with women (Small, 1996, p. 115). Psychoanalytic feminist discourses on language argue that in patriarchal societies, language functions a tool to reinforce and perpetuate patriarchal ideology. Speaking languages such as
English privilege the masculine and emphasize the value of reason in the creation of meaning.
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Conversely, in the Semiotic realm, there is no speaking language, which is coded as patriarchal. In the semiotic chora, infants communicate using extra-verbal utterances that involve emotions and instincts (Kristeva, 1982, p. 13-15). The
Semiotic is thus coded as feminine and natural, vis-a-vis the masculine Symbolic realm of culture. Likewise, the Affects language is semiotic. It is based on emotions; the people share their emotions and “communicate little things through subtly modulated expressions and gestures” (Aster, 2018, p. 33). Their rituals also involve singing in a “wordless, groaning, microtonal tradition” (p. 105), typical of the
Semiotic.
The characters’ arrival at the abject commune of the Hårga and their attitudes toward it show the contrast between the Symbolic and the Semiotic. This difference causes the tension which is resolved in the breakdown of the Symbolic.
3. Breakdown of the Symbolic
The negotiation with the abject as portrayed in Midsommar is resolved in the breakdown of the Symbolic and the triumph of the Semiotic. This resolution is displayed through the deaths of the Christian and his friends, which symbolizes the breakdown of the Symbolic, and Dani’s integration into the Hårga, which symbolizes the return to the Semiotic.
Christian and his friends meet their deaths at the hands of the Hårga due to their refusal to integrate with the commune and failure to repress the abject. Firstly,
Josh’s ambition to distinguish his thesis from Christian’s results in his breaking the rule of the commune. He has been prohibited from taking a photograph of the Hårga holy book, the Rubi Radr (Aster, 2018, p. 84), but he does it anyway to get ahead
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of Christian in his thesis (p. 89). As a result, he is murdered by the Hårga and used as a human sacrifice for the midsommar ritual.
Secondly, Mark is murdered and skinned after he disappears with a brunette named Inga, presumably to have sex (Aster, 2018, pp. 88-89). While it is not shown, it is assumed that Inga murders him after they have sex. She is shown with a red phallic symbol attached to her dress toward the end of the film (Figure 22). She has symbolically castrated Mark and taken his penis/phallus. Her transgression of the symbolic body and of gender and sexual boundaries signals a breakdown of the
Symbolic that Mark represents.
Figure 22. Inga (center), shown with the red phallic symbol on her dress
Likewise, Christian also has his penis/phallus symbolically taken away in the fertility ritual. Here, the breakdown of the Symbolic is not only shown through the portrayal of the ritual, but also through the use of cinematic technique. The closed, mostly dark temple where the ritual takes place resembles a womb (Figure
23), further emphasizing the power of the maternal shown in this scene. The guard who ushers him in also wears a mask that practically renders him indistinguishable from the other Hårga. The guard’s lack of identification also represents how the symbolic position of the self is destabilized, accentuating the all-consuming nature of the maternal semiotic represented by the Hårga.
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Figure 23. The entrance of the temple into the fertility ritual
In contrast with the men’s detachment from the Hårga, Dani is integrated into the commune more easily after she overcomes her initial shock. However, her gender and proximity to the abject means that her negotiation with the abject ends with her surrender to it. This is particularly evident through her panic attack after seeing Christian and Maja in the fertility ritual (Figure 5). As explained in the previous part of the analysis, the Hårga women surround her and share her grief, a custom the Hårga people only do among themselves. This is influential in helping
Dani let go of “all the emotions that she [has] labored to stifle” and overcome her grief (Aster, 2018, p. 107). The Hårga women’s empathy is the opposite of
Christian’s detached treatment of Dani after her family’s deaths (Figure 17). The juxtaposition highlights that empathy is what Dani needs to cope with her family’s deaths and accept that her relationship with Christian is unsalvageable.
The end of Dani’s relationship with Christian severs her last tie with the
Symbolic. At the end of the film, she chooses Christian as a sacrifice and smiles as he is burned to death (Figure 6). Even though Dani survives, she has been integrated with the the abject Semiotic, which has “beckon[ed]” to her, has “engulf[ed]” her completely (Kristeva, 1982, p. 4). In this way, like her sister Terri, she has surrendered to the abject and become completely detached from the Symbolic
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realm. Whereas Terri does so in the beginning of Midsommar through literal death,
Dani achieves it at the end of the film through a metaphorical death of her individuation; she becomes one with the hivemind of Hårga.
