Posts
Inception
and the Minotaur
What most of you know is
that Inception is an amazing movie that deals with our dreams and how they
could be manipulated. It deals what we perceive as reality and whether or not
what we see in front of us is real. This is just on the surface though, as you
look deeper into the narrative and story you could see underlying “components”
that not only drive the story but make it that much more engrossing. One of
these “components” is the similarities it has with the Greek myth, Theseus and
the Minotaur. Basically the story of the Minotaur is about how Theseus must go
inside King Minos’ labyrinth and slay the mighty Minotaur (Man/Bull). Before he
could actually go inside the labyrinth the king’s daughter Ariadne immediately
fall in love with him and is advise by the architect who built the maze, Daedalus,
to help him by giving him thread and a sword. He eventually makes it to the
middle of the labyrinth and slays the Minotaur and finds his way out of the
labyrinth with the help of Ariadne’s thread.
Dominic Cobb plays the part
of Theseus and Daedalus in Inception because he is the one who goes into the
deepest part of the labyrinth, Limbo. Over the next 50 years he and Mal, his
wife, created a city that they could control, changing the way it looked at the
drop of a hat. They were the gods; they were the king and queen to their own
personal Athens. This is where Mal begins her transformation into the Minotaur.
In the myth the Minotaur is created when Poseidon curses Queen Pasiphae with
uncontrollable lust for a white bull that he sent by Poseidon. In a way the
idea that Cobb puts in Mal’s head, is the white bull. This idea he plants
consumes her mind in not only the dream world, but in the real world as well.
This idea forces her into believing that their world isn’t real and that the
only way to “wake up” is to commit suicide. The guilt Cobb feels for the death
of his wife is what completes her transformation into the Minotaur. He feels
this guilt because he promised her that they would grow old together. This
guilt transforms her into a being that occupies every dream he enters and puts
whoever he goes into the dreams with in danger.
