THE ID DOMINATION OVER NINA SAYERS' EGO AS SEEN ...

THE ID DOMINATION OVER NINA SAYERS’ EGO AS SEENIN HER CHARACTERISTICS IN DARREN ARONOFSKY’S

BLACK SWAN MOVIE

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirementsfor the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

ByRR. ADINDA AULIA RIZTHIA

Student Number: 174214066

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERSFACULTY OF LETTERS

UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMAYOGYAKARTA

2021

PLAGIAT MERUPAKAN TINDAKAN TIDAK TERPUJI

ii


BLACK SWAN MOVIE

TITLE

AN UNDERGRADUATE THESIS

Presented as Partial Fulfillment of the Requirementsfor the Degree of Sarjana Sastra

in English Letters

ByRR. ADINDA AULIA RIZTHIA

Student Number: 174214066

DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH LETTERSFACULTY OF LETTERS

UNIVERSITAS SANATA DHARMAYOGYAKARTA

2021


iii


iv


v

STATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY

I certify that this undergraduate thesis contains no material which has been

previously submitted for the award of any other degree at any university, and that,

to the best of my knowledge, this undergraduate thesis contains no material

previously writtern by any other person except where due reference is made in the

text of the undergraduate thesis

April 5, 2021

Rr. Adinda Aulia Rizthia


vi

LEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH

UNTUK KEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS

Yang bertanda tangan di bawah ini, saya mahasiswa Universitas Sanata Dharma

Nama : Rr. Adinda Aulia Rizthia

Nomor Mahasiswa : 174214066

Demi pengembangan ilmu pengetahuan, saya memberikan kepada PerpustakaanUniversitas Sanata Dharma karya ilmiah saya yang berjudul


BLACK SWAN MOVIE

beserta perangkat yang diperlukan (bila ada). Dengan demikian saya memberikankepada Perpustakaan Universitas Sanata Dharma hak untuk menyimpan,mengalihkan dalam bentuk media lain, mengelolanya dalam bentuk pangkalandata, mendistribusikan secara terbatas, dan mempublikasikannya di internet ataumedia lain untuk kepentingan akademis tanpa perlu meminta ijin kepada sayamaupun memberikan royalti kepada saya selama tetap mencantumkan nama sayasebagai penulis.

Demikian pernyataan ini saya buat dengan sebenarnya.

Dibuat di YogyakartaPada tanggal 6 April 2021

Yang menyatakan,



vii

“When we hit our lowest point,

we are open to the greatest

change”-Avatar Aang in Legend of Korra

MOTTO PAGE


viii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Firstly, I would like to thank Jesus Lord who give me such a good life. His

unconditional love bless me to finish this reasearch. I also would like to thank to

my advisor, miss Elisabeth Oseanita Pukan, S.S., M.A., for her suggestion and

understanding me as the student who is doing research while working as a

full-time employee. My gratitude is also addressed to my Co-Advisor Dr. G. Fajar

Sasmita Aji, S.S., M.Hum. for correction to improve my thesis.

Secondly, I am grateful to have such a amazing family like my mother, my

sister, and my friends who always support me in doing my research. I present this

research to them all. God bless them.



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TABLE OF CONTENTS

TITLE...................................................................................................................... iiAPPROVAL PAGE................................................................................................ iiiACCEPTANCE PAGE........................................................................................... ivSTATEMENT OF ORIGINALITY........................................................................iiiLEMBAR PERNYATAAN PERSETUJUAN PUBLIKASI KARYA ILMIAH UNTUKKEPENTINGAN AKADEMIS................................................................................. viMOTTO PAGE......................................................................................................viiACKNOWLEDGEMENT.................................................................................... viiiTABLE OF CONTENTS........................................................................................ixLIST OF FIGURES..................................................................................................xABSTRACT............................................................................................................xiABSTRAK...............................................................................................................xiiCHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION.............................................................................1

A. Background of the Study.............................................................................. 1B. Problem Formulations...................................................................................4C. Objectives of the Study.................................................................................4D. Definition of Terms...................................................................................... 4

CHAPTER II: REVIEW OF LITERATURE.......................................................... 6A. Review of Related Studies............................................................................6B. Review of Related Theories........................................................................11

1. Theory of Characterization................................................................... 112. Theory of Mise en Scene...................................................................... 153. Theory of Psychoanalysis..................................................................... 18

CHAPTER III: METHODOLOGY....................................................................... 21A. Object of the Study..................................................................................... 21B. Approach of the Study................................................................................ 22C. Method of the Study................................................................................... 23

CHAPTER IV: ANALYSIS.................................................................................. 24A. The Description of Nina Sayers’ Characteristics in Darren Aronofsky’sBlack Swan......................................................................................................24B. The Id dominance over Nina Sayers’ Ego.................................................. 44C. The Influence of The Id Domination to Nina Sayers’ Characteristics........51

CHAPTER V: CONCLUSION..............................................................................57REFERENCES.......................................................................................................62APPENDIX............................................................................................................ 65


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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1.1. Nina feels inferior................................................................................ 26Figure 3.1 Nina Sayers’s pink room...................................................................... 32Figure 3.2 Erica disturbs Nina’s conversation with Lily....................................... 34Figure 4.1 Nina feels herself change to black swan after murdering Lily............. 39Figure 5.1. Nina jams all her childish belonging into trash chute..........................40Figure 5.2 Nina has hallucination there is a black feather..................................... 41pop out from her back............................................................................................ 41Figure 5.3 Nina is dying after the final performance............................................. 42Figure 6.1 Nina performs as a black swan............................................................. 43Figure B.1. The black swan make up on Nina’s face.............................................47when the clubbing scene........................................................................................ 47Figure B.2. The butterfly wallpaper in Nina’s bedroom........................................48appear when Nina and Lily dance together............................................................48Figure C.1. The dolly shot is used in the opening scene........................................52


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ABSTRACT

RIZTHIA, ADINDA AULIA. (2021). The Id Domination over Nina Sayers'Ego as Seen in Her Characteristics in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan Movie.Yogyakarta: Department of English Letters, Faculty of Letters, Universitas SanataDharma.

Humans have psychological structure that consists of 3 parts, namely Id,Ego, and Superego. The three of them interact with each other to affect a person'spersonality. However, there are times when one of the part dominates over theother and results in significant personality changes. In the film Black Swan whichwas published in 2010, the main character, named Nina Sayers, could not balancethe three psychological parts and result in significant changes in her. This researchfocuses on the domination of the id and its consequences on Nina Sayers'personality throughout the movie Black Swan.

The first objective of this study is to examine Nina Sayers' characterdevelopment from the beginning to the end of the movie. The second objective isto describe the way the id dominates Nina Sayers. The third objective is to explainthe change in Nina's personality as a result of id domination.

This study uses psychoanalytic approach and is carried out in steps. Thefirst step is watching the Black Swan film in order to understand the character ofNina Sayers. The second step is understanding the psychoanalytic theory bySigmund Freud, Joseph M. Boggs and Dennis W. Petrie's characteristic theory,and visual elements in the film or mise-en-scene. The third step analyzes threeproblem formulations using a psychoanalytic approach and understood theories.The last step is drawing the conclusion of this research.

After analyzing the problem that related to the theory, the researcher findout that Nina Sayers is described as a fragile, childish ballerina whose ego is notstrong because the superego dominates it due to her over-controlling mother'supbringing. Slowly Nina followed her long-kept wish and became the same figureas Black Swan. The initially strong superego became weak when Nina's id waspeaked because her needs were not immediately satisfied. Nina's characterchanges to be impulsive and seductive as a result of id domination.

Keywords: Id dominance, psychoanalysis, Black Swan


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ABSTRAK

RIZTHIA, ADINDA AULIA. (2021). The Id Domination over Nina Sayers'Ego ss Seen in Her Characteristics in Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan Movie.Yogyakarta: Program Studi Sastra Inggris, Fakultas Sastra, Universitas SanataDharma.

Manusia memiliki struktur psikologis yang terdiri dari 3 bagian, yaitu Id,Ego, dan Superego.Ketiganya saling berinteraksi yang mempengaruhi karakterseseorang. Namun, ada kalanya salah satu dari bagian itu mendominasi dari yanglain dan mengakibatkan perubahan karakter yang signifikan. Dalam film BlackSwan yang dipublish tahun 2010 lalu, karakter utamanya yang bernama NinaSayers, tidak bisa menyeimbangkan ketiga bagian psikologis itu danmengakibatkan perubahan besar pada dirinya. Penelitian ini berfokus padadominasi id dan akibatnya pada karakter Nina Sayers sepanjang film Black Swan.

Objek pertama dalam penelitian ini adalah memeriksa karakter NinaSayers dari awal hingga akhir movie. Objek kedua adalah menjelaskan cara idmendominasi Nina Sayers. Objek ketiga adalah menjelaskan perubahan karakterNina sebagai akibat dominasi id.

Penelitian ini dilakukan secara bertahap. Tahap pertama menonton filmBlack Swan demi memahami karakter Nina Sayers. Tahap kedua memahami teoripsikoanalisis oleh Sigmund Freud, teori karakteristik oleh Joseph M. Boggs andDennis W. Petrie, serta elemen-elemen visual dalam film atau mise-en-scene.Tahap ketiga menganalisis tiga rumusan masalah menggunakan pendekatanpsikoanalisis dan teori-teori yang sudah dipahami.

Setelah menganalisa rumusan masalah menggunakan teori, penelitimenemukan bahwa Nina Sayers digambarkan sebagai seorang ballerina yanglemah, kekanakan, yang egonya tidak kuat, karena didominasi oleh superegosebagai hasil akibat asuhan ibunya yang terlalu mengontrol.Perlahan Ninamengikuti keinginannya yang sudah lama ia pendam dan menjadi sosok yangsama dengan Black Swan. Superego yang awalnya kuat menjadi lemah, saat idNina sudah memuncak karena tidak segera dipuaskan kebutuhannya. KarakterNina berubah menjadi impulsif dan menggoda sebagai hasil dominasi id.

Kata kunci: Dominasi id, psikoanalisis, Black Swan


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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Literature can be relatable to people who struggle with mental illness, mostly

when it discusses realistic topics such as family, friendship, school, and work. The

mental illness topic helps raise awareness for mental illnesses that are

occasionally sidelined, mostly due to a lack of understanding.

Literature can portray someone living with a certain mental illness, ordepict the emotions of an observer of the mental illness. The inclusion ofthese components can make the fictional text seem more like fact; it canmake the fiction seem real (Stokes, 2018).

Mental illness is seen as a taboo subject to be discussed in open conversations

with friends or family. People with mental illness are possessed by evil spirits,

which makes them blamed for their condition. Consequently, they feel insecure

about discussing their mental health. Stigma can lead to discrimination and

prejudice, from anywhere, even from the closest one. Discrimination may be

direct such as mocking about mental illness or treatment, or it may be indirect or

subtle. The discrimination and prejudice that someone has said can make it the

person with mental health issues more difficult to recover. Ironically, Hector

Tsang, a psychology professor at Hong Kong Polytechnic University, in his

journal, he said that stigma about mental health issue might keep people from

taking their medications.


