The Psychosis of Nina Sayers
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The Psychosis of Nina Sayers
Black Swan, a tale of a pure angelic ballerina striving for perfection to be the best, ends up succumbing to her own madness. Nina Sayers is desperately trying to land the lead in her companys production of “Swan Lake,” which is a role that will require her to play both roles as the harmless and gentle white and sultry and seductive black swans. As the film progresses she becomes tempted to shed her “little girl” persona in order to become a grown sexual woman, a quality that is very important in order to be able to portray the black swan accurately. Nina is suffering from Psychosis, which comes with hallucinations and delusions. Throughout the film she has visions of herself with blood red eyes, and feathers. She has multiple visions of things that never took place. One would believe the blame could lie on her overprotective mother.
We see her still treated as a child, with a pink room and girl pajamas, toys. She is so terribly afraid of disobeying her mother that she basically lives to please her. In one scene in particular, Erica offers Nina the first piece of a cake she bought to celebrate Nina getting the lead and Nina refuses it. Her mother than takes the entire cake and threatens to throw it in the garbage.
Since Nina is never allowed to grow up into a regular normal woman her mind becomes warped from all the stressors around her. Nina actually convinces herself that she is turning into a swan. Her metamorphosis is so complete, that Nina eventually develops webbed feet, bird-like legs and sprouts feathers and wings to actually become the black swan. Ninas personality completely changes as the story progresses thanks mostly in part to her friend Lilly, the sexy dark haired seductress who is pretty much the complete opposite of Nina. Lilly is the true black swan.
Lilly also serves a purpose and becomes a psychological figment of Ninas life. Nina was given instructions by her director to go home and touch herself. She was wound so tight that she simply could not let her body be free, and she knew that the lead would never be hers if she couldnt be sexual inside as well as on the outside. Throughout the film she tries to achieve her first orgasm but becomes interrupted by her sleeping mother, and her own visions of herself. Its not until she envisions coming