George Lucas’ use of the character of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader as a means to explore the meaning and symbolism of the tragic hero myth is particularly evident in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. This episode conveys the final pieces of the story of an aspiring young man whose intense need for security leads him to fatally align himself with the antilibidinal forces of the Dark Side. It is therefore a key part of saga’s identity as a modern myth, or monomyth, the numerous allusions to mythological and classical themes of which are apparent from multiple theoretical perspectives. The Campbellian emphasis on separation, initiation and return is apparent throughout the saga, and renders its plot particularly susceptible to comparative analysis along the lines of the hero’s journey. A Jungian approach examines separation, initiation and return in the context of such basic primal categories as the Wise Old Man, Shadow and Anima/Animus, thus facilitating the study of the interconnectedness of the saga and other cultural myths, both past and present, according to universal archetypes associated with the collective unconscious. Freud’s review of this collective unconscious, which he called archaic heritage, identified religiosity as the principle outcome of Man’s defensive regression in the face death. His analysis of Moses’ transition from Egyptian prince to Jewish rebel identifies the objective psyche as a repository of the collective memory of the murdered primeval Father, thereby raising oedipal themes very similar to those laid out in the canon of the saga.
It is clear, then, that the saga is susceptible to many interpretations, none of which may be said to take literal presence over the others. Revenge differs from the rest of the saga, however, in that it reveals a more interpersonal application of Lucas’ vision, one that allows for a closer examination of the psychology of its key mythical characters. Nowhere is this more evident than in Revenge’s portrayal of the process of neurosis and growth in the character of Anakin Skywalker, who despite his seemingly limitless intellectual and physical potential is plagued by behavioral impulsivity, emotional dysregulation and unsatisfactory interpersonal relationships. In this way Revenge is susceptible to an interpersonal psychoanalytic analysis. Such an approach offers to provide a deeper understanding of the unconscious forces that facilitated Anakin’s transition to the Dark Side, particularly the roles of and conflicts between his egosyntonic idealized image and his egodystonic true self. Such an analysis suggests Anakin’s transition to the Dark Side, which is seen as directly related to his fascination in becoming the indestructible, all-powerful warrior-hero, is not due to cosmic predetermination, but to an unconscious striving for security via an idealized image rooted in an unconscious sadistic need to control.
A brief review of Anakin’s origins quickly reveals the etiology of this insecurity and its subsequent behavioral and intrapsychaic trends. The son of a slave woman, Anakin Skywalker is currently one of the most powerful Jedi in the galaxy. His Jedi teacher, Obi-Wan Kenobi, views him as the Chosen One, or the prodigal Jedi who will bring peace and order back to the galaxy. Indeed, Anakin’s superb physical and intellectual abilities suggest an innate, almost messianic strength. Nevertheless, he suffers from intrapsychic and interpersonal deficits that speak to his humanity and mortality. As a child he was forced to find his way in the world without the guidance of a father figure, and during young adulthood he experienced the premature loss of his mother. Anakin’s status as a Jedi offered him the chance to avenge his mother’s death and the ongoing ability to protect others like her from similar fates. He remains plagued by feelings of insecurity, however, and uses his position to demand respect from those he saves and as a means to consolidate his personal and political power.
Time and again Anakin’s behavior puts him at odds with his adopted family, the Jedi Knights. The Jedi emphasis on peace and justice is congruent with Anakin’s values, but their belief in restraint and a monastic lifestyle conflicts with his impulsivity and social position as a husband and father-to-be. When the Jedi council denies him the title Jedi Master, Anakin experiences their decision as a parent’s failure to uphold a promise and as disregard for his professional potential. In response, he turns to Chancellor Palpatine, an alternative father figure into whom Anakin’s ego and libidinal energies are cathected. Palpatine offers to provide Anakin the means to avert the imagery put forth in his allegedly prophetic dreams, which suggest his wife, Padme, will die during childbirth. In so doing, Anakin associates himself with the Dark Side, a part of the force that consolidates and validates the feelings, morals and behaviors Anakin views as key to the actualization of a secure self.
Anakin’s transition to the dark side is facilitated through the actualization of an idealized image via classical moving against behavior. According to Horney’s neo-Freudian school, the idealized image is a set of inauthentic behaviors, beliefs and goals that are unconsciously formulated in response to interpersonal events that elicit feelings of insecurity. Anakin’s idealized image emphasizes power and shuns introspection, restraint and humility. It prefers the rigidity of moral absolutes to free choice and displays a narcissistic preference for sameness. Anakin’s idealized image is rooted in an unconscious sadistic need to control that resulted from the premature death of his mother and its resultant feelings of inadequacy and insecurity. This is apparent in Anakin’s dream imagery, which includes manifest images of his wife’s impending death and suggests excessive feelings of guilt, a desire for revenge and a latent belief that he is incapable of assuming the paternal role of protector, perhaps related to the fact that he lacked a father figure as a child.
