Melancholia by Lars Von Trier
The work of Melancholia according to Freud’s “Mourning and Melancholia”
The title of Lars von Trier’s film Melancholia (2011) refers not only to the planet that is heading toward Earth and will cause the end of the world, but to the psychological condition of melancholia, represented by the character Justine (Kirsten Dunst). By interpreting Freud’s article “Mourning and Melancholia”, I would like to explore the work of melancholia and how both conditions operate in relation to the main characters of the movie.
Mourning and Melancholia
According to Freud, mourning can be defined as a “reaction to the loss of a loved person, or to the loss of some abstraction which has taken the place of one, such as one’s country, liberty, an ideal, and so on”. Regularly, the most common reactions contain the loss of interest in the world, inhibition of activity, loss of capacity to love — which is in fact the incapacity to replace the object of love by adopting a new one. Mourning, then, works in order to withdraw the libido from the loved object, in a process that demands an amount of time and finds certain opposition. This process is completely understandable, and is a necessary part of human condition that allows us to displace our libido unto any form of substitution. However, when the libido finally is detached from the object and the work of mourning completes, as Freud explains, “the ego becomes free and uninhibited again”. This happens because the causes and reactions of mourning are simply explained, it’s not interpreted as a pathological condition that requires medical treatment.
Although melancholia is also caused by the loss of a loved object and presents similar reactions, it works in relation to the ego in a different way. The loved object has been lost as a loved object, that doesn’t necessarily mean that the object “died” or “disappeared”, but this process is not consciously perceived by the patient. This is precisely the key difference between mourning and melancholia: mourning operates in the conscious level and the patient is aware of the object-loss, but in melancholia the loss is withdrawn from consciousness. Therefore, the responsible for the melancholic condition is an unknown loss, in which, commonly, not even the object can be consciously identified.
The mental symptoms of melancholia also include low self-regarding, self-denigration, certain lack of shame in front of others and an expectation of punishment. To explain it, Freud’s main argument consists on the fact that all these “self-reproaches are reproaches against a loved object which have been shifted away from it on to the patient’s own ego”. In other words, the loss of the object is unconsciously transformed into an egoloss, where the libido is not displaced on to another object (that’s what happens in mourning), but is withdrawn into the ego. Hence, we can establish a relation of identification between the melancholic’s ego and the loved object. This allows us to understand the reactions of melancholia, such as the lack of shame and the self-punishment, since all the self-accusations and attitudes are actually against someone or something else. In that sense, for all these reasons, the melancholic presents an ambivalent relationship of love and hate with the object-loss.
Lars Von Trier’s Melancholia
We can identify both conditions, mourning and melancholia, in the two main characters of the movie, respectively, Claire and Justine. By focusing on their psychological states and applying the Freudian conception of melancholia in Justine’s behaviour, we can have a better understanding of the internal work of melancholia and its relation with the narrative. Thus, arguing that the loved object of Justine is in fact her sister Claire, I will explore how it affects their relationship.
The symptoms of melancholia in Justine can be noted in the very beginning of the film, during the celebration of her wedding. The day that was supposed to be the “best day of her life” becomes exactly the moment when she most strongly demonstrates her lack of interest in the world, leading her to destroy her own wedding and career.
Firstly, Justine doesn’t care about being two hours late for her own celebration, which annoys her sister, Claire, who prepared everything to make this moment unforgettable. This situation is just the first in many other episodes that shows her lack of concern for what people think about her, until the moment it becomes unbearable and she completely ruins her wedding party. Even though she claims to Claire: “I smile and I smile and I smile”, implying that she is doing her best, the guests (and also the spectators) witness an odd desire in Justine to denigrate herself through her attitudes. This can be analysed as an unconscious expectation of self-punishment, which is an indirect way to express the idea that she doesn’t think she deserves the marriage and must be punished for this.
Looking for a deeper explanation, it can also be a way she found to punish the people around her, specially her sister, who has organized the celebration and had high expectations about this day. It can be understood as an unconscious reaction of melancholia, explained by Freud as a “satisfaction of trends of sadism and hate which relate to an object, and which have been turned round upon the subject’s own self”. In this regard, we can identify Claire as the loved object that Justine unconsciously lost, and this loss is transferred to her ego, resulting in her self-punishment, which in fact is an indirect way to punish her loved object. Thus, it allows us to have a better understanding of their relationship, based on ambivalent feelings of love and hate, which is exactly the relation between the melancholic and the object-loss. The love between the sisters is clearly demonstrated along the wedding party, when Justine seeks for Claire’s support when she’s uncomfortable, and Claire always tries to comfort and console her sister. On the other hand, Justine’s attitudes are always an unconscious way to annoy and punish Claire, that declares more than once: “Sometimes, I hate you so much, Justine”. Exactly because melancholia does not rely only on her conscious attitudes, the relationship between the sisters and Justine’s state of mind are so interesting and complex.
On the second part of the film, when Justine’s illness has already been diagnosed, her symptoms can be more easily identified. She resists when Claire tries to give her a bath and rejects her favourite meal, saying that it “tastes like ashes”. These scenes depict the inhibition of her activities, common symptoms of melancholia, expressing her body in a painful dejection, in consequence of having the energies of her ego completely absorbed.
Also, it allows us to point the ambivalent relationship with Claire, depicting Justine’s unconscious will to torment her sister through her illness in order to punish her — the original loved object — instead of openly expressing hostility and hate. It’s very interesting how Lars von Trier places the audience in this state of melancholia since the first scene, by using images of the end of the world as a kind of premonition or dream. We can create a parallel between the slow motion scenes and the melancholic perspective of the world, accurately expressing the ego’s lack of energy, in conformity with Justine’s different pace and atmosphere. Besides, the song (Tristan and Isolde by Richard Wagner) is originally a romance, working in order to express this indirect, intermittent and constant state of melancholia, instead of directly expressing the feeling of despair (which could be much more related to mourning). Exactly because of this, the same part of the song is played all the time during the film and represents this condition so well, since the work of melancholia is indirect and operates in the unconscious level.
Interpreting the film under this perspective, it’s possible to create counterpoints between mourning and melancholia, which can be synthesized in the last scene of the end of the world. In melancholia, represented by Justine, her conflict has nothing to do with the world around her, but with an unconscious object-loss and the struggle with her own ego, and for this reason her reaction toward the end of the world is much more calm than her sister’s.
For Claire, aware that she and all her beloved ones are going to die, she consciously faces this loss and, different from melancholia, this is not transferred to her ego; therefore, it’s the world that becomes empty for her.
This is the moment that Justine, for the first time, is the one who supports Claire, creating the symbolic “magic cave” to protect them and make this moment less painful for her sister and her nephew. It’s the only moment in the film the sisters embrace each other, which is in a certain way a happy ending for Justine, who finally can be connected to Claire.
This encounter represents her connection with the object she has lost, and it’s exactly the moment Melancholia embraces Earth, suggesting in both ways the triumph of melancholia. Ultimately, by analysing the film under this perspective, we can interpret it not only as a story about the end of the world, besides, understand Melancholia as a central key for the sister’s relationship.