2

Movie can be an alternative way to introduce mental illness to the general. It

can give the audience new insights and awareness about mental illness through

visuals to break discrimination and stereotypes. The director relies on the journey

of life that faces significant events that affected his/her characteristics and a good

plot, camera shoot technique, and intense emotional dialogue. Butler & Palesh

(2004) lists many examples of how traumatic experiences portrayed in movie

imitate perceptual responses to such experiences in reality (p. 64). As a result, the

audience can relate the emotion or event that the main character is dealing with in

their reality.

Sigmund Freud's theories were inspirational and influenced many filmmakers to

develop their idea about cinema's human behavior and perception. He created and

explored his concepts, such as the interpretation of dreams, the importance of the

unconscious mind, three psyche structures, and personality theory. The most

far-reaching and famous of his many accomplishments is probably the Freudian

personality theory (Janse, 2018). Personality theory is discussed about

hypothetical conceptualizations of essential mental functions. The id, ego, and

superego have most commonly been conceptualized as three essential parts of the

human personality (McLeod, 2018). These elements work together to create

problematic human behaviors. These concepts influenced many filmmakers to

produce a psychological suspense genre (López, 2015)

Concerning the title of this study, the researcher will analyze three basic

structures in the anatomy of the personality: the id, the ego, and the superego of

the main character in the movie entitled Black Swan (2010), Nina Sayers, and


3

how the id takes control entirely her characteristics. Black Swan is an American

psychological horror movie directed by Darren Aronofsky and the story by

Andres Heinz. In the movie, Nina Sayers shows her personality due to her strong

superego and almost does not have any ego to balance that. Then, her superego

comes to decrease and becomes weak as the result of id domination. She wants to

follow her desire to be the perfect swan queen, especially being the black swan.

At first, Nina Sayers is portrayed as a fragile, innocent, and obsessed ballerina

chosen as the Swan Queen on the New York City ballet company's new

production. She has to play the double roles as the White Swan and as the Black

Swan. Since Nina's personality tends to be an innocent White swan, she faces

much oppression to be a seductive Black Swan. The oppression comes from the

artistic director of her ballet company, her mother, and herself. Her mother, Erica,

is portrayed as an overprotective and authoritarian mother, while her director,

Thomas Leroy, is portrayed as an aggressive leader of the company. They both

have an impact on Nina Sayers' behavior throughout the movie.

The researcher chooses the movie entitled Black Swan, directed by Darren

Aronofsky due for several reasons. The first reason is Nina Sayers' personality

throughout the movie due to her id, ego, and superego's operations. Nina Sayers is

introduced as a 28-year-old woman who lives child-like with her mother. She

never lives independently because her mother manages every move of Nina

Sayers. Thus, Nina finds difficulty taking the Black Swan role, which is dark,

wild, and seductive. The second reason is the cinematography that Aronofsky had

used. The use of this movie's special effect can easily convey the message to the


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audience, such as Nina Sayers' transformation on her psyche as her interpretation

of her giving birth to a dark side.

B. Problem Formulations

Based on the background of study that has explained above, the researcher

draws the problem formulations in form of questions, as follows:

1. How is Nina Sayers described in the movie Black Swan?

2. How does the id dominate Nina Sayers’ ego?

3. How does the domination of id influence Nina Sayers’ characteristics?

C. Objectives of the Study

The study aims to explain the id domination over Nina Sayers’ ego that

influenced her characteristics. This goal is achieved by answering the three

problems formulated above. First, the researcher examines the characteristics of

Nina Sayers as described in the movie. Second, the researcher explain the way the

id dominates Nina Sayers’ ego. Third, the researcher explains the influence of id

domination in Nina Sayers’ characteristics.

D. Definition of Terms

Four terms that are often used in this study are characteristic, id, ego, and

superego.

Characteristics are revealing, distinguishing, or typical of an

individual character. Character is the persons represented in a dramatic or

narrative work, whom the reader interprets as being endowed with particular


https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/character

5

moral, intellectual, and emotional qualities by inferences from what the person

says and their distinctive ways of saying it- the dialogue- and from what they do-

the action (Abrams & Harpham, 1999, p. 32)

Based on APA Dictionary of Psychology, Id is the personality component that

contains the instinctual, biological drives that supply the psyche with its primary

energy or libido (VandenBos and Association, 2015, p. 518). It contains the

instinctual part of sexual and aggressive drives. The id strives for all desires,

wants, and needs of a human being. These gratifications have to be satisfied

immediately.

Ego in APA Dictionary of Psychology means the personality component that

deals with the external world and its practical demands (VandenBos &

Association, 2015, p. 353). It is the realistic part that its function to match the id's

desire in realistic and socially accepted.

In APA Dictionary of Psychology, the superego is the moral component of

the personality representing parental and societal standards. It determines personal

standards of right and wrong or conscience and aims and aspirations (VandenBos

and Association, 2015, p. 1050). The superego provides guidelines and judgments

which try to civilize human behavior.


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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF LITERATURE

A. Review of Related Studies

There are several thesis and one journal article related to this research that can

help the researcher to develop an analysis. The studies consist of three

undergraduate theses from Theodora Filli Astrida, Yohana Febry Chris Suprapto,

and Jenni Monica and one journal article from Riza Alun Sudrazat.

The first study is an undergraduate thesis entitled The Contribution of

Conflict in Revealing Nina Sayers' Personality Disorder Seen in Mark Heyman's

Black Swan (2011) by Theodora Filli Astrida. The study discusses the movie's

main character, Nina Sayers' personality disorder due to the conflict between her

and the other characters, including her mother, her dancer director, Thomas, and

Lily. The objective of this study is the characteristic of characters as stated

directly or indirectly based on the script, the conflict which appears in the story,

and the influence and reveals Nina's personality disorder at the end of the story.

The researcher used a Psychological approach that targeted the "software,"

learned faulty behaviors and habits, and bad words, thought, interpretations, and

feedback that direct daily living strategies. The result of this study is Nina is

described as a shy 28-year-old woman who always uncomfortable and nervous

with a new situation and new people around her. She becomes obsessive toward

her willingness, especially related to her career as a ballerina because she is

obsessed with being a Swan Queen. The other characteristics that the researcher


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attaches to Nina are envious, submissive, anorexic, and introverted. Nina's

personality is influenced by her only person in the family, her mom, Erica. She is

described as a single parent whose parental behavior shows an authoritarian

attitude. Because of that, Nina develops into a rebellious person.

Nina and her mother face conflicts resulting from the dissatisfaction of

psychological needs, which is related to her rejection and repressed feeling to be

treated like an infant. Besides, the conflict between Nina and her dance director,

Thomas, is motivated by her disability in showing her sexuality in the Black Swan

dance. She has to prove to Thomas that she can be the sensual Black Swan in her

way. At the same time, she becomes anxious that Lily, who is more desirable in

Thomas's perception, would be able to take the role from her.

At the end of her analysis, the conflict between Nina and the three significant

peoples (Erica, Thomas, and Lily) leads her into a stressful situation. It raises her

potentiality as a schizophrenic person. She finds that,

It can be concluded as she experienced the hallucinations and delusions,and she believed that other persons try to prevent her from achieving hergoal. The homosexual relationship that Nina has with Lily in herhallucinations is also the symptoms of the existence of personalschizophrenia (Astrida, 2011, p. 59-60)

This analysis of Nina's schizophrenic behavior is based on a comparative

study to Bradlow's case study on a schizophrenic patient. The patient shows the

same quality as Nina, who has some hallucinations and delusions. In conclusion,

Astrida's thesis mostly discusses how the conflict experienced by Nina Sayers

affect her personality.


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The second study is an undergraduate thesis entitled Self Individuation

Process in the Main Character of Black Swan Movie (2016) by Yohana Febry

Chris Suprapto. This study aims to describe both intrinsic and extrinsic elements

of the Black Swan movie and explain the self-individuation process reflected on

Nina Sayers as the main character in Black Swan based on Carl Gustav Jung's

theory. She uses the exponential approach to analyze the intrinsic aspects such as

narrative and cinematic elements such as the theme, character, setting, and

conflict and psychological approach to study the extrinsic element, Nina's

personality, to examine the self individuation process reflected in Black

Swan movie. She uses library research to collect data for both intrinsic and

extrinsic aspects. They are two kinds of primary data: a movie entitled Black

Swan directed by Darren Aronofsky and data collected from books, scripts,

journal, and articles related to the movie and the study's theory.

In her analysis, she finds pieces of evidence that Nina Sayers has experienced

those archetypes except the Self,

However, the archetype of Self cannot be found on Nina. Self appearsthrough a dream symbolizing various figures or objects. Nina mostlyhallucinates instead of goals. Hence, based on the analysis, themechanism and persona mainly dominate the main character, causingNina to die (Suprapto, 2016, p. 49).

Nina shows the persona mechanism as she pretends to be someone else to be

accepted by the ballet environment and her ambition in striving for perfection thus

she transforms into someone different. Nina is mostly dominated by shadow. The

shadow appears in another figure, which is the evil one. Animus is male's


9

characteristics existed in a female. Nina is considered to have male characteristics

such as competitive, hard-working, and courage.

The third study is a journal article entitled Id, Ego, and Superego Represented

by The Main Character of Fifty Shades of Grey Movie Christian Grey (2017)

by Riza Alun Sudrazat. In his journal, Riza focuses on analyzing the main

character Christian Grey by using Sigmund Freud's theory Id, Ego, and Superego

on the Fifty Shades of Grey. The approach that he uses is psychological approach.

Riza collects the data from the movie, books, and theory related to

psychoanalysis.

Fifty Shades of Grey is an erotic romantic movie that depicts BDSM or a

collective term that refers to bondage and discipline, dominance and submission,

sadism and masochism, and/ or slave and master relationship (Connolly, 2006, p.

1). In the movie, Christian Grey is portrayed as a charming, lean yet muscular,

and young CEO of Grey Enterprises who attracted to Anastasia Steele, a job

seeker for the college newspaper, after her interview. He gives Ana a folder with a

contract and specific explanations for their BDSM arrangement, but she has not

signed it. The plot goes to the climax when Ana wants him to show BDSM stuff,

but in the end, she knows that she cannot be what he wants her to be. She leaves

Christian, and the movie ends up.

After Riza analyzes Christian Grey's character using Freud's theory about id,

ego, and superego, he finds that Grey’s pleasure is having sex that range from

dominance, submission, role-playing. His superego, which is morality principle,

and ego works in balance at first. He tries to hide his dark side toward the society.


10

Then, the appearance of Ana as the girl who is willing to satisfy his id is

important for him. But in the end, Ana realize that she cannot longer to enter such

dark world of Grey after experiencing it.

Christian must let Anastasia go away from him because his id isunchecked. He allows himself dominated by the id and neglects his ego(Sudrazat, R.A, 2017, p. 9)

The fourth study is an undergraduate thesis entitled The Contestation Between

Id, Ego, and Superego in Stephenie Meyer's The Host (2016) by Jenni Monica.

This study's main purpose is to investigate the contestation between Freud's id,

ego, and superego of Melanie 'the human soul' and Wanda 'the alien soul.' She

uses psychological approach in order to analyze the topic. The Host is a movie

about two souls within a body. These souls contested with each other anytime

merely to decide the best thing to survive life. Each soul have different desires.

Melanie 'the human soul' wants to save her family, while Wanda 'the alien soul'

wants to hunt them down. Their desires competes each other. Thus it takes a few

time to take control of the body. The result of this study is Melanie’s three

elements of personality is not strong enough compared to Wanda’s demand.

