Nina Sayers and the issue of sexual repression: Black Swan movie analysis

Black Swan (2010) is a movie that depicts the struggle of a ballerina, Nina Sayers, who strives to play the lead role of Swan Lake ballet. This ballet requires the dancer to perform two contrasting characters: the White and the Black Swan. Nina is considered capable of dancing the innocent White Swan, despite the fact that she lacks the potential to dance the sensual Black Swan. The movie mainly focuses on how Nina encounters hardships in portraying the Black Swan, mainly on the inner conflicts within herself. In order to be able to portray the Black Swan perfectly, Nina is told to express herself better in terms of sexuality. Throughout the movie, it can be seen that Nina's inability in revealing her sexual impulses transitions into the condition of her being indulged in the perfect portrayal of the Black Swan, which elevates the issue of sexual repression. It is stated by Sigmund Freud that sexual repression is constructed by several factors, and one of them includes pressures of the society. Several perspectives can be used to analyze this movie, such as gender studies and film theories, but this chapter will analyze the protagonist with a psychoanalytical study. Even though this movie has been discussed from the perspective of psychoanalysis by a number of scholars, there is no existing research which has studied the main character's issue of sexual repression through Freud's psychoanalysis. This chapter will try to trace Nina's sexual repression back to the concept of human's structure of mind, defense mechanisms, and the splitting of ego. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate how Nina Sayers' mind is associated with the complication of her sexual repression and how it contributes to her transition from the beginning until the end of the movie. Moreover, the significance of this study does not only emphasize how sexual repression may result in complication within oneself, but it also shows the importance of how sexual repression shapes one's character development. By using Freud's psychoanalysis, this chapter reveals that Nina Sayers has repressed sexual impulses that are needed to perform the Black Swan, which results in the complication within herself. Although this complication brings success to Nina's performance as the Black Swan, she has consequently damaged herself mentally and physically. It is proven that in compromising between inner impulses and reality principles, one might be unable to distinguish reality from imaginary thoughts.