The film is definitely about the ultimate reality of our universe, which is in rational/scientific terms unexplainable. The characters have to be looked at as archetypes of man and not necessarily as conventional characters. People who mock the unrealistic behavior of the characters are viewing the film too literally in my opinion. The film is meant to be interpreted symbolically, and if analyzed through that perspective, there is a lot of meaning to be taken from the movie and the decisions made by the characters start do make more sense.
Worth, for example, typifies the average "skeptic" of today. Many people call our current age the "age of anxiety", which to me does make sense if we considering that there has never been a time in our history when man has been more uncertain about his place in the universe than in the last 200/300 years or so. Worth is the average "anxious" human being (or existentialist). He sees through the thinly veiled meaningless drudgery of the modern day everyday (get in your car, drive to work, work in your cubicle at stuff you have no interest whatsoever in doing, lunch break, keep working, drive back home, repeat), and concludes that the true meaning of things is that there is no meaning, he knows that he is complicit in the dissemination of this lie and illusion but doesn't understand anything beyond the lie and thinks that even if he tried he would not be able to arrive at an answer. Thus hates himself and does nothing. He is the Nihilist.
Quentin is obviously fascism, and on a broader interpretation, though most definitely fitting, he is also Patriarchy. Before the three main religions of today, during the time of the oldest pagan beliefs, women ruled the world and were actually worshiped as minor Gods. Incidentally, that was one of our most peaceful eras as a race. For this reason some people have attributed the characteristics of our imperial age (violent, competitive, controlling, determined, vengeful, etc. etc.) to the fact that we are ruled by institutions, governments, business etc, that are all controlled by men, who tend to be more aggressive than women. Quentin represents this archetypal MALE AUTHORITY in our world, which is selfish and irrational but it is able to dominate due to its raw strength.
Leaven represents Math. She is useful because she can tell us what is going on in the cube (it's behavior) but ultimately it cannot tell us anything about the nature of the cube. Thus she is mainly just a tool that the characters use to reach some end. If we look at the way Math has developed and what it has been telling us about the world, we see that in the turn of the 20th century with the assimilation of the idea of "relativity" Math has in fact started to tell us a lot about the nature of our universe. We know that it is infinite, chaotic, and we also know that time actually "exists" as a thing unto itself, apart from our physical world. Einstein theorized that both time and gravity existed in a dimension(s) parallel to ours and un-perceivable. I believe he called it "Spacetime"... The problem, however, with these type of mathematical expressions is that they are inherently "irrational" or rather, without possible explanation knowing what we know and think we will ever be able to know about reality. Thus Math describes the behavior of the truth, but it cannot tell us what the truth is.
Holloway is the "blind believer". She is stressed out, lonely, old, but for some reason she cannot stop having faith in human beings and the universe. (The Cube). She is kind of like today's paranoid liberals who are humanists, and mainly blame the governments and/or corporations for the evils of the world. Obviously, she is an extreme character, but viewed moderately she exemplifies the average Jungian psychologist, or New Age-y type person. She has faith in the Cube and Human beings, but her faith is an angry and uncertain one.
Kazan is very interesting. He symbolizes "The Holy Fool"... Throughout most of our history the mentally handicapped, and the crazy, were actually viewed as inherently holy. That is because people believed that true "wisdom" came only in madness. Of course, they didn't call it "madness" back then, instead they viewed it as "the word of God" or "prophecy" or "truth beyond truth" etc. Despite the fact that we like to mock the civilizations of our history and think of them as primitive and stupid (not completely without reason), one thing that people did know back then in the time during and before the Renaissance and before Positivism and Medical Materialism is that the real truth, whatever it may be, would necessarily have to mystic, because to describe the cube from within is impossible, simply due to the fact that the appropriate perspective can never be gained. Hence, people believed that those humans who behaved with a different sort of "reason" or in our modern day of thinking "mental retardation or psychosis" were actually probably closer to truth than those of conventional brain activity. In fact even with a civilization as great as the Greeks, drugged out priestesses were viewed as spreading the word of Apollo. This wasn't a belief for them, it was the truth, much as how it is today widely understood as truth that a drugged out woman or man is an "addict" and their views under psychedelic experiences are "deliriums". The "Holy Fool" is a literal term, it means he who out of apparent dumbness finds out the truth. He is able to do so because the "dumbness" is actually an understanding of a greater nature to our own, or rather,aspects of it are. The fact that Kazan is actually a mathematical genius (more than a genius, he does calculations that, according to the film, would be difficult to do using a computer) supports this interpretation in my opinion. Also if you know a little about Tarot Cards (directly referenced in the film) "The Fool" is the first trump (first card of the deck). The Tarot is supposedly meant to simultaneously symbolize the creation of the universe, the creation of human civilization, and the creation and development of the individual human being. The Fool is the card closest to the beginning of this process (i.e. Creation/God/the truth), Hermetic Qabalists (Like Alan Moore) who use the Torat describe The Fool as the path that leads to the heart of all existence. Thus, viewed from this perspective the character of Zank is a representation of the "innocence" and "foolishness". He is every converted Monk, born again Christian, Mother Theresa, Mozart, Einstein, or every artist who has sacrificed his life due to some dumb unexplainable urge that is beyond reason. He is every person who takes that leap of faith, sometimes unwittingly, and comes to understand that which is not understandable. The fact he is first introduced by falling from the one of the top rooms (in the tarot "The fool" is depicted as jumping off of a cliff) also supports this notion.
The French guy is a minor character. He symbolizes the average hustler, who thinks he is slick and that he knows all the ins and outs. The Cube (reality) puts him in his place, harshly.
Obviously, this is just my biased interpretation (is there any other), but I do think it fits in very nicely to what is portrayed on screen.
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foodiedave
12 years ago
I know you wrote that explanation almost 2 years ago, but that was pretty awesome. I just watched the film, and wasn't crazy about it. However, I think I like it alot more after reading your post. You put some real context to the film. Thanks.
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