To summarize, the negotiation of the abject in Midsommar fails and ends with the breakdown of the Symbolic and the triumph of the Semiotic. This is marked by the disintegration of the American characters’ identities. The male characters meet it through their deaths as human sacrifices. Dani, who has been in close proximity to the abject since the beginning, is consumed by the maternal,
Semiotic world of the Hårga once the Symbolic order breaks down. This breakdown of the Symbolic is represented by the male characters’ deaths and Dani’s integration with the Hårga.
In this way, Midsommar is not a typical horror film. The monstrous- feminine is a patriarchal construction that allows the audience to re-enact the return to the abject maternal (Kristeva 1982, p. 15). This reckoning can be done safely because, once the protagonist defeats the monstrous-feminine figure at the end of the film, the Symbolic order is restored and the desire for the maternal can be repressed. In contrast, Midsommar ends with the breakdown of the Symbolic.
Although the protagonist survives, Dani has resolved the negotiation through her unification with the monstrous-feminine figure of the Hårga, therefore relinquishing her position as a Symbolic subject.
4. Patriarchal Construction of the Abject
The monstrous-feminine is a representation of anxiety about the repressed world of the abject maternal (Kristeva, 1982, p. 15). In Midsommar, it is represented
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by the characteristics of the Hårga and Dani; specifically, through the latter’s interaction with the former. The abject nature of the Hårga and Dani are further brought out through the way the commune and its customs are portrayed through a patriarchal lens within a phallogocentric framework, thereby limiting Midsommar’s potential for female empowerment.
To some extent, Midsommar does show elements of female empowerment.
The matriarchal commune of Hårga has taken away the phallus, a signifier of power, from Christian and his friends as a consequence of their selfish nature and abuse of power against the feminine characters, namely Dani and the Hårga. This is particularly underscored through the symbolic castration of Mark and Christian
(Figures 15 and 22), as the penis assumes the function of the phallus in patriarchy
(Grosz, 1990, p. 117, cited in Creed, 1993, p. 159).
To add on, the previously disempowered Dani assumes the phallus by joining the Hårga. Not only does she overcome her grief, she also finds the power to end her emotionally abusive relationship with Christian. Her power is shown when she appoints him to his death as the May Queen, thereby ending their imbalanced relationship (Aster, 2018, p. 110). Dani’s smile at the end signifies the triumph of the maternal Hårga against the patriarchal Symbolic.
Despite Midsommar’s potential for female empowerment, it is one that is largely constructed through a patriarchal perspective that positions the Hårga as a perversion of the Symbolic order. Other than through the Hårga’s representation of the monstrous-feminine as explained in the previous part of the analysis, the monstrosity is also created through the cinematography and significations used in
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the film which show the Hårga as a binary opposition of the patriarchal Symbolic through a phallogocentric framework.
The perversion of the Hårga is established through the change in shooting angle once Dani’s group enters Hälsingland, the Swedish province where Hårga is located (Figures 24-26). Starting from an aerial view at the 27:32 timestamp, the shooting angle is gradually rotated until the shot is upside-down as the group arrives in Hälsingland, before the angle returns to normal. This change in angle creates a disorienting effect on the viewer and establishes that the place that Dani’s group is about to enter is a markedly different place from their society, but rather, a perversion of it.
PELLE. [Pelle drives under an anti-immigration BANNER (in Swedish) before passing a sign announcing that they have arrived in Hälsingland] Entering Hälsingland! (Aster, 2018, p. 19)
Figure 24. Change in shooting angle (Midsommar, 2019, 27:32)
Figure 25. Change in shooting angle (Midsommar, 2019, 27:52)
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Figure 26. The banner signaling Dani’s group’s arrival in Hälsingland
This disorientation is also further escalated through the use of lighting and colors. The Hårga in summertime is a place where the day is long and the night is short due to the latitude:
CHRISTIAN. [The sun is still shining.] What time is it? PELLE. Nine PM. MARK [suddenly alarmed] What do you mean?! … It doesn’t feel like nine. I don’t like that! It feels wrong. (Aster, 2018, p. 23)
Horror movies in general are characterized by little illumination and dark color palettes. Daylight and bright colors such as white and pastel shades are associated with goodness (Barsam & Monahan, 2010, p. 88); therefore, they typically signal the defeat of the monstrous-feminine figure, and the return of the
Symbolic order. Yet, Midsommar plays with the use of constant light and bright colors to paint the Hårga, dominated by people who are always smiling and don white clothes, as a seemingly idyllic, pastoral commune. The contrast between the use of natural light and bright colors and the Hårga’s murderous violence highlights the binary portrayal of the commune as a perversion of the civilized society. This is best shown through the final scene of Christian’s immolation along with the other human sacrifices inside the temple, which is set in bright daylight despite the horrid nature of his death (Figure 27).
