The film follows Nina Sayers, a young woman who attends a prestigious ballet school in New York. The company has set to open the season with Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake, and after Prima Ballerina Beth is forced into retirement, the other young dancers are left to vie for the lead role. Throughout the film, we are witness to Nina’s obsession with perfection and how she begins to lose her grip on reality after being cast as the Swan Queen.
Characters
As the protagonist of Black Swan, we get the most insight into Nina’s character. She’s sheltered and meek but still excels in her field; selected by Thomas (the artistic director) to audition for the role of the Swan Queen. Early in the film, Nina witnesses Beth destroy her dressing room in anger before leaving, giving Nina the chance to enter and take some of Beth’s belongings. Though Nina’s actions aren’t malicious, they reveal her longing to emulate her idol.
She fails her audition after being thrown off-kilter when Lily (the deuteragonist) interrupts by showing up late. Despite this, she dresses up using the lipstick she had stolen from Beth and goes to Thomas hoping he’ll reconsider her as Swan Queen. He tells her she is the perfect casting for the white swan – beautiful, fearful, and fragile – but her black swan is lacking. Thomas acknowledges her need for perfection and argues that for the role of the black swan, she shouldn’t be afraid of losing control.
Throughout the film, we see her struggle with her emotions and how trying to fill the shoes of Prima Ballerina takes a toll on her mental health.
After reaching the age at which she is considered past her prime, Elizabeth “Beth” Macintyre is forced to retire at the end of the winter season. Feeling wrongfully let go, she becomes bitter and volatile, berating Nina when she discovers she’s replaced her as prima ballerina. Later that night, after a gala celebrating the new season and being dismissed by Thomas, Beth is hit by a passing car and remains in the hospital for the remainder of the film. She was Nina’s role model, and although she was the epitome of perfection, her circumstances caused her to unravel.
I found similarities between Beth and what I had envisioned my protagonist to be like. Under different circumstances, Beth may have been supportive of Nina. Still, she was hostile and her anger caused her to be impulsive: self-harming, drinking, and getting hit by a car (which Thomas believes she did on purpose). Beth’s intensity is said to come from a dangerous inner impulse and her downfall is the result of becoming so consumed in it. “It” being a desire for perfection and being the best, because what is she if she isn’t the best? Black Swan twists reality in a way the viewer isn’t always sure what’s real and what isn’t.
Distraught after supposedly seeing Thomas and Lily having sex, Nina goes to visit Beth at the hospital. However, after finding out Nina had stolen some of her belongings, Beth is triggered and remarks that she’s nothing before stabbing herself in the face with the nail file Nina had stolen from her. Nina runs out of the room and to the elevator before it is revealed that Nina is holding the bloody nail file. Possibly, Nina’s hallucination stems from her fear that this is what she’ll become if she continues down her path.
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