Thus, Wanda's ego took the final victory in the contestation between herid, ego, superego and Melanie's id, ego, and superego (Monica Jenni,2016, p. 67)

In the end, Wanda considers that she has to protect Melanie from the Seeker

despite her desire to live and be with Ian. It proves that Wanda’s ego is the

strongest among other elements.

The theses from Theodora Filli Astrida and Febry Chris Suprapto have the

same object in which Black Swan. However, both use different theory. Astrida


11

uses Elizabeth Hurlock's theory of personality development and personality

disorder in order to analyze character's personality sickness. While Suprapto use

the analytical psychology theory by Carl Jung to analyze self individuation

process of Nina Sayers reflected in the movie Black Swan. Compared with both

study above, this study has the same object to identify Nina

Sayers' characteristics but the researcher more focuses on Nina Sayers' id

domination over her ego based Freud's theory of personality which is id, ego, and

superego which has same point with Riza Alun Sudrazat's journal article and Jenni

Monica's thesis. They discuses about Freud's three elements of personality in the

main character of the movie. In this research, the researcher combines the studies

above to raise the topic of how the id domination over Nina Sayers' ego can

influence her dynamic characteristics.

B. Review of Related Theories

There are three theories to analyze the object of this study. They are the

theory of characteristics, theory of mise en scene, and theory of psychoanalysis.

1. Theory of Characterization

In this thesis, the researcher discuses the main character of the movie Black

Swan, Nina Sayers. The main character of this movie provides a lot of information

related to this study which is the result of all conflicts and plot revolves around

Nina Sayers. Her characteristics is interesting to be analyzed because it is

complex and worth caring about.


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Based on Joseph M. Boggs and Dennis W. Petrie (2006)’ books The Art of

Watching Films, there are eight elements of characterization as follows:

1. Characterization through appearance

Casting for the right actors in the movie is crucial for the director to find

actors visually suited for the characters. Audiences can make certain assumptions

about them because of their facial features, dress, physical build, and mannerisms

based on the screen. Boggs and Petrie said,

Our first visual impression may be proven erroneous as the storyprogresses, but it is certainly an important means of establishing character(p. 51).

For example, audiences slightly assume the character in a movie is a rich guy

when they see his oozes class and power l appearance from his well-fitting

clothing throughout the movie.

2. Characterization through dialogue

Characters in a movie can be recognized about themselves by what they say.

Dialogue that they deliver each other can be a source of characterization of their

characters. Actors do not speak carelessly when appearing in front of the screen.

According to the script, the director directs them that match the character through

the right sentence structure, vocabulary, grammar, and particular dialects.

Their true thought, attitudes, and emotions can be suggested in subtle waythrough word choice and through the setress, pitch, and pause pattern oftheir speech (p. 51).

It can help actors reveal their characters' conditions like the class they come

from, educational background, and mental process.

3. Characterization through external action


13

Revealing the characters' actions is important in the movie. Every step that

the characters take in some way reflects his or her particular personality. Even the

most ordinary choice that made up by the actors can be revealing.

Of course, some actions are more important in revealing character thanothers. Even the most ordinary choice can be revealing, for some kind ofchoice is involved in almost everything we do. Sometimes the mosteffective characterization is achieved not by the large actions in the filmbut by the small, seemingly insignificant ones (p. 51).

For example, despite his duty to save a granny from a burning building, a

character of firefighters is willing to risk his life for saving the granny's pet. His

decision is based on his judgment about the value of the granny's pet.

4. Characterization through internal action

Inner action occurs within the character's minds and emotions, consisting of

secret, thoughts, fears, daydreams, and fantasies. The filmmaker reveals this

action by visualizing the audience what is happening in the character's mind to see

or hear the things that the character imagines. It can be achieved by,

Providing glimpses into the inner action by revealing the sounds andsights the character imagines he or she sees and hears, the filmmaker mayemploy tight close-ups on an unusually sensitive and expressive face(reaction shots) or may utilize the musical score for essentially the samepurpose (p. 52).

The tight close-ups technique make the audiences can see easily what

expression the actors is doing.

5. Characterization through reaction of other characters

Audiences can examine the characterization of the character through what the

other characters say or feel about each other. From this, audiences learn about the

relationship between the characters and the impact of it. They may be feeling


14

scared, happy, or anxious. Other character's views on the person can influence

audiences' views toward that person. As Boggs and Petrie said,

Sometimes, a great deal of information about a character is alreadyprovided through such means before the character first appears on thescreen (p.53).

A simple reaction from other characters can help the audiences have a better

understanding of the character.

6. Characterization through contrast: dramatic foils

The author of a story sometimes makes the characters have contrast

appearance to highlight certain aspects of their personality. This technique,

namely foils.

This is one of the most effective techniques of characterization bycontrasing characters whose behavior, attitudes, opinions, lifestyle,physical appearance, and so on (54)

By using foils, the audiences can understand the character visually.

7. Characterization through caricature & leitmotif

Caricature exaggerates the physical features of the characters to etch in the

audience's mind (p.55). The actors can show it by using movements/gestures,

voice qualities, and accents. Similarly, a leitmotif is the repetition of a single

action, idea, phrase, until it becomes a trademark or even theme song for that

character.

8. Characterization through choice of names

A screenwriter usually chooses a name from his/her character carefully to

make something meaningful or memorable. It is the method of name typing.


15

Name typing is the use of names possessing appropriate qualities ofsound, meaning, or connotation. A screenwriter usually thinks out hischaracters’ names very carefully (p. 55).

By using name choosing, the screenwriter can give audiences slightly

information about what character he/she is in the story.

2. Theory of Mise en Scene

Originally, mise-en-scene was a term from French, which translates as

'putting on stage' or 'staging' (Bordwell, Thompson, and Smith, 2017, p. 4). This

term refers to the arrangement of the visual elements of theatrical production. In

this study, the researcher finds four components of Mise-en-scene, those are

setting, costumes and makeup, lighting, and staging which is including acting and

movement in the shot (Bordwell et al, 2017, p. 115)

The first component is the setting. It is the place where and when the event of

the story happens.

In a film, the setting can come to the forefront; it need not be only acontainer for human events but can dynamically enter the narrative action(p.55)

Through setting, the audience can reveal more about the character's

personality. For example, a scene set in a character's bedroom is filthy messy. It

can be helpful for the audience to find details of the characters' mood or

personality.

The second component is costumes and makeup. The outfit that characters

wear or dramatic makeup can say a lot about them and what state that they are in.

According to Bordwell, Thompson, & Smith (2017), a costume can have a great


16

variety of specific functions in the film's overall form, such as it can play causal

roles in movie plots, it can be used for their purely graphic qualities, and costume

helps pick out the characters coordinated with the setting (p. 119). While makeup

is necessary for the movie to make the actor's face register well on movie stocks.

The makeup artist can make the actor's face more suit in their character by making

their face seem narrower or broader and emphasize the direction of glance by

applying blush, shadow, eyeliner, and mascara.

The third component is the lighting. In artistic film-making, the filmmakers

do not want just the legibility of images in bright or dark situations, but they want

to live the conditions and have a pictorial impact. Lightning is more than

illumination. A set of light within the frame helps create each shot's overall

composition and draw the audiences' attention. There are several lighting:

highlights and shadows, quality, direction, source, and color.

1. Highlights and Shadow

Highlights and shadow create shaped objects. Highlights provide cues to the

texture of the surface (p. 125). For example, if the body is glass, the highlights

tend to gleam or sparkle. If the surface is rough, it yields more diffuse highlights.

Shadows likewise allow objects to have portions of darkness or called shading (p.

125).

2. Quality

Quality of lighting refers to the quality of the relative intensity of the

illumination (p. 125). There are two qualities of lightning, which are hard and soft


17

lighting. Hard lighting creates defined shadows, whereas quiet lightning creates a

diffused illumination.

3. Direction

It refers to the path of light from its source or sources to the object lit (p. 125).

There are five lighting directions. First is frontal lightning. It can be recognized by

its tendency to eliminate shadows. The second is side lighting. It contrasts with

frontal lightning in which sculpts the characters' features. The third is the

backlighting. It directs from behind the subject. The light can be positioned at

many angles: high above, at various angles off to the sides, pointing straight at the

camera, or below. Fourth is underlighting. It suggests that the light comes from

below the subject. It usually uses in a horror movie to create a dramatic effect.

Fifth is top lightning. It is typically used to develop a glamorous image of the

actors.

4. Source

Directors and cinematographers have a way to manipulate the scene's lighting

based on two sources: a key light and a fill light. The key light provides the

brightest illumination and casts the strongest shadows. The fill light is a less

intense illumination that softening or eliminating shadows cast by the key light. In

Hollywood cinema, there is a term three-point lighting, which is one of the basic

techniques. The filmmaker develops the custom of using at least three light

sources per shot: key light, fill light, and backlight (p.130). This technique was

well suited for the high-key lighting used in classical Hollywood cinema.

High-key lighting refers to serving light and backlight to create a relatively low


18

contrast between brighter and darker areas. Otherwise, low-key lighting can create

a difference stronger and sharper, which makes shadows darker.

5. Color

The choice of colors in the movie has an important role, namely making the

atmosphere more intense. Sometimes using lightning instead of acting to convey

an emotion makes the scene more obvious.

The last component is staging: movement and performance. The filmmaker is

responsible for obliged to stage their actions and construct the actor's

performances. It consists of appearance, gestures, facial expressions, voice, and

effects.

3. Theory of Psychoanalysis

Based on theory of Psychoanalysis, there are three part of human psyche.

They are id, ego, and superego. Freud states that those work together to creat

human behavior.

Id is the reservoir for the instincts and libido (the psychic energy manifested

by the instincts) which is a powerful structure of the personality because it

supplies all the energy for the other two components. The id strives for immediate

satisfaction of its needs and does not tolerate delay or postponement of

satisfaction for any reason. It knows only instant gratification, a selfish,

pleasure-seeking structure—primitive, amoral, insistent, and rash. (Schultz &

Schultz, 2017, p. 45). For example, a newborn baby who cries their needs are not

met but at the same time have no knowledge of how to bring about satisfaction.


19

So, the id can attempt to satisfy its need by reflex action and wish-fulfilling

hallucinatory or fantasy experience, which Freud labeled primary-process thought.

Ego is the rational master of the personality. Its purpose is not to thwart the

impulses of the id but to help the id obtain the tension reduction it craves. Because

the ego is aware of reality, however, it decides when and how the id instincts can

best be satisfied. It determines appropriate and socially acceptable times, places,

and objects that will satisfy the id impulses. The ego does not prevent id

satisfaction. Rather, it tries to postpone, delay, or redirect it in order to meet the

demands of reality. It perceives and manipulates the environment in a practical

and realistic manner and so is said to operate in accordance with the reality

principle. (The reality principle stands in opposition to the pleasure principle, by

which the id operates.) The ego thus exerts control over the id impulses. (Schultz,

D. P., & Schultz, S. E., 2017, p. 46) Freud compared the relationship of the ego

and the id to that of a rider on a horse. His analogy can be carried a little further.