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Figure 27. Dani’s floral dress in front of the burning temple
The Hårga’s perversion of the Symbolic is given further emphasis through its religion. They practice a form of ancient Scandinavian pagan belief and dedicate the midsummer celebration to the Sun, their deity of purification (p. 110). The human sacrifices are given to nature to “purge” the commune of “wickedness”.
VÍDORR. [A man dressed as “Vídorr” (god of vengeance) stands before Christian. He holds the Rubi Radr in his hands. (in Swedish)] Mighty and dreadful beast. With you, we purge our most unholy Affekts. We banish you now to the deepest recesses, where you may reflect on your wickedness. (Aster, 2018, p. 113)
According to Kristeva, abjection appears in religions as rituals of purification created against the abject in the form of “defilement, taboo, or sin”
(1982, p. 42). Such rituals symbolize the threat of losing the subject’s identity to the maternal (Creed, 1993, p. 12). This Symbolic function of religious rites is perverted by the Hårga’s monstrous beliefs. Their purification ritual, which involves murders of the human sacrifices, breaks down the Symbolic rather than validating its stability.
Furthermore, the main signifier of the Symbolic in the film is aptly named
Christian. Just like the director of Midsommar, Aster, Christian and his friends are from the United States. The American society, despite its secularism, was built upon a puritanical tradition of Christianity (Gilbert, 1981, p. 57). Christianity itself is a
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religion that started spreading in Scandinavia after it annihilated pagan beliefs
(Sanmark, 2004, p. 109). From a phallogocentric perspective, the Hårga’s pagan beliefs and purification ritual would be a perverted version of the religious beliefs that delineate the Symbolic realm of culture where Christian is from. The Hårga is positioned as the binary opposite of the Symbolic, with a perverse ritual that destroys rather than preserve the Symbolic order.
Constructed within a patriarchal lens, Dani’s negotiation of the abject is very much informed by a paradigm that limits its potential for women empowerment. At the conclusion of the film, she and the Hårga, the feminine characters in the film, reclaim power from the male characters. However, they do so through a way that is portrayed as monstrous, committing gruesome murders and perverting the order of the Symbolic realm.
In joining the Hårga, Dani has given herself to be consumed by the abject.
While on the surface she is able to reclaim power through the Hårga, she has completely yielded her agency to the commune. Christian’s destruction is brought upon by the Hårga, not by her own power. In a society that destroys individuation, she no longer has individual power. The film concludes with no certainty of Dani’s future. Given the all-consuming nature of the Hårga, it is likely that at the end of the day she is equally powerless in the commune as she is in the beginning in her relationship with Christian, if not more so.
To conclude, Midsommar’s representation of the abject monstrous-feminine is mainly constructed through a patriarchal lens within the phallogocentric perspective. It portrays female power as monstrous and destructive, reflecting the
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repressed anxiety of the realm of maternal authority. Therefore, the film only offers a limited potential for female empowerment, which in itself is constructed in patriarchal terms that deny power to the feminine. Horror films portray “a more accurate picture of the fears and fantasies that dominate our cultural imaginary”
(Creed, 1993, p. 166). In this respect, Midsommar reveals the imaginary fear of the abject as a sinister threat against the Symbolic, while offering few criticism against the patriarchal system prevailing in this realm.
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CHAPTER V
CONCLUSION
Midsommar represents the monstrous-feminine through the characteristics of Dani Ardor, its protagonist, and the commune of the Hårga, the main villainous figure in the film. The study found that Dani has three main characteristics, namely anxious, dependent, and vulnerable. The characteristics of the Hårga are collectivist, extremely conformist, united with nature, and respectful toward feminine qualities.
It is found that the characteristics of Dani and the Hårga reveal the aspects of the abject monstrous-feminine, namely bodily wastes, transgression of boundaries, and the maternal. The first aspect is shown through the Hårga’s unity with nature, which manifests in rituals that incorporate bodily wastes: their ritual suicide and fertility ritual. Bodily waste is also shown through Dani’s anxiety, which reveals her preoccupation with her family’s deaths, and vulnerability, which the Hårga uses to influence her to send Christian to his death.
