In both of Ibsen’s plays The Doll’s House and The Master Builder, idea of “castles in the air” or impossible dreams/desires becomes an interesting theme. In The Doll’s House, Torvald and Norra live in the illusionary world of the “doll’s house”. When Norra confronts Torvald at the end of the play, her realization that their individual desires and dreams are all an “illusion”, the foundations of their “doll house” or “castle in the air” comes crashing down around them. In Ibsen’s Master Builder, “castles in the air” is a central theme. In the play, Solness is obsessed with the creation of these “castles” when he comes to meet Hilda, whom he calls his “princess” and promises to build her a “castle in the air”. Solness’ “castle” soon comes to embody his relationship with Hilda that will never come to fruition because of his marriage to Mrs. Solness, Hilda’s younger age and his demise after he falls from the top of his tower (his “castle”) among other themes like his “liberation from the influence/laws of god”. Across both plays, “castles in the air” comes to symbolize humanity’s campaign to create “alternate realities” that serve to protect and preserve our most cherished dreams, goals and memories.
In the 2010 film, Inception, Ibsen’s “castles in the air” also play a similar role to those in The Doll’s House and The Master Builder. In the film, Cobb (Leonardo Di Caprio) is a master thief that can invade the dreams of others and “extract” ideas or secrets from their subconscious. Although, this proves to be a very powerful and lucrative gift, it also hangs over Cobb and his family like a curse. Lured to push the envelope on what he can do with his abilities, he moves from merely extracting ideas from someone’s subconscious to executing the impossible, planting an idea into the subconscious mind of another-inception. He accidentally plants the idea into his beloved wife’s (Mal’s) mind that reality is a “dream” and the “dream world” (the picture above) the two create together is “reality”. In order to “escape the world of dreams” (reality) forever, she must kill herself. When Cobb refuses to commit suicide with her, she frames him as an “unfit father” to their two children because he is “predisposed to violence and a supreme manipulator” who “pushed” her to commit suicide. After she kills herself, Cobb must flee the United States in order to escape wrongful imprisonment for his wife’s death. His greatest regret is that he used “inception” on Mal’s mind and now he will probably never e able to see their children ever again because he will be thrown in prison if he ever tries to re-enter the US. In order to protect the memories of his life before Mal’s suicide, Cobb maintains the dream world the two created together. His mental resolve begins to erode however because the “Mal” he has trapped in this dream is constantly fighting him tooth and nail so she can to pull him into the dream world forever.
An opportunity for his redemption, and freedom to move back to the US to see his children without prosecution, soon arises. The CEO of a corporation hears of Cobb’s rare abilities to enter the subconscious mind and offers him the job of using “inception” against the son, Robert Fisher (Cillian Murphy), of another CEO in order to keep the competing company from gaining a monopoly on global energy resources. Cobb’s job is to use “inception” to plant the idea in Robert Fisher’s mind that it is his father’s wish for him to dismantle the family business and build a new company for himself rather than stay on the path of total domination over the global energy market. Cobb takes the job and soon assembles a team execute their “inception”. Most notable of the group is Ariadne (Ellen Page), the young woman Cobb hires to be “the architect” of the four level, dream world they must build in order to invade the subconscious of Robert Fisher. She begins to question why Cobb hired her when is considered the foremost “dream architect” in the business. Soon she finds out that Cobb will not allow himself to be the architect for their “inception” because then the “Mal” inside his mind will surely break free of her prison and drag him and possibly the whole team into oblivion forever. As the job progresses, Ariadne sees Cobb’s grasp on reality and his dream world used to cage “Mal” are eroding at an alarming rate. She confronts him and tells him the only way they can successfully complete the job without killing the team is to let go of all he is trying desperately preserve in the dream world he and Mal created. Cobb must let go of his “castle in the air” or he will face the same fate as Solness when the master builder plummeted to his death.
Image from: http://shemul49rmc.blogspot.com/2011/04/download-inception-2010-brrip-450mb-mkv.html
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