Just as the rider who doesn't wish to be parted from his horse often has no

alternative but to lead it where it wants to go, so too the ego habitually enacts the

will of the id as though it were its own. (Freud, S. 2003). Ego is caught in the

middle, pressured by these insistent and opposing forces. Thus, the ego has a third

master, the superego. To paraphrase Freud, the poor ego has a hard time of it,

pressured on three sides, threatened by three dangers: the id, reality, and the

superego. The inevitable result of this friction, when the ego is too severely

strained, is the development of anxiety.


20

Superego is the moral aspect of personality; the internalization of parental and

societal values and standards, that strives neither for pleasure (as the id does) nor

for attainment of realistic goals (as the ego does). The id presses for satisfaction,

the ego tries to delay it, and the superego urges morality above all. Like the id, the

superego admits no compromise with its demands (Schultz, D. P., & Schultz, S. E.,

2017, p. 47).

C. Theoretical Framework

As the title of this study is The Id Domination Over Nina Sayers' Ego As Seen

In Her Characteristics In Darren Aronofsky's Black Swan Movie, this study

focuses on Nina Sayer's changing characteristics as the result of the id domination

over her ego. Three related theories are applied to answer three problem

formulations: the theory of characteristics, the theory of mise en scene, and the

theory of psychoanalysis.

The theory of characterization by Boggs and Petrie is applied to answer the

first problem: how Nina Sayers is described in the movie Black Swan. In this part,

the researcher explains Nina Sayers' character from the beginning until the end of

the movie and the conflicts that Nina Sayers has to deal with that influence her

changing characteristics. This analysis is supported by the theory of

mise-en-scene, which discusses visual elements in the movie. Then,

psychoanalysis theory is applied to answer how the id dominates Nina Sayers' ego

and how it influences Nina Sayers' characteristics.


21

CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY

A. Object of the Study

In this thesis, the researcher chooses Black Swan movie script as the object of

this study. This movie was released in 2010 which has gotten ninety eight awards

and two hundred and seventy eight nominees based on IMDB (www.imdb.com,

November 2020)

In Black Swan, the main character Nina Sayers was performed by 2011 Oscar

winner as best performance by an actress in a leading role, Natalie Portman. The

movie centers on Nina Sayers’ life as a ballerina in the New York City Ballerina

company. Then, the production of of Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake ballet requires a

Swan Queen who leads two contrast roles which is the innocent and fragile White

Swan and the sensual and loose Black Swan. Nina is the ballerina who get chance

to perform as Swan Queen, but she struggles with her role as Black Swan because

her characteristics is more fit with the White Swan. Thomas Leroy (Vincent

Cassel), the artistic director claims that Nina is too frigid and only focus on the

technique not the feeling in dancing. She is overwhelmed by a feeling fail to

embody the sensual Black Swan and scared that her role will be changed to a

newcomer ballerina, Lily (Mila Kunis). At the same time, Nina puts Lily as her

role as the Black Swan because she fascinates Nina as her sensual characteristics.

Nina has hard time to get into the role is the result of Nina’s overprotective

mother, Erica (Barbara Hershey). Nina is treated like a child despite her adult age.

Throughout of the movie, Nina starts to break her comfort zone by the helps of


http://www.imdb.com

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyotr_Ilyich_Tchaikovsky

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swan_Lake

https://www.rogerebert.com/cast-and-crew/barbara-hershey

22

Lily, through doing what adult usually do for entertainments such as clubbing and

drinking alcohol. Lily offers Nina an ecstasy capsule to help her to relax. As the

result, Nina experiences something that she has not been experienced like her

sexual becomes more active. Like never-ending pressure, her anxious is decrease

after seeing Lily rehearsal as Nina’s alternate. She breaks all her mother’s sweet

girl. Eventually, she can perform the two opposite roles very well although she

kills herself as she hallucinates killing Lily.

This movie presents the struggle of being ballerina, especially as the main

character of the production, which requires perfections. In this thesis, the

researcher analyses how Nina Sayers’ characteristics changes as she prefers to

listen her desire or the id over her ego, despite it dangers her life and mental

health.

B. Approach of the Study

This study uses a Psychoanalysis in order to answer questions that have been

formulated. The approach is applied to analyze the main character of Black Swan,

Nina Sayers based on Sigmund Freud’s three parts of mind theory: the id, the ego,

and the superego.

Originally, psychoanalysis started from medical environment. Then, it entered

to academic field as one of literary criticism. It helps to understand about the

relationship between philosophy, culture, and literature. It deals with,

A work of literature primarily as an expression, in fictional form, of thestate of mind and the structure of personality of the individual author(Abrams & Harpham, 1999, p. 248).


https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MDMA

23

The approach consists wide branches, therefore the study limited the

psychological approach into the theory of three parts of mind. The researches uses

this approach to see how three parts of Nina Sayers take its side in different

events.

C. Method of the Study

This study applied library research as the study method by collecting the data

from books, movie script, and journal articles. The researcher used the primary

sources, which was the original script of Black Swan that has been taken from

moviecultists.com. Then, to support this research, the researchers used books such

as The Art of Watching Films by Joseph M. Boggs and Dennis W. Petrie, Film art:

An introduction by David Bordwell, Kristin Thompson, and Jeff Smith,

and Theories of Personality (11th ed.) by Duane P. Schultz and Sydney Ellen

Schultz, as the secondary sources.

The researcher took several steps to compile this research. The first step was

watching the movie Black Swan and every detailed scene related to the main

character's psyche toward an event. The second step was reading and

understanding the theory and approaches related to the analysis. Third, the

researcher tried to connect each scene showing the main character's personality

development by using the theory of characterization and started to analyze using

Sigmund Freud's three parts of mind theory. This study aims to find how one of

three parts of the mind takes control of the main character, which results in the

changing of the main character's personality. Fourth, the researcher drew a

conclusion based on the analysis.


https://www.amazon.com/Theories-Personality-PSY-235/dp/1305652959/

24

CHAPTER IV

ANALYSIS

This chapter consists of the answer of the problem formulation that is stated

in previous chapter. This chapter is divided into three parts. The first part reveals

the main character Nina Sayers that described in the movie Black Swan. The

second part is the domination of Nina Sayers’ id toward her ego. The third part is

the influence of Nina Sayers’ id domination to her characteristics.

A. The Description of Nina Sayers’ Characteristics in Darren Aronofsky’s

Black Swan

In the movie script, Nina Sayers is the major character. The story of this

movie focuses on Nina Sayers’ life from beginning until the end. Nina Sayers is

described as a 28-year old ballerina who dedicate her career in in a New York

City ballet company. Her characteristics change as the movie goes on. The

evidences of her characteristics can be seen in the several scenes in the movie.

The researcher uses theory of characterization according Boggs and Petrie (p.

59-67) to analyze the character of Nina Sayers. The result of this research as

following:

1. Fragile

Nina Sayers is described as a fragile woman. The way she talks and the tone

of her voice sounds weak. From the early scene, Nina is one of the candidates to

perform as a Swan Queen. The role requires two opposite characters: the innocent,


25

fragile White Swan as well as her dark, seductive twin, the Black Swan. Thomas

Leroy, the company director, is satisfied with her move as White Swan, but he

does not see Black Swan in Nina's performance. When Nina wants to continue her

audition, the newcomer ballerina from San Fransisco came late and interrupted

Nina by accident, which ends up Leroy stops Nina from continuing her audition.

Irritated, Nina comes home and hugs her mom, crying that she thinks she will not

get the role.

ERICA (CONT’D): So?NINA : It went okay.ERICA : Just okay?Erica hangs up her coat, turns and sees Nina tearing up.ERICA (CONT’D) : Darling?The tears start falling now.Erica goes to her and wraps her in an embrace.ERICA (CONT’D ): Shhh, shhh, tell me what happened.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 16, 00:16:12)

The feelings of unstoppable disappointment finally emerge when her mother asks

about the results of her audition. Nina has a hard time managing her emotions,

especially toward Lily. She believes that Lily is the main cause of her failed

audition.

LEROY (CONT’D)Truth is, when I look at you, all Isee is the White Swan. Yes, you’rebeautiful, fragile, fearful. Idealcasting. But the Black Swan...it’sa hard fucking job to dance both.NINA: I can be the Black Swan too.LEROY: Really? She’s hungry, volatile. In four years, every time youdance, I see you obsess over getting each move exactly right, but I neversee you lose yourself.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 23, 00:20:34)


26

Figure 1.1. Nina feels inferior

In the next scene, Nina decides to meet Leroy, hoping he will give her

one more chance to get the role. Through Leroy's dialogue, he does not see any

seductive side of Nina to be the Black Swan. All he sees on Nina is her fragile and

fearful side, though he admits that she is beautiful to be stand up on the stage.

Leroy gives a slight description of Nina's dance technique in four years, which is

she obsess over getting the same method of what she has been taught. After all,

what Leroy says about Nina is true. After hearing Leroy's response, the look in

Nina's eyes shows that she is a vulnerable person when there is pressure in front

of her. In the end, she only answers her goal and desire if she wants to be perfect.

The use of monochrome background and Nina in the middle symbolizes the

contrasting character that Nina is pursuing, which is the black and white swan.

Another scene that portrayed Nina as a fragile character is when she is told

'a coward' by Leroy when she asks him to correct her performance. She apologizes

as soon as Leroy underestimates her in front of some people during rehearsal.

NINA : I’m sorry. I’m sorry.LEROY : Stop saying that! Stop being so damn weak!He tosses his chair across the room. SMASHING into the wall.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 58, 00:54:20)


27

Though she does not need to apologize for something that is not her fault, Leroy

knows that and feels upset about her over-apologize, which ends him shouting at

her to continue the rehearsal.

2. Perfectionist

Perfection is the theme of this movie and also talking about Nina's obsession.

She wants to get perfection to be a great ballerina, and unfortunately, it makes her

'rigid' move. In the movie, Nina talks about perfection in some scenes, which can

be seen through her endless practice and Nina's repetition phrase in terms of

perfection.

Insecure, she looks like she wants to run out of the room.LEROY (CONT’D) : All that discipline, for what?NINA : I want to be perfect.He laughs.LEROY : Perfection’s not just about control. It’s also aboutlettinggo. Surprising the audience.Surprising yourself. Transcendence.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 23, 00:21:06)

When Nina comes to Leroy's office, she says that she just wanted to be

perfect, despite her lack of into Black Swan's role. As Leroy said, perfection

includes letting go. He never sees Nina lose herself. Instead, he sees Nina's move

as passionless.

The movie shows many scenes about Nina's rehearsal, but Leroy is never

satisfied. Any way Leroy can do to deal with her lack of fire, even inappropriate

behavior towards her, Nina still cannot get into the role of Black Swan. She is too

frigid to be a seductive Black Swan.


28

LEROY : David, answer me this question: are you interestedin fucking her?David snickers, embarrassed, shakes his head.LEROY (CONT’D) : No, of course not. No one would be.Leroy comes face to face with her.LEROY (CONT’D) : Nina, your Black Swan still looks no differentthan your White Swan. She’s’s just as...frigid.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 50, 00:47:00)

Figure 2.1 Leroy is practicing with Nina to dance seductively by touching

her private body

Leroy's vexing question makes Nina feels real pressure because she has

tried her best but still not enough to show Leroy the Black Swan's side. From the

screenshot above, Nina looks uncomfortable, but she does not react revolt to him.

