The Souls of the Repressed

By: Chris Valletta

After viewing nearly half of Michael Haneke's Golden Globe Award winning film The White Ribbon, I have become more and more intrigued in how the rest of the film will play out. The anticipation has been building since the opening scene, and the black and white picture certainly does its job of depicting a gloomy and sense of foreboding throughout. Haneke explores many different aspects of pleasure and desire, first and foremost starting with repression. In the pre-World War I small German town where the film takes place, there is a major theme of repression, especially with the youth. For example, the Protestant pastor of the town treats his children very strictly. When the children came home late for school and missed dinner one night, not only did no one get to eat dinner that night (including the pastor and his wife) but they also receieved lashes from the whip the night after, instructed to spend the next day reflecting on the sin they had committed.

With a punishment like this for a small offense, no wonder why anything with pleasure was seen as evil. The factor of being instilled with such abuse and hostility at a young age can easily have influenced these children's actions for the rest of their lives, which is where Haneke is giving his take on the "Nazi generation." Also in regards to the pastor's children, the one son was instructed to wear a white ribbon, which was to be displayed as a symbol of innocence and purity. This is another example of repression but it also represents the morality that is trying to be instilled into the children as the pastor sees it. There is no time for fun and games in this village; the Protestant work ethic is the theme that runs the town and the most important thing is keeping everyone in the village in line and performing their duties so the village can survive another year.

The severe punishments to the children may also delve into the aspect of pleasure and rebellion. In a way, the children disobeying orders and fighting back gives them a pleasure to do so; the feeling of taking risks and doing things that make them feel good that they are forbidden to do. This also comes into play with the son of a mother who is killed in a work-related accident in the baron's sawmill, who then decides as retaliation to the baron that he will butcher the cabbage crop to get even. This rebellion may have been pleasurable for the man because he is seeking revenge for his dead mother and standing up against authority in doing something that he will know will hurt the baron as he too had been hurt.

The film also shows the theme of desire and dating in this repressed town. The school teacher and the baron's nanny obviously show an attraction towards each other through their awkward social interactions, yet Haneke displays this in a way that the viewer perceives even simply the two of them talking as a sin. This is because the desire is there and in this Protestant village no such desire should exist because it is a sin. This is quite the contrary to today's modern "hook-up culture" where desire and dating between males and females are prevalent in society and often times many different people date and have interactions with one another with minimal shame. However, in the film the schoolteacher and nanny are depicted as shameful creatures simply for their desire to show love for one another.

What happens to these souls of the repressed? We will find out shortly.