The gradual actualization of Anakin’s idealized image begins when he murders Count Dooku. This act conflicts with the moral code of the Jedi knights and sets the stage for his eventual conversion to the Dark Side. After killing Dooku, Anakin is immediately remorseful. Chancellor Palpatine offers him absolution by concluding that the need to neutralize the political threat Dooku posed justified Anakin’s impulsive act despite its being incongruent with the stipulations of the Jedi Code. Anakin’s acceptance of this defense speaks to his nascent belief that the Jedi Code, with its emphasis on introspection and restraint, inhibits those behaviors that are most likely to provide him with a sense of security. Rejecting the Jedi Code enables him to avoid the personal responsibility associated with free choice and allows him to engage in unchecked expressions of anger that increase his feelings of strength and security. The murder of Count Dooku therefore shows Anakin how the Dark Side can offer him a respite from the anxiety induced by his chronic inability to consistently apply the Force in a manner that satisfies the moral obligations of the Jedi code and his personal desire for revenge.
Following Dooku’s death, Anakin officially begins his apprenticeship to Palpatine. This relationship is the basis of Anakin’s final move towards his idealized image, a major part of which grew out of the feelings of insecurity that resulted from a childhood devoid of a protective father figure. Anakin’s idealized image places great emphasis on power, strength and other qualities typically associated with masculinity. It categorically rejects such stereotypical feminine traits as introspection and restraint by externalizing them onto others, who are increasingly viewed as worthless and expendable. Anakin’s slaughter of the Jedi younglings reflects his sadistic tendency to externalize blame onto those in whom he sees unacceptable parts of himself. A less dramatic but equally powerful example of this is seen in Anakin’s falling out with his former teacher, Obi-Wan Kenobi. Obi-Wan represents those aspects of the Jedi movement Anakin sees as weak, threatening and disappointing. He reminds Anakin of the narcissistic injury the Jedi instilled when they denied him the title Jedi Master and comes to be seen as a threat to the actualization of Anakin’s idealized image.
We see, then, that as the plot unfolds Anakin becomes more interested in the rigid application of his idealized image and less focused on the moral and societal issues that initially attracted him to the Jedi cause. When disappointments and betrayals reveal the inauthenticity of this image, Anakin succumbs to feelings of self-hatred, particularly whenever he is obliged to engage in challenges where his true self may reveal its inadequacies vis-à-vis the narcissistic expectations of his idealized image. To such challenges Anakin responds with defensive disavowal, employing sadism, externalization and other means which misdirect his ego and libidinal energies into the Dark side as represented by Palpatine, who seems a narcissistic alternative ego-ideal. As his psyche succumbs to the toxicity of this artificial image, so too does his body, which falls prey to the dissolution of metal and machines.
In Revenge, we see Anakin as we have never seen him before; He is a man in the fullest physical sense of the word who possesses the power of Darth Vader and the emotional complexity of a youth no longer protected by the innocence of latency. Revenge is therefore unique in that it portrays an intermittent period of Anakin’s life that might seem insignificant due to its brevity and simplicity in the face of the saga’s more colorful depiction of mythological archetypes, but nevertheless offers the most complete picture we have of Anakin’s overall personality. We see an Anakin whose memories of the past influence his actions of the present and color his hopes for the future. We watch him as he struggles with the personal responsibility associated with free choice and lives with the thoughts, feelings and behaviors induced by an authentic erotic fascination. Such emotions are not to be seen again until Episode VI when, after years of repressing any striving for pleasure, he becomes unable to handle his drives when the repressed returns and longs for an erotic abandonment in death. An interpersonal analysis of Anakin’s neuroses can therefore be said to offer greater understanding of the unconscious forces that facilitated his transition to the Dark Side. It suggests the film’s outcome is not related to cosmic predetermination, a specific archetype, or even the entropy of Thanatos. Rather, Anakin’s succumbing to the Dark Side is related to his need for security, an obsession whose origins reside in the interpersonal deficits of his childhood, specifically his mother’s untimely death and his lack of a father figure. The resultant compensatory need to re-establish a sense of control is at the root of his unconscious sadistic need to control, his narcissism and his tendency to externalize blame. These parts of Anakin’s idealized image are similar to the values and behaviors espoused by the Dark Side, and facilitate his transition from Anakin to Darth Vader.
Bibliography
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Horney, K. (1945). Our Inner Conflicts: A Constructive Theory of Neurosis. New York, NY: W. Norton & Company.
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