Her obsession with perfection also can be seen through her action toward

Beth. Beth Macintyre is a former ballerina who is forced into retirement due to

her age. After the announcement of her retirement, she raged and destroyed her

property in her room. When Nina saw Beth left her room, Nina came inside and

stole Beth's property, such as lipstick, earrings, perfume, and a small knife. Even

Nina wore Beth's lipstick when she met Leroy in his office, hoping she could be

like Beth and be accepted as the Swan Queen. From the first, Nina indeed set Beth

as her role in terms of her accomplishments on stage. Though Nina gets insulted


29

by Beth because she feels that Nina did a dirty job to get the Swan Queen role,

Nina still saw Beth as a perfect ballerina. But throughout the movie, Nina

discovers that Beth was hit by a car while walking in the street, which makes her

legs broken. Her obsession worsened when she hallucinates to see Lily and Leroy

had sex the night before her performance. She hurriedly comes to the hospital and

returns Beth's property in the hope she can make amends.

Beth begins touching the objects, vaguely remembering.NINA (CONT’D) : I didn’t mean to make you feel this way. It’shappening to me now. She’s trying to replace me.Beth sees the earrings and it all clicks in.BETH : You stole all these things?NINA : I just wanted to be like you. Perfect.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 90, 01:21:54)

Nina thinks that she knows how it feels to be the one who got replaced after

seeing Lily and Leroy backstage. She repeated her desire to Beth that she just

wanted to be perfect.

3. Overcontrolled

Based on Psychology Dictionary, overcontrolled is behavior which is

frequently motivated by shyness or anxiety (Pam, N. M.S. 2013). People who is

overcontrolled tend to have too much self-control and a lack of social skills. In the

movie, other characters describe Nina as a frigid person who talks about her

ability to dance as the black swan. The definition of frigid based on the oxford

dictionary, especially for a woman, cannot enjoy sex. Leroy is the person who

tells Nina that she is too frigid.

LEROY : David, answer me this question: areyou interested in fucking her?David snickers, embarrassed, shakes his head.


30

LEROY (CONT’D ): No, of course not. No one would be.Leroy comes face to face with her.LEROY (CONT’D) : Nina, your Black Swan still looks no differentthan your White Swan. She’s’s just as...frigid.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 50)

Following Beth reveals that Leroy always says that Nina is a frigid little girl,

which makes her wonder whether Nina did something sexual to Leroy to get her

role.

BETH : What’d youdo to get the role?Nina shakes her head, confused.BETH (CONT’D) : He always said you were a frigid little girl.Her words needle Nina, too close to the truth(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 39)

They believe that Nina is under sexualized ballerina who is too rigid into

such a seductive black swan. Nina's frigidity is the result of her jealously and

overprotective mother, who has made Nina repressed. She is being overcontrolled

because her mother lives through her. Erica was a ballerina like Nina, but by

having Nina, she had to sacrifice her career. She wants Nina's life under her

control, but at the same time, when Nina gets an opportunity to get the significant

role, which she could not do, it makes her jealous.

Her overcontrolled behavior also can be seen when she tends to show a

lack of closeness to others. She seems lonely all of the time when she is in the

company. Even when she has a conversation about Beth with others, she takes it

very seriously.

VERONICA : Like someone who’s not approaching menopause.They snicker.NINA : I think it’s sad.VERONICA : What’s sad?NINA : Beth’s such an amazing dancer.


31

GALINA : So’s my grand-mother.NINA : Fonteyn danced into her 50’s...VERONICA : (rolling eyes)Yeah, we know(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 7)

The feeling of connection to others is difficult for Nina. The impact is either she is

being disliked or rejected by a group or gang around her—another scene when

Nina interrupts Lily and other ballerinas, Nina gets opposed by other ballerinas.

Nina KNOCKS loudly at the door, interrupting them.VERONICA : (resentful) Look who’s gracing us with her presence...NINA : Lily, I need to talk to you.LILY : Okay...NINA : Now.VERONICA :(you’re in trouble)Ooooh.The other girls giggle.LILY : Shut up.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 58)

After all, this overcontrolled characteristic affects her performance to be the black

swan and her social relationship.

4. Childish

In the movie, Nina told herself that she is 28 already, but as the movie goes

on, her behavior is still like a child. The name Nina itself has meaning 'Little Girl'

in Hebrew and Spanish. Nina is still a child in the soul. Aronofsky uses symbols

and color to describe Nina's child side characteristic in her room decor and her

mother's conversation. The first scene starts with a child way- Nina woke up from

her dream, and the camera shot her bedroom. The wall is painted pink and white,

and the bed surrounding by animal dolls is odd; a 28-year-old woman has that

kind of room.


32

Every time Nina is going to sleep, her mother always turns on the tiny music

box with a ballerina on top. The following scene is when Nina and her mother

have a conversation about her failed audition.

ERICA (CONT’D) : But it’s alright. No matter what. *You’ll probablyget to dance the Pas de Quatre again. That’s such a wonderful part. Ormaybe he’ll make you a Big Swan. Either way, you’ll shine.NINA : I know, mom.Erica removes Nina’s EARRINGS, then opens a JEWELRY BOXsitting on the night stand and drops them inside. A TOY BALLERINAspins to TINNY MUSIC. Nina gets under the covers. Erica tucks her inand sits down on the edge of the bed.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 20, 00:18:28)

Figure 3.1 Nina Sayers’s pink room

Erica seems supportive to Nina as she said that Nina is already perfect whatever

the role she gets. The way Erica talks to Nina is the same as a mother who is

confronting a young child. When she said, "When you start to get older, there's all

this ridiculous pressure", she does not realize that Nina is already getting older,

not in the beginning state. Moreover, she calls Nina' sweetgirl' for a couple of

times. It seems Nina is used to be called like that.


33

Nina may get supports from her mother, but it is already cross the line. In the

scene after The gala celebrating the new season, Erica undresses Nina, although

Nina already denied that she could do it by herself.

Erica removes the earrings, then walks behind Nina to unzipher. Nina faces her.NINA : I can do it.ERICA : Turn.Nina turns back around, reticent.ERICA (O.S.) (CONT’D) : He must have been at your side all night,showing you off.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 43, 00:38:08)

By undressing Nina, Erica finds out that the scar is stretching on Nina's back.

As a mother disciplines a child, Erica cut Nina's nails while grumbling about

Nina's role that made Nina hurts herself. Erica maintains full control of Nina's life

even exceeds her daughter's privacy which makes her behavior seems disturbing.

After the scene above, the next scene shows Nina wake up from her sleep and

remember the night before that Leroy asks Nina to touch herself to live up to her

pleasure. Nina starts to get into, but she looks over and sees her mom asleep in the

chair beside the bed. The scene is disturbing because Erica looks like she never

leaves Nina after what happened the other night.

The existence of Lily is essential to help the viewers to compare what adults

usually should be. Lily's characteristic is the opposite of Nina's. She is ruthless,

free-spirited, petty, and personifies the Black Swan characteristic perfectly. Her

looks say much about her personality: tattoo on her back, black dress dan

revealing wearing she usually wears, and thick eyeliner compared to other

characters, especially Nina. She usually wears a white outfit or dress in the first


34

half of the movie. But throughout the movie, Nina slowly reveals her adult side

with the help of Lily. When Nina rebels against her mother are in the scene, Lily

comes to Nina and Erica's apartment to apologize and ask Nina to go out.

ERICA : Sweetie, you need to rest.LILY : Jesus.Nina pushes the elevator call button.NINA (to Lily) : Wait.Nina walks to the door, and grabs her coat.ERICA : What are you doing?NINA : I’m going out.ERICA : What?(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 63, 00:58:10)

Figure 3.2 Erica disturbs Nina’s conversation with Lily

Nina hesitated to go out with her rival, but when Nina's mom called her

continuously and saw Lily's response, she finally leaves her apartment. Her

mother's position in the back symbolizes whenever Nina wants to go ahead; her

mother always foreshadows her move.

The next scene jumps to the restaurant. They have a conversation about

Leroy. Lily knows Leroy called Beth 'little princess' and argues that it is unusual

to call an adult like that. Instead, Nina seems to find it sweet.

LILY : Can’t believe that’s what he called her. So gross!NINA : I think it’s sweet.LILY : Little princess? He probably calls every girl that.NINA : Only Beth.


35

LILY : Well, I’m sure she lost the titleafter her game of chicken.Nina’s smile fades.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 65, 00:58:28)

Seeing Nina too uptight, Lily offered Nina a pill to loosen up. Nina once

again hesitates because she never does something like this. She says no at first,

but she remembers Leroy always tells her to lose herself to get the Black Swan

role, then finally she accepts it and gets high with Lily. At the moment, Nina yet

feels free to express herself sexually, which starts with a kiss a man and dance

sensually at the club.

After the party scene, Nina starts to ignore her mother and yell at her as a

rebellious teenager who came home late. She angrily screams at her mother

because she never lets Nina alone. Nina blocks her mother with a piece of broken

wood.

ERICA : What’s this?NINA : It’s called privacy! I’m not fucking twelve years oldanymore!Erica struggles a little with the door, but can’t get it tobudge.ERICA : You’re not my Nina right now!NINA : LEAVE ME ALONE!!!(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 75, 01:08:07)

The wood represents Nina herself which is tough and no more as weak as the

past her. This scene is proof that Nina resents her mother's overbearing hold.

4.Anxious

After the scene, Nina finds pleasure by fantasizing about Lily; she succeeds in

reaching an adulthood phase. She is no more mother's sweet girl. Unfortunately,


36

her new degree brings her to a disaster, which is her anxiety is increased. Nina's

anxiety can mostly be shown in the second half of the movie.

The biggest fear of Nina is a replacement from her role. The Swan Queen is

meant a lot to Nina because she never gets such a leading role every season. The

problem is Nina still cannot manage the Black Swan role. According to Leroy,

although she begins to show her dark side, her performance as the Black Swan is

flawed. The situation becomes complicated to Nina when she finds out Lily is

wearing the Black Swan costume in the same fitting room. Realizing her rival is

going to play the role, she feels excellent anxious.

NINA : Lily. You made her my alternate.LEROY : There’s always an alternate, youknow that. Lily’s the best choice.NINA : She wants my role.LEROY : Every dancer in the world wants your role.NINA : No, she’s different. She’s after me. She’s trying to replaceme.LEROY (condescending): Nina...NINA : Please believe me.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 85, 01:17:36)

From the dialogue above, Nina asks Leroy never to replace her with Lily. She

convinced him that Lily has an evil intention to steal her role. Aronofsky shots

Nina's face near to give the viewers that Nina is scared to death if Lily is going to

steal the part. Because the big day is coming the next day, Nina practiced harder

than before, even until the company closed. The effect of her anxiety makes Nina

sees her reflection move differently from her, which makes this scene terrified.

Her anxiety affects her mind to think irrationally. Furthermore, her delusion

worsens when she saw Leroy and Lily have physical contact backstage. Then, she

decided to the hospital to return Beth's belonging


37

A hand suddenly GRABS Nina’s arm.Awake, Beth stares Nina down.BETH : What are you doing here?Stunned, Nina’s unable to answer.Beth follows her gaze to the random items on her table.NINA : I’m so sorry.Beth begins touching the objects, vaguely remembering.NINA : I didn’t mean to make you feel thisway. It’s happening to me now.She’s trying to replace me.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 89, 01:21:47)

Nina believes that Beth had the same feeling as her when she replaced Beth, so

she tried to apologize. After that, Beth grabs the small knife and stabs herself.

