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.