The second aspect, transgression of boundaries, is found to have three different manifestations: the transgression of the boundary between life and death, between proper and improper expressions of feminine gender roles and sexuality, and between the real and the unreal. The Hårga’s unity with nature means it transgresses the boundary between life and death and between proper and improper expressions of feminine gender roles and sexuality. On the other hand, the extreme
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conformity enforced by the Hårga, as well as Dani’s anxiety, show the transgression of the boundary between the real and the unreal.
The final aspect of the monstrous-feminine is the maternal. This aspect is shown through the collectivist and extremely conformist nature of the Hårga, as well as through Dani’s dependence and vulnerability which make her join the commune. This aspect is the most prominent, given that the continuity of the Hårga is reliant on the members’ reliance on the commune as a whole. This reliance is maintained through a set of rules and rituals that incorporate the other two aspects of the monstrous-feminine, namely bodily wastes and boundary transgressions.
Thus, the characteristics of the Hårga and Dani, who eventually joins the commune, show the aspects of the monstrous-feminine. It can be concluded that
Midsommar represents monstrous-femininity through the two figures.
The portrayal of the monstrous-feminine in Midsommar shows the negotiation of the abject through Dani’s place between the Symbolic, represented by her boyfriend Christian and his friends, and the Semiotic, represented by the
Hårga as an abject monstrous-feminine figure. Since the start of the film, Dani attempts to negotiate her proximity with the abject by clinging to her relationship with Christian, the last validating factor of her position as a Symbolic subject.
However, her arrival at Hårga represents the tension between the Symbolic and the
Semiotic. In the resolution of this tension, she is integrated with the Hårga, while the male characters are murdered by the commune. Both are symbolic of the breakdown of the Symbolic order.
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The study found that the negotiation of abjection in Midsommar is shown through its representation of the monstrous-feminine offers limited empowerment for Dani. The said representation is largely constrained by patriarchal terms that establish the Hårga as an abject perversion of the Symbolic, which is further emphasized through the cinematography and the narrative elements of the film. The film’s resolution is an exhibit that female power is monstrous, perverted, and destructive; it threatens the Symbolic realm of society. The matriarchal Hårga, as well as Dani after she is integrated into them, are portrayed as the binary opposite of Christian and his friends, who represent the patriarchal Symbolic realm.
Midsommar appears to be an unusual horror film in the sense that its heroine gains a semblance of power over her abusive boyfriend by becoming a monstrous- feminine figure, joining the Hårga, another monstrous-feminine figure. While there is indeed a potential for empowerment here, this potential is nevertheless narrowly confined by the underlying patriarchal bias in the film. In fact, the atypical ending of Midsommar affirms the bias without showing the usual restoration of the
Symbolic. The ending hints a possibility that Dani may be even more powerless and dependent on the matriarchal Hårga than on her unhealthy relationship with
Christian in the patriarchal American society. Overall, there is not much criticism against patriarchal bias that typically pervades horror literature as Midsommar is firmly positioned within a binary phallogocentric framework.
The researcher concluded that the portrayal of the monstrous-feminine and the negotiation of the abject in Midsommar reveals an underlying fear of the feminine. This reflects the repression of the abject maternal as described by
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Kristeva. Midsommar is another example of how literary work is used as a medium to explore repressed anxieties about the abject (Kristeva, 1982, p. 15). The horror of the film comes from its exploration of the possibility for an individual to break apart from the Symbolic order to return to the Semiotic, symbolized by Hårga, a place rife with evil and danger. In doing so, Midsommar reflects sexist biases more than it criticizes the repression of feminine qualities. Such perspective is firmly rooted in this very fear of the maternal that dominates the cultural unconscious of the patriarchal, phallogocentric Western society. Thus, it is not apt to say that
Midsommar offers female empowerment as propounded by several reviews.
Finally, this research may bring benefit to the study of horror literature. The horror genre has traditionally been deemed as mere crude and garish entertainment.
Yet, horror scholarship is a growing field that has started gaining traction recently, in particular through applying psychoanalytic frameworks to analyze how this genre reveals man’s repressed fears and taboo desires. While monstrous figures in horror literature are typically defeated, thus symbolizing the defeat of the threats against the Symbolic, Midsommar’s unusual ending repackages a similar fear through a different solution. The film imagines the possibility of surrendering to the call of the abject to return to the Semiotic. Thus, the merit of this research lies in the examination of another possibility—that the negotiation of the abject may fail and the Symbolic subject surrenders to Semiotic drives.
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