Nina panic and realized that what she was looking at was not Beth but Nina's face

in Beth's body. Nina hallucinates herself, impaling her face. Not only that, but she

also has a hallucination in her apartment, such as she sees a black shadow in the

shape of Beth, her mother's paints became alive, and she transforms to become a

human black swan. The next morning when Nina wakes up, her mother was on

the side. Her mother already called the company that Nina is not feeling well

enough to not perform for tonight. Nina feels upset with her mother and forces to

go to the company. Leroy tells Nina that Lily is going to be the Swan Queen, but

Nina convinces Leroy that she can do it.

LEROY : I already asked LilyNINA : Fuck. Have you announced it?(He hasn’t.)NINA : After Beth, do you need more controversy?Leroy smirks at her directness.NINA : I’m here, Thomas. I’m doing it.He looks at her, considering, and gives her a reluctant nod.She smiles.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 99, 01:27:16)


38

He changes his mind when Nina dares to stand up for herself, something

different and brave from Nina. He once again reminds Nina to let Nina's frigid

style go and lose herself.

Nina's anxiety in the form of hallucination shows when Nina heard a laugh

from other ballerinas and saw Lily is flirting with David, who played the prince,

along with the swan queen. She felt threatened until make her fall on the stage

when she was performing the white swan.

He slowly turns her around, keeping her held high.From her swirling, bird’s eye view, Nina sees the rows ofidentically dressed Little Swans glaring at her...Nina freaks, jerking her body.David’s grip SLIPS and Nina SLAMS onto the stage.It’s a horrific moment that feels like an eternity.Gritting her teeth, Nina looks up around her, sees the facesof the other ballerinas. Staring at her sadistically.Nina finds Lily, glancing at David. He snaps to and quicklyhelps Nina up.DAVID : What the fuck?She’s too freaked to respond.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 102, 01:31:23)

Hence, it makes Leroy angry with Nina that made her cry. In her room, Nina

hallucinates seeing Lily in the black swan dress. She smashes Lily to the mirror

with her anger, but it turned up that Nina once again is seeing her face but in

Lily's body. Scared and Angry, Nina stabs Lily in the belly, causing her death.

Nina decided to hide Lily's body in the closet and immediately changed her

costume and make-up.

She closes the door behind her, ready to cry.She looks up, and finds Lily putting on makeup and wearingLILY : How about...I dance the Black Swan for you?Nina looks into the mirror. Instead of Lily’s reflectionthere’s the Double.NINA : Leave me alone. Leave me alone.


39

DOUBLE : (in mirror) But it’s my turn.Nina’s fury rises up from inside.NINA : Leave me alone!!!(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p. 105, 01:33:12)

Figure 4.1 Nina feels herself change to black swan after murdering Lily

This scene is the part when Nina ultimately left her innocent and fragile side. She

cared much about her performance than murdering people. She can manage the

black swan properly on the stage, even getting standing applause from the

audience. From the screenshot above, through the effect of bloody-red eyes and

close shots, the appearance of Nina convinces the viewers about her

transformation into the black swan. Although it is just hallucinations, the viewers

can see what Nina is feeling.

5.Impulsive

Nina's behaviors change to be impulsive to get into her role, which means

what she is doing is risky and inappropriate. When she finally finds out her dark

side, she tries to change her past behavior spontaneously. From the start, Nina

likes to be played a music box by her mother. But throughout the movie, she

realized that it was childish.

She opens the JEWELRY BOX sitting on her night stand.She watches the ballerina spin for a moment...


40

Then suddenly SLAMS the lid shut and throws the box hardagainst the wall.She shoots out of bed and starts gathering all her childishpossessions--stuffed animals, dolls, keepsakes, etc.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, p.82, 01:14:25 )

Figure 5.1. Nina jams all her childish belonging into trash chute

She smashed the music box and threw her childish stuff in anger. She is angry

because she was suspicious of Leroy's glare at Lily when Nina was rehearsing.

She also showed to hurt herself unconsciously throughout the movie.

Nina has a scratching behavior which she has done in the past, which her

mother tells. She continuously scratched on her back that makes it wound. Her

mother aware of this issue and always get upset when she found out about her

new wound. From the dialogue above, her mother wonders why it takes too long

in the bathroom for Nina, so she asks Nina whether she was okay or not.

As Nina strives for perfection, Nina impulsively ignores the danger of herself

and others. She hurts Beth in the hospital scene when Nina returns Beth's

belonging, which is not explicitly shown in the movie. She also does not care

about her mother when she checks Nina's condition. Nina smashes her mother's

hand when she slams the door. More terrifying is Nina slams the door more than

once. She cares nothing but her hallucinate transformation.


41

ERICA : Stop, you’re sick!NINA : Get OUT!She manages to get her all the way out the door.But ROTHBART’S HAND grabs the door frame.Nina SLAMS the door, SMASHING the hand.Erica SCREAMS in pain. Nina slams the door again, and again. The handnow human. She finally gets the door all the way shut.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, pp. 94, 01:24:57)

The following screenshot is when Nina is having hallucinations of her

body changing into the animal shwan. The camera focuses on the object that Nina

has found from her back and her bloody-red eyes meaning that Aronofsky wants

the viewers to focus the thing or in this scene the black feather and the changing

color of Nina’s eyes.

Figure 5.2 Nina has hallucination there is a black feather

pop out from her back

Furthermore, when she accidentally stabs herself, she still forces herself to

perform the final act. She might ask for help or request the alternate to perform,

but she does not mind her wounded belly performing for the last act to get

perfection. The final act is when the white swan is falling backward as she takes

suicide and tragically died. Nina has to jump in the condition the wound gets

worse. Leroy and other ballerina notice this when they get around Nina.


42

LEROY : Someone, get help.Leroy looks back at her. She smiles.NINA : It was perfect.He understands.The APPLAUSE grows more and more faint. Her eyes glaze overand everything goes completely SILENT.Nina lies there motionless, a smile frozen on her face.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, pp. 112,01:42:25 )

Figure 5.3 Nina is dying after the final performance

Aside she is dying, she whispers, "It was perfect" instead. Her priority is her

perfect performance, and she gets it, not her life anymore. The scene ends with

shine and white light and the view that Nina faded indicates that she died.

The scene uses an overhead shot, meaning the camera is placed around a

90-degree angle above the stage (Lannom, 2020). When Nina jumps off the back

in the final performance, the camera is positioned above her head to empower the

viewer with an object perspective.

6.Seductive

As the white swan in Nina slowly disappears, she finally can be a perfect

black swan. After the scene she murdered Lily in her room, Nina has to perform

black swan, and unexpectedly she got recognition from the audience. During the

performance, Nina imagines herself turn to be a black swan. Her skin turns to


43

feather as the swan until she has black wings on her back. She dances as sensually

and loose as the black swan that should have been.

She spins with ferocity. More BLACK FEATHERS burst out fromher shoulders and back. At last, she truly embodies the Black Swan.She finishes the Coda, punctuating her last spin with a sharpstep that echoes through the theater. The audience looks on, mesmerized.Too stunned to clap at first.Nina looks down at the stage, her face glazed with sweat(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, pp.108, 01:36:13)

Figure 6.1 Nina performs as a black swan

From the script and the screenshot description, the shadow in the back shows Nina

has wings, but in reality, she did not have one. This is one of the parts of her

hallucination. Aronofsky uses this to symbolize that she finally becomes a black

swan, no more white swan inside her. Once the black feather and wings are gone,

Nina realized that she is a woman. The transformation, though, is the symbol of

an adult side of Nina. The growing black feathers on Nina’s hand are achieved

from special effects Computer-Generated Imagery or CGI.

After the performance, she comes straight to Leroy and kissed him in front of

other ballerina and backstage staff. He shocks with the sensual side of Nina,

which he has never seen before. Nina finally can express her pleasure in real life


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without hallucinating as before. Now, she has the power to take control of what

she wants. She is the one who starts and ends the kiss.

B. The Id dominance over Nina Sayers’ Ego

This part will discuss three psyche parts of Nina Sayers: the id, ego, and

superego depicted in the movie. Then, the researcher will discuss how the id can

finally dominate her ego than her superego.

In the movie, Nina lives with her mother since her birth until adult in a

mediocre apartment. Erica's behavior has a significant role in Nina's characteristic.

Through Erica's dialogue and action in the movie, she displays a typical

narcissistic mother. In the Oxford dictionary, a narcissist defines a person who has

an excessive interest in or admiration of themselves. According to Freud,

narcissism is the situation when the sexual drive does not go outward but goes

toward one's person (Freud, Sandler, Person, & Fonagy, 1991). He distinguished

into two types of narcissism. First is primary narcissism, which happens to infants.

Infants are primarily self-centered, with their libido invested almost exclusively

on their ego (Feist, Feist & Roberts, 2018). Infants cannot see the outside world

but themselves. When infants become adult, and their ego develops, adult stops

linking the primary narcissism and get interested in other people. In particular,

some people redirect their libido back to the ego that Freud called secondary

narcissism. Erica experiences secondary narcissism as a mother.

Erica infantilizes Nina as a child despite Nina's actual age, 28 years old, to

maintain control over her. When Nina had breakfast with her mother, Nina tells


45

her that she will get a promotion more this season, and Erica seems not proud of

her.

NINA (CONT’D) : Plus he promised to feature me more.ERICA : He certainly should. You’ve been there long enough. Andyou’re the most dedicated dancer in the company.(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, pp. 4)

Through his dialogue, she subtly belittle Nina by mentioning how long Nina has

been in the company and the core which means Nina needs a long time to be a

main role. Erica also tries to sabotage Nina by forcing Nina to eat a slice a cake.

ERICA : It’s a celebration.NINA : My stomach’s still in knots.ERICA : (offended) Fine then.Erica grabs the whole cake and heads towards the trash.NINA : (guilty) Mom, don’t. I’m sorry.Erica hesitates, but returns. She sets the cake back down.ERICA : I’m just so proud of you(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, pp.29)

At first Nina rejects to eat but Erica tries to manipulate her in order to make Nina

feels guilty.

The narcissistic parents will instil over-judgemental superego into their

children which cause conflict between what the children desire to be and a

demanding ego ideal that makes the children feel unworthy if they will fail to

measure up to it (Gorshin, 2019). Nina, as the daughter of a narcissism mother,

has a strong superego since the first of the movie and nearly does not have ego on

her own. Every action of Nina's life controlled by her mother. In Freudian theory,

Superego represents the moral aspect of personality and is guided by the

moralistic and idealistic principle (Feist, Feist & Roberts, 2018, pp. 34). Superego

has two subsystems. First the conscience. It contains behaviors for which the child


46

has been punished. The behaviors are usually lead to bad consequences and

feeling of guilty. Second the ego-ideal which contains the moral or ideal

behaviors for which a person should strive or the standards that the ego aspires to.

(Schultz & Schultz, 2017, pp.47). The work of superego is trying to make a

person's behavior perfect and civilize as what society or parents had been taught.

It also suppress the unacceptable urges of the id and make the ego act as what the

ideal standard has set, than act realistically. Nina’s strong superego can be seen in

the first half of the movie. She follows what her mother said to her. Up to the

adult phase, Nina does not freedom to be herself or follow her natural desire.

