10 Theories That Help Explain The Works Of David Lynch

5. Blue Velvet Is Heavily Inspired By Freud And Psychoanalysis

A hugely popular theory that has been applied to Blue Velvet so frequently that it has effectively become accepted as correct is that the whole film is an extended allegory of Freud's Oedipus Complex. When the evidence is highlighted, it becomes difficult to argue with this particular interpretation. In Freud's original psychoanalytic theory, he argues that every child suffers sexual attraction to the parent of the opposite sex. Essentially a part of growing up and maturing sexually, the argument is that a person's first experience of sexual feelings is towards (in the case of boys) their mothers and (in the case of girls) their fathers. Because this is a taboo in society, these feelings are pushed aside, and children make up for the fact that their feelings are unfulfilled by identifying strongly with the parent of the same sex. Make sense? It certainly caused some controversy when Freud first spouted this idea! Anyway, this has been applied often to the story of Blue Velvet. At the beginning, the father of lead character Jeffrey Beaumont suffers a heart-attack and ends up incapacitated in hospital. This father is associated with the picturesque world of Lumberton, with its white picket fences and technicolor images. With no father to identity with, Jeffrey sinks into the dirty underworld beneath Lumberton and seeks a father figure elsewhere.

He finds that father figure in the aggressive, abusive and sexually-promiscuous Frank Booth (Dennis Hopper). In a scene that is so clearly influenced by Freud's ideas about childhood urges that Lynch doesn't even deny it in interviews, Jeffrey watches as his new father (Frank actually refers to himself as "Daddy" throughout the sequence) sado-masochistically rapes the woman (Dorothy Vallens, played by Isabella Rossellini) he desires. Jeffrey, wanting to identify with Frank, goes on to engage in multiple sexual exploits with Dorothy, becoming increasingly like his would-be father. This descent into sexual madness drives the narrative, with Frank constantly treating Jeffrey like his misbehaving son and punishing him for misdemeanours, until Jeffrey kills his new "Daddy" and his biological father is shown to be fully recovered from his heart-attack. Suddenly, the glowing beauty of Lumberton returns - and Jeffrey is integrated into a healthy, wholesome relationship with the oh-so-goodly Sandy (Laura Dern).