MovieChat Forums > Labyrinth (1986) Discussion > Do you think Jareth cared about her or n...

Do you think Jareth cared about her or not?

posted 8 years ago by Maddyclassicfilms
4 replies | jump to latest

When I first saw this, I thought all the scenes where he appears to her were just him stalling her from finding her brother. The more I watched this, the more I'm convinced it's a mix of both. He is messing with her and want's her to give up, but he also actually does care about her.

For starters he is watching her (as an owl)at the beginning, potentially he could have been watching her for ages before that, so he was interested in her. He also knows personal things about her and is there watching her again in the final scene. The way he looks at her in the ballroom scene and in their final shared scene suggest he really does like her.

Do you think he did care about her or not?

Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .

[–] Weber4278 8 years ago

As weird as this may sound , Jareth's playing the villian for Sarah was actually his weird way of caring for her.

Its all in his speech at the end when he's telling her all he did for her... "You asked that the child be taken, I took him, you cowered before me, I was frightening, I have reordered time, I have turned the world upside down, and I have done it all for you...I'm exhausted from living up to your expectations of me, isn't that generous?"

He took Toby because she wished him away, and he let her play the role of the hero in the game which meant he had to play the villian...and by his own confession he did it because he cared for her. Yes he's arrogant, he's still a King used to getting what he wants and he's still the obstical standing in the way of Sarah reclaming Toby but he is not evil...remember he didn't HAVE to give Sarah the option of winning her brother back.

And all this is just going by the assumption Jareth was real, I tend to view him as Sarah's fantasy man so he can be as cruel or caring as she wants him to be...she's the creator of her fantasy after all.

[–] Maddyclassicfilms 8 years ago

Hi Weber4278,

Great post. He put everything in motion because she wished it. You mentioning him being her fantasy man got me thinking. Could this all be a dream?

At the beginning in her room, there is a photo and some newspaper cuttings showing David Bowie. One of them has the headline The Onstage Kiss. I've often wondered if there was a stage play or film called Labyrinth(she has the book, does this mean it's a play? or a novel perhaps?) and the man in the photo played the Jareth role? Sarah has a crush on the actor/character and in her dream he appears as Jareth.

If this is true, then I think the film just got even more interesting.

Go to bed Frank or this is going to get ugly .

[–] Weber4278 8 years ago

That's what makes the film so intriguing, is that its deliberately ambiguous.

Their are hints that it could all just be Sarah's imagination...when we first enter Sarah's room and the camera pans over her bookshelves and stuff if you really pay attention you'll see things from her adventure all over...
(Hoggle is a bookstop, Sir Dydimus is a stuffed animal, she's got a Labyrinth boardgame and a Escher poster on her wall, her music box plays the tune 'As the World Falls Down', etc) so the film is open ended enough to be interpreted either way.

And with regards to Jareth, Brian Froud who helped create the character with David Bowie has said in the commentary track of the film that he deliberately created Jareth to be the embodiment of all Sarah would find enticing...he has to be a temptation for her and the start of her sexual awareness as a young girl transitioning into a woman. So he's a hodgepodge of many things, in Brian's own words...he's a Knight from Grimms Fairy Tales, he's a bit of Heathcliff from Wuthering Heights, he's got a bit of Japanese kabuki influence, he's also a rebel from the wild bunch, and finally he's a rockstar aka David Bowie

If we view the film as taking place in Sarahs imagination, we see clearly thatJareths ultimate purpose is not just to be an obstical for her to overcome but to also symbolize the fact that she is growing up. Why else would Sarah turn her adversary into a badboy wearing skintight pants and leather? Because every teenage girls weakness is the badboy with the motorcycle right, lol? If she were a prepubescent child she probably would have imagined him as a goblin with warts and all.

[–] ericachristine 7 years ago

That and in his song at the end he says "I can't live without you", somewhat out of her earshot, with that pained look on his face that he's frustrated in himself for feeling that way but at the same time agonizingly in love with her. Very good job showing that in his expression and singing.