Nina's life is very controlled by Erica, which hampers her when she plays a very

different character, the black swan.

Nina can manage to perform as the white swan easily because its

characteristics and hers are typicall, but the problem is she is too different from

the black swan. She wants to perform the black swan as perfect as Lily.

Therefore, she works too hard on herself in order to get the black swan role

perfectly, in which reprensents the id. According to Freud, id is the primitive and

chaotic part among the three part of human personality. The id operates based on

the pleasure principle by which the id functions to avoid pain and maximize

pleasure (Schultz & Schultz, 2017, pp.46). The id strives for immediate

satisfaction of its need. When the id cannot satisfy a need immediately, tension

results. Nina always gets oppression from Leroy that she is not seductive enough

to be black swan. Moreover, he compares Nina to Lily in terms of her dance

technique of black swan. Day aftter day the pressure is getting hard, makes Nina


47

tense and starts to reveal her dark side which are any behavior that Nina never

done before like clubbing, consuming drug, and seeking her sexual pleasure. In

the clubbing scene, Nina first time outwardly expresses her sexual desire. The

montage shot uses in this scene to convey that Nina is transforming into her adult

and no longer in her mother’s control. A montage is a series of seperating images,

moving or still by juxtaposing different shots, compressing time through editing,

or intertwining multiple storylines of a narrative (Deguzman, 2020). Montage is

useful to direct attention to the viewer through editing or limiting the character's

capacity for contemplation by supplying details. The montage is effective to

display what is Nina’s head during clubbing. The shot is very fast that in red and

green strobe lighting, which makes the viewers lose what is happening, so is Nina.

There are several point reveal in the club scene which implies the turning point of

Nina’s restricted side.

Figure B.1. The black swan make up on Nina’s face

when the clubbing scene


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Figure B.2. The butterfly wallpaper in Nina’s bedroom

appear when Nina and Lily dance together

In picture B.1. the frame consists of a butterfly image which symbolizes

Nina’s bedroom wallpaper. Picture B.2. shows Nina in the black swan makeup.

These convey that Nina has awakened the black swan within herself and left

behind her ‘mommy’s sweet girl.’

As Nina wants to satisfy her desire, embodying the black swan perfectly,

she experiences hallucinations. According to Freud, hallucinations are when

people experience heavy stress on the unconscious, forcing them into conscious.

Freud states that when people experience hallucinations, their thoughts, which are

intimately linked with memories that have been suppressed or have remained

unconscious, can transform into images (Freud & Strachey, 2010, pp. 546).

Furthermore, the id corresponds to the unconscious which contains all those

drives, urges, or instincts that are beyond awareness but motivate the words,

feelings, and actions. Nina reaches a state of heavy stress that hallucinates seeing

something unreal or even does not exist. She sees feathers physically protrude

from her skin, hears paintings, and fellow ballerina laughing at her. The black

swan form's hallucination in her body sequentially shows up throughout the movie,


49

which defines her id slowly come to dominate her. After the scene of Nina

apologizes to Beth, she begins to show physical characteristics of the black swan,

which are black feathers emerge from the surface of his skin, red eyes, and legs

that bend backward. Then, in her performance as the black swan, she visually

develops bird-like legs, black and sprout feathers, wings, and webbed feet, which

indicates that the transformation of the black swan is complete. In this scene, the

use of makeup, setting, and lighting add credibility to the movie. During the black

swan performance, Nina wears dark and robust makeup, making the viewers

believe that Nina has transformed completly into black swan.

In contrast, the makeup is soft, light, and glowing when performing the

white swan, which implies the innocent and pure white swan. Moreover, the

movie is filmed in the real theatre, and many audiences sit watching the

performance make the scene is credible. The use of intense glaring light during

the black swan performance makes the viewers see the strong impression of a

black swan presenting on the stage.

Her ego and superego's pivotal event lose control over id is when she starts

to defy her mother and can manage the black swan performance well. The girl

who was shy and obeyed what her mother told her without hesitation become

someone who acts impulsively to satisfy her desire. Freud believed that a healthy

personality is a balance between his/her three elements (Churchill, Moore, Davies,

et al., 2010). Still, those who cannot maintain emotional stability and cope the

stress can create an imbalanced personality. An individual who has an overly

dominant id may acts upon their urge or desire without thinking ahead of the


50

consequences and misbehave. The id domination can be seen when Erica tries to

merge with her daughter, but Nina announces her independence in a kind of

violent rupture. Her anger peaks when her mother said that Nina would not

perform as the Swan Queen.

ERICA : Nina...Nina grabs her by the wrist.ERICA (CONT’D) : Stop it.NINA : You’re crazy!ERICA : What happened to my sweet girl?Nina yanks Erica off the chair onto the floor.NINA : She’s gone(Heyman, Heinz, & McLaughlin, 2010, pp. 96, 01:26:16)

From the dialogue above, when Erica asks where Nina knows, Nina's reply

implies that the strong superego that dominates her is gone and replaced with the

id. In this scene Nina is not well enough to perform, but she forces herself to go to

the stage. She ignores all the consequences that might happen when she performs.

On the stage, she cannot manage to perform the white swan, and she has practiced

but does a great job when she serves as the black swan. She truly gets what she

desired for her satisfaction. Although, in the end, she is dying for her desire, she

finds relief that people finally acknowledge her skill and being perfect.

The Swan Queen role is vital to Nina because she never gets a chance to

be a big star. Through Erica's dialogue, Nina has been in the production for

several years but never gets involved in such a significant role. Then, Nina finally

achieves the swan queen role in her company after beat other potential ballerinas.

Her desire to be a primary role has hinted at the opening scene when Nina tells her

mother about her dream of dancing as the white swan. Freud (1900) explained that

dream content is one's unconscious desire or vision of fulfilling a wish (p. 122). In


51

the three psyche part of human beings, Freud further explained that the id operates

within the mind's unconscious part. It means that Nina already has a dream to play

a leading role in the production from the start of the movie. Once she gets the role,

she works hard to keep what she got, which resulted in her becoming obsessed

with the black swan's role.

C. The Influence of The Id Domination to Nina Sayers’ Characteristics

This part contains Nina's characteristics in the end as the influence of her

id domination.

Throughout the movie, Leroy' desire for Nina to start showing sexual self

and relaxed side, but she finds it hard because she turns between the virginal and

rigid side of herself. Nina's strong Superego makes her never able to reach her

seductive side to perform as the black swan. When the Superego is too strong, that

person's behavior manifests in rigid conduct in real situations, frequently having a

feeling of guilt and strict judgment of oneself of others (Luenendonk, 2021). Her

behaviors result from Erica's suffocating attitude, which prevents Nina from

getting out of her world. She enquires whether her director made any sexual

advances toward her daughter, prevents her daughter from talking to Lily, and

even sleeps by Nina's bed when she tries to masturbate.

Feelings of guilt that end up getting herself hard and a result of the strong

Superego at the beginning when Nina has not mastered black swan. The Superego

holds over the ego, judging its actions and intentions. Then, the feeling of guilt

results from the ego acts—or even intends to act—contrary to the moral standards

that the Superego has set (Feist, Feist, and Roberts, 2018, p.34). However, Nina


52

felt pressure from outside and inside. The pressure from outside is from Leroy,

which made Nina feel inferior. Simultaneously, the pressure from within is from

herself, which is the strive for perfection. When the ego cannot reach the

Superego's perfection standards, feelings of inferiority arise (Feist, Feist, and

Roberts, 2018, p.34). Nina's ego can not meet with the Superego that she has set,

which makes her feel inferior. In order to show the perfectionist of Nina,

Aronofsky uses a dolly shot which clearly can be seen in the opening scene.

Figure C.1. The dolly shot is used in the opening scene

Dolly shot is a tracking shot where the camera travels on a dolly and follows

the frame's subject (Villarejo, 2007, pp. 154). During the prologue, the camera

focuses on Nina's dances with specific movements. The camera shot her feet

movement, hand gesture, and facial expression showing her perfection in every

detail of dancing. The camera seems dancing with Nina.

Her anxiety also arises when her ego cannot balance the id's needs and

the superego's demands. According to Freud (1933/1964), anxiety is a practical,

unpleasant state accompanied by a physical sensation that warns the person

against impending danger. It makes the person who is an anxious feeling of fear.

Nina's great anxiety is to be replaced with Lily. She fears failure, so that she


53

practices all night, resulting put herself on danger situation. As the anxiety arises,

the camera shot as if shot by a handheld camera. A handheld shot is a shot taken

with the camera being supported only by the operator's hands and shoulder, which

result in a camera shake from the operator's movements. It relies on the operator's

body (Deguzman, August 3, 2020).

Contrary to Nina's mind's stability when she embodies the white swan, the

viewers can see that the camera shot is calmer. When she finds out Lily is going

to be her alternate; her hallucinations grow increasingly. For the hallucinations

scenes, Aronofsky used subjective shots from Nina's point of view in order the

viewers can see what Nina sees. A subjective camera takes the point of view of

one of the characters, and the viewers witness the scene through the character's

eyes (Heiderich, nd, p.12). He used a subjective shot of the feathers and accurate

shots of Nina pulling one black feather from her back. The viewers see what Nina

sees, which Nina looks at with blood-red eyes. The objective shot is an objective

camera is that of a third-party observer, like the viewers watching a scene play out

(Heiderich, nd, p. 11). The objective shot gives the viewers what the camera sees,

as what Nina is seeing.

Then, as the black swan character representing the id, Nina turns into a

seductive and impulsive character. She can attract the audience's attention, Leroy

and other ballet dancers, with flexible yet compelling movements during the

Black Swan performance. All the hallucinations that have been shown in the last

scene, like feathers, red eyes, stretched neck, come together. She can drag

attention flawlessly without any mistakes, as she practices before. Based on


54

American Psychiatric Association (2013), impulsive behavior is broadly defined

as actions without foresight that are poorly conceived and doing something

inappropriate, which is detrimental to him/herself and others. Nina starts to

destroy her property, that from the beginning of the movie, she treats her property

well, and throws all of them to the trash chute.

Furthermore, she can not think logically as she started hurting others. Her

impulsive characteristic began to appear when she hurt her mother, who was, in

fact, the person she loved since childhood. She also ignored her safety when she

appeared as a white swan in the final act and ended up tragically dying.

Almost in every scene of the movie show, the visual contrast of black and

white or can be interpreted as the visual contrast of the superego and id of Nina. A

juxtaposition of black and white symbolizes Nina's opposite entities, which are the

superego and id. When the sweet girl still lives in her, she wears mostly white or

pink costumes. However, when she starts getting into her dark side, her costumes

are mostly black. The contrast is seen when Nina and Lily are in one frame.

Figure C.2. Lily and Nina’s contrast outfit colour which is shownin the practice room


55

Figure C.3. Lily and Nina’s contrast outfit colour which is shownin the Gala

Lily, from the start of the movie, wears black most of the time. When she is with

Nina, there their characteristics look opposite.

When Nina decides to consume the drink that Lily has poured a drug, she

starts to go uncontrol. For the first time, she kisses a stranger and dances wild.

When she comes back to the apartment, she starts to rebel against her mother and

experiences delusional sexual advances with Lily. The scene marks Nina starts

wearing dark costumes. It also symbolizes the id starts to dominate her than her

superego.

