Eraserhead

.forum - week eight.



Eraserhead, like many films by David Lynch, is open to interpretation, so I thought I would go into what I gathered about the film. First of all, the overarching theme I gathered from the film is that people are stupid. All the characters in this film are stupid, particularly the protagonist, Henry Spencer. Henry is dimwitted and slow. Henry meets his girlfriend's family who are deranged and extremely weird, but nevertheless agrees to marry Mary (under terrible circumstances). Mary soon leaves Henry and he is left alone with the ugly child. To me, the reason why the baby is a vulgar reptile is because its parents were Henry and Mary - two stupid people that really should not be having children. Also it's an ugly reptile because that's the way Henry perceives the baby - in many ways this is true of how male men see very young babies. In the scene in which the film takes its name "Eraserhead," Henry dreams his head falls off and is replaced by the baby's head. This is symbolic of the common idea that ones children are left to carry your legacy on after you pass away. However, what then happens to Henry's head is that it is taken to a factory by a child, and turned into an eraser in exchange for money. This again shows the stupidity of people, of Henry - he thought his ugly child would continue his legacy instead his "legacy" was sold and turned into an eraser - something that deletes things.

.sources.

Harris, David 18.09.08 "Eraserhead," Forum of EMU, Adelaide University.

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