Name: 囚犯。正確的象徵主義 (Prisoners: Symbolism Done Right)
Uploaded: 2021-01-14T07:05:38.000Z
Duration: 10 min 26 s
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Mazes have fascinated us for tens of thousands
of years. From ancient wall drawings to Greek

and Roman mythology to modern film, mazes
and labyrinths have on some level always strongly

resonated with the human experience, hinting
at a symbolical layer deeper than the merely

physical experience you get from exploring
its corridors. Which is the reason why I got

intrigued by Denis Villeneuve’s 2013 film
Prisoners and how it uses mazes as a symbol.

In Prisoners we never get to see a maze in
its physical form, in fact the maze is not

even really explicitly mentioned at all until
later in the story, remaining in the background

for the better first half of the film.
Yet its significance should not be understated

as Denis Villeneuve himself seems to have
somewhat of a mild obsession with these puzzles,

with characters having to venture through
both physical and mental corridors, trying

not to lose themselves in search of answers,
answers about family, about what’s right

and what’s wrong, about life, death, what
connects us through language and about faith

in the face of evil. Villeneuve’s puzzle
is one that focuses on the metaphorical and

psychological symbolism of the maze, rather
than having it directly manifest itself in

its physical form.
Now most Western maze symbolism seems to be

derived from the Greek myth of Theseus and
the Minotaur, which tells the story of Theseus

who needs to find and kill a monstrous beast
at the center of a labyrinth, using a thread

of hair from his lover Ariadne to make sure
he doesn’t get lost along the way.

Now compare that to the story of Prisoners,
which is about the kidnapping of two daughters

and how the characters involved choose to
react in order to get them back. The main

focus here is placed on two characters. Keller
Dover, a religious and protective dad who

will do anything to keep his family safe and
who ultimately finds the monster of his world

with the help of a young girl. And Loki, an
ace detective with a troubled background tasked

with the mission to solve the mystery and
find the missing kids. So on a metaphorical

level the maze in Prisoners then seems to
loosely echo this age old Greek myth. Both

these men set out on a search, using their
own respective belief systems to lead them

through the metaphorical maze of mystery and
morality, hoping to find the truth at the

center and to confront those responsible for
the kidnapping.

A perhaps more strikingly similar connection
can be found in Nordic mythology, involving

a maiden or princess stuck in the center of
a maze, again guarded by a monstrous creature

of sorts. The late poet Robert Graves argued
that what these various stories have in common

is that they share a journey of the main character
into both a physical as well as a mental (or

subconscious) underworld. Keller’s search
for his daughter might be a physical one,

but as his faith is challenged and he’s
forced to confront the darker, more violent

parts of his nature, his journey into the
maze of the underworld increasingly becomes

a mental one. So much so that his goal to
protect his family ends up almost destroying

it as he neglects his traumatized wife and
increasingly regresses back into old destructive

habits and places, until he literally descends
into his own darkest place imaginable. Helpless

and unable to save his daughter.
Loki on the other hand has to unravel the

truth by descending into a more physical hell,
trying to find order in disorder, and literally

facing off against the forces of the devil…
The maze here seems to be a symbol for the

chaos the Joneses set upon their victims until
they kill them with the venom of a snake,

the archetypal symbol for the Devil. Indeed
the archetype of the maze in Prisoners seems

to stand for the opposite of paradise, or
in the words of playwright Eugene Ionesco:

If goodness is order, evil must be disorder.
The straight path or the maze.

And it’s with this insight that Villeneuve
utilizes the symbol to explore the morality

and psychological nature of his characters.
Keller starts off as an openly devout Christian,

which is made quite obvious through his usage
of prayers, the abundance of Christian symbolism

surrounding him, his metaphorically appropriate
job as a carpenter, and through the names

of his wife and mother. Moreover Keller is
shown to have a proclivity for orderliness

and preparedness, both traits that consciously
define his character… However, as I’ve

shown, Keller’s journey is one of increasing
amounts of disorder, a quest that shakes his

faith to its core as he sees himself forced
to perform ever escalating brutalities on

the person he suspects holds the key to his
daughter. It’s only at the end of his journey,

when he’s in his darkest place that he finally
surrenders and returns to his faith in God.

Detective Loki goes down a decidedly different
path of the maze. His faith is based both

in the Christian as well as the Pagan. The
eight pointed star tattoo referring to such

things as redemption, humility, strength and
compassion. His mason ring representing the

search for enlightenment and rationality,
aligning perfectly with his character and

opposing the more emotionally based Keller.
His odd name in turn comes from the Nordic

God Loki, a cunning trickster and occasional
helper of other Gods. And even though the

ace detective is shown to not be immune to
frustration, he never truly breaks away from

his beliefs, which ultimately help him in
finding the missing children and solving the

mystery.
So besides acting as a symbol for the physical

and metaphorical journey into the underworld,
the maze also comes to represent a psychological

struggle and the human brain. Stanley Kubrick
showed this in connection the growing insanity

of Jack Torrance in The Shining, but it’s
also symbolism that has ample historical grounding.

Both Christian and pagan faiths around the
world have used the symbol of a linear one-way

labyrinth as a meditative pathway towards
the center, towards God, self-individualization

and the Tree of Life. Psychoanalyst Carl Jung
recognized labyrinths and similar figures

with centers, called Mandalas, as a universally
recurring archetype, always standing for transformation,

wholeness and the totality of an individual’s
reality. These symbols can appear on the most

common of household objects and things, like
pillows, sweaters and picture frames. But

they’re also expressed through religion
such as the Christian cross and the Tree of

Life. The wooden cross as I’ve shown is
already abundantly represented in Prisoners,

but so is the Tree of Life. In fact, Villeneuve
spares no expense focusing his lens on trees,

making them part of the plot and having his
main character interact with its substance.

Trees undeniably take on an important role
in the film. And it’s no coincidence that

they too are connected to the Mandala symbol
and by extension the labyrinth.

Their physical form is also a direct metaphor
for the human nervous system and the psychological

state of our characters. Their bare and leaf
less branches aligning with their mood and

mental state.
Which brings us back to the maze used by the

Joneses. Now it’s important to note that
this particular maze is not a simple, linear

one, far from it…
Their LSD influenced maze process is specifically

designed to mentally block their victims in
their journey towards self-individualization.

It’s a form of mind control that helps explain
why Alex seems to be stuck in the mind of

a 10 year old and why Bobby Taylor, although
physically free, is still obsessively trying

to find a way out of his own mental hell.
But the maze is not just a tool for the Joneses

to imprison children and lure in their parents,
it also goes to show how some of the characters

had been stuck in there all along (Keller
in door or Keller sitting). It’s revealed

that Keller’s dad committed suicide in his
house when Keller himself was still a teen.

His devout faith in God and his obsession
with preparedness as an adult can then perhaps

be explained as a subconscious defensive reaction
to that traumatic event. The contrast between

his tidy house and his dilapidated parental
home, and Keller’s unwillingness to renovate

the place… reveal that the death of his
father has still not been resolved in his

mind. Keller’s self-growth as a teen has
been stunted by this trauma, and in a way

he is as much a Prisoner as Alex Jones and
Bobby Taylor, his repressed feelings of rage

and despair awakened by the kidnapping of
his daughter. Even Keller’s name, meaning

‘basement’ in German, speaks to his character,
his hidden away mental trauma and foreshadows

his destiny perfectly.
Holly Jones on her turn has been a prisoner

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囚犯。正確的象徵主義 (Prisoners: Symbolism Done Right)

literally

ultimately

stick

struggle