Nina's limitations in expressing herself due to her mother overcontrol

made Nina's desire to be blocked even more and eventually became

uncontrollable. ID Nina's dominance in this movie is self-destructive and mentally

Nina because Nina's desire to be aware is not immediately expressed. According

to Freud (1990) the ego is the representative of the outer world to the id (p. 22),

meaning the id is oriented towards pleasure principles from internal instances. In

contrast, the ego is oriented toward reality principles that are from the external

world. Such ego traits have to balance themselves with the id, which is a strong

reservoir of libido. When individuals experience obstacles in their libido's

satisfaction, and their egos try to suppress the instinctual impulse, they will look


56

for alternative expressions until finally what they want is achieved (Felluga,

2002).

Moreover, the id is the part of the human being that emerges from the

beginning of the human being born, compared to the ego and the superego. Freud

further argued that the id is the dark side of the inaccessible human being. The

inner part of the ice cannot be seen by the external world, which symbolizes all

hidden desires.

As an adult, Nina has not been able to live the way she wants because of her

mother's influence. When she is faced with the role of a black swan who is

sexually awakened, she is unable to deepen it, so she tries to explore black swan

in a way, one of which is masturbation. In the movie, she cannot fulfill it entirely

because of his mother's annoying presence. She also fantasizes about having sex

with Lily, which means that she wants to fulfill her latent sexual desires in her

subconscious. Her role as a black swan can be performed flawlessly because she

can fulfill his instinct. At the end of the movie, she says, "it was perfect," which

indicates that she feels relieved that her id has been satisfied, even though

physically and mentally, she is on the verge of death.


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CHAPTER V

CONCLUSION

The researcher has analyzed the three problem formulations. This study is

done to discuss the id domination of the Black Swan movie's main character, Nina

Sayers, over her Ego, which influences her characteristics in the movie. The

researcher employs the theory of characterization by Boggs and Petrie, the theory

of mise-en-scene, and psychoanalysis. Therefore, this chapter consists of the

conclusion of the analysis.

For the first problem formulation, the researcher examines Nina Sayers'

characteristics through the whole movie and the movie script. Nina is a

perfectionist ballerina who lives with her mother, Erica. She dedicates her career

to performing ballet in stage productions. Then, she gets a chance to perform a

significant role as a swan queen, which requires a ballerina who can embody two

contrast characteristics, an innocent and fragile white swan and a seductive and

imprecise black swan. The director, Thomas Leroy, describes Nina as a fragile

woman who can perfectly embody the white swan, but for the black swan, he

hesitates.

Nevertheless, he finally gives Nina a chance because he found the

aggressive side of Nina when he forcefully kisses her. Through hard practicing,

Nina still cannot perform the black swan correctly. Moreover, Leroy compares her

'frigid' move with Lily, the newcomer ballerina from San Fransisco. Leroy

suggests Nina drive her sexual desire to get the black swan role, but because of


58

her Narcissistic and overcontrolling mother, Nina cannot reach what she is

looking for. Erica babies Nina which affects Nina's limited privacy. Erica's

parenting is the main point why Nina cannot perform as the black swan. Her

overcontrolled and childish characteristic is the result of Erica's strict upbringing.

Nina's social skills are lacking compared to the others. She has no close

friends or anyone other than her mother. It is her mother who builds Nina's world.

However, as the movie progresses, Nina wants to be like Lily and rebels against

her mother. As Nina is getting into the black swan, she experiences anxiety. The

stress that Nina faces maintaining the black swan standard is psychologically

destructive. In several scenes, she hallucinates something unreal and has

delusional. The peak feeling of anxiety is when she finds out Lily is going to be

her alternate. She sees herself transform into a black swan, such as a black feather

pop up from her back and her eyes turn bloody red. Nearly at the end of the movie,

the figure of the sweet girl of Nina is gone. The researcher finds out that the recent

Nina is seductive and impulsive. She hurts her mother before the night she has to

perform. Eventually, she loses control, making her perform the black swan

sensually and start kissing Thomas passionately. At the end of the movie, Nina

finally can feel the perfection that she has been looking for, although she is dying

for it.

The researcher explains Nina Sayers' Ego's id domination over her

superego for the second problem formulation. At first, Nina's Ego is not as healthy

as Freud has explained. Her superego is the strongest among others. The superego

is vital as a result of the upbringing of a narcissistic mother, Erica. Erica's signs,


59

such as insinuates Nina subtly about her career and abilities, sabotage Nina by

making Nina feel guilty. She seems supportive, but she jealous of her daughter's

achievement and tries to control her life as her own. A narcissistic parent will

over-judgemental superego into their children. Thus, they feel guilty if they

cannot satisfy their narcissistic parent. As a daughter of a narcissistic mother,

Nina cannot follow her desire to be the black swan. Based on psychoanalysis

theory, the superego works to make a person's behavior perfect and civilize as

what society or parents had been taught. In the movie, Nina only closes with her

mother than anyone else. Her mother is the one who shapes her characteristics for

ages based on what she believes is right for her daughter.

As the movie progress, the researcher finds that Nina's strong superego

starts to decrease. The chance that Nina has gotten makes her want to follow her

desire. The swan queen is meaningful to her because she has been in the company

for a long time and will acknowledge if she can perform correctly for the

prominent role. However, her mother stands in the way of perfection. Even

though she has worked hard until she is physically and mentally tired, Nina still

cannot meet Thomas's standards to perform as the Black Swan. When Nina

follows her id and leaves her superego, the starting point is when Lily, the

newcomer ballerina, and Nina's rival, get clubbing with Nina. The club scene is

essential to see the details because it consists of the scene showing the

competition between Nina's superego and her id. Using the montage technique,

the superego is illustrated by the white swan character, Nina's room wallpaper,

and repeated "sweet girl" voices. Then, her id is shown by the black swan makeup


60

in certain parts of the scene and the black swan character behind Nina. After that

scene, her id starts to take control over her Ego. Freud explained that when the id

cannot be satisfied immediately, tension results. Hallucinations that Nina

experiences are the result of her Ego cannot balance superego and id. Throughout

the movie, Nina finally follows her id. Her rebellion against her mother and

starting to ignore herself and others' safety result from id domination. Besides, she

can achieve perfection when she success in appearing entirely as the black swan

For the third problem formulation, the researcher examines Nina Sayers'

characteristics as the result of id domination. Before the id dominates her, Nina's

strong superego affects her characteristics, such as fragile, superego, childish, and

perfectionist. Based on psychoanalysis theory, if someone has a strong superego,

he/she would be driven by strict morals due to the moral restraints place on

him/her. Nina's mother, Erica, is the one who instills strict morals to Nina until

her adult age that makes her cannot develop and express her emotion. She cannot

unbend with society, which makes her always alone and does not have a support

system. Her vulnerability to conflicts and childish actions is a character formed

because Erica denies Nina's maturity. The director of the company, Leroy,

through the dialogue in the movie, confirms to Nina that she is too rigid in

dancing black swan and is just obsessed with being perfect without knowing the

artistic meaning of the black swan dance.

The pressure that is always given to Nina to become the Black Swan that

fits Leroy's expectations and to maintain Nina's identity from the start makes Nina

stressed and experiences hallucinations, such as seeing her unreal twin and seeing


61

her body slowly turning into a swan with black feathers. This happens because

Nina cannot fulfill the id's urge as soon as possible and maintain her strong

superego. However, in the end, Nina listens to her wishes more and leaves the

traits resulting from a strong superego. Nina's id takes control and makes her

character impulsive and seductive. Freud explained that a person who has a

stronger id than the superego would act according to his own will without

thinking about whether the action is appropriate. Towards the end of the movie,

Nina shows that she hurt her mother and herself. She also ignores her health in

order to appear on stage. Furthermore, she can dance black swan flexibly and

seductively, which earned her recognition from everyone present at the event. She

had no problem with the stab wound that she had unconsciously stabbed into her

stomach while dancing the final act.

The camera technique, makeup, costume, and lighting also helps the

researcher to examines the characteristics of Nina before and after being

dominated by the id. Nina's perfectionism in her move can be seen through the

dolly shot, making the viewer dance with Nina. Her costume color also changes as

the id dominates her, slowly from white or pink to black. Whenever Nina dances

the white swan, her makeup is glowing, and the lighting on the stage is subtle,

whereas Nina's makeup appears as the black swan is bold, and the lighting is

glaring.


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APPENDIX

Appendix: Summary of Black Swan (2010) movie

A 28-year-old ballerina named Nina Sayers has dedicated her life to ballet,

following her mother's path, Erica. She lives only with her over-controlling

mother, who still infantilizes Nina. One day, she gets an opportunity to get an

audition to be the swan queen, the new season's leading role. The prior leading

ballerina, Beth, is retired because of her age that is not young anymore according

to Leroy. The role requires two opposite characteristics: the innocent and fragile

white swan and the sensual and seductive black swan. She fails in being the swan

queen because she gets interrupted by Lily's late coming, the newcomer ballerina

from San Fransisco. However, the next day she tries to convince Leroy, the

company's director, that she can be the swan queen. Nevertheless, he says that

Nina is only suited for the white swan role, but not the black swan because she is

'too frigid.' Despite that, Leroy believes that Nina can be a star when she bites his

lips when suddenly kissing her, so he gives Nina a role.

After several practicing, Nina cannot satisfy Leroy with her black swan

performance. He even tries to seduce Nina by touching her private area to awaken

her sexual to embody the black swan character, but it fails, and Nina still dances

rigidly. She even experiences hallucinations like seeing her evil doppelgänger,

because she cannot satisfied what she desire to beIn fact, Nina has been living

with her white swan characters, which makes her faces opression demands when

embody the 180 degree characters. Moreover, Leroy always compares Nina’s

black swan dance to Lily’s, which makes her develop jealously toward Lily.


66

However, the swan queen is her desire since she never gets involved in the such

role. She tries to embody the black swan by doing something she never done

before, such as consume drug, get drunk, and kiss strangers in the club. Lily is the

person who introduce those new circumtances to Nina when they hang out

together. The club scene is the important part because it shows Nina’s starting

point to become another side of herself.

After the club scene, Nina starts to against her mother and follow her desire to

be a perfect ballerina. Hence, Nina’s hallucination decrease when she cannot

maintain herself and her new identity. The night before the performance, Nina‘s

hallucination is vital. She sees her body turn into the black swan the night before

d-day of the performance. Her mother insists that Nina is sick and cannot perform,

but Nina forces herself to come to the theatre. When Leroy tells Nina that Lily

will replace her, she convinces Leroy that she can do it. Then the role is back to

Nina, but in the middle of the white swan performance, she falls on the stage,

which symbolizes the white swan in herself is gone. Her hallucinations peak when

she hallucinates stabbing Lily on her stomach, which in fact, she stabs herself. She

does not notice that when she is performing the black swan. In her performance,

she dances as seductive as the black swan, which Nina gets attention from all

people in the theatre. When she backs to her room to prepare the last act, she

realizes that she stabs herself. She knows she would die if she continues to

perform, but she forces herself to dance the final act. The final act is when the

white swan commits suicide by jumping from the cliffs because the prince

chooses the black swan. Therefore, Nina has to jump onto a concealed mattress


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when her wound worsens. In the end, as Nina dyingly says, “it was perfect,” all

audiences praise Nina’s performance.


THE ID DOMINATION OVER NINA SAYERS' EGO AS SEEN ...

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