In the Joel and Ethan Coen directed feature film, Barton Fink (1991), Barton Fink (John Turturro) exclaims that in the “life of the mind; there’s no road map for that territory.” This introspective idea runs concurrent with Barton’s struggle to control his withering mind. Barton’s decaying mind is a result of it playing host to his personal battle between two opposing yet symbiotic forces innate within the human psychosis; the unconscious and conscious minds. This mental hell that Barton goes through serves as an introspective odyssey in which he is able to “dredge up something inside”, in order to see “the life of the mind.”
A paroxysmal shot of a wave violently crashing against a lonely boulder affixed to the sand marks the beginning of Barton Fink’s stay at the Hotel Earle. This seemingly arbitrary shot serves as the overarching representation of Barton’s conflicted mind. The boulder is shaped in the same vein as an iceberg. The iconography of Sigmund Freud’s mental iceberg metaphor becomes immediate when put contextually to the shots. The violent crashing waves, which represent the unconscious, attempt to submerge the conscious and seeable “tip of the iceberg”.
The shot of the half-submerged boulder is shown twice as book ends to Barton’s mental struggle. The first shot is taken as sudden and random because of the lack of context. The shot lingers in the air, but as the Barton’s trail by fire comes to its conclusion the metaphor has a solidified host to cling to. Barton’s struggle between his two competing states of consciousness, effectively materialize the mental iceberg metaphor projecting as the lonely boulder on the beach.
The Hotel Earle is a mystical place that reproduces the thoughts of Barton Fink into a physical and audible form, much like how Solaris in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Solaris (1972) reproduced the thoughts of its visitors. Barton Fink’s desires and wishes manifest into an audible forms throughout the film. During his second day in his isolated room at the
During Barton’s first encounter with Audrey Taylor (Judy Davis), Barton shows signs of instant attraction to Audrey. He confides her and asks her to call him casually as Barton rather than by his formal surname. He also offers to get a bite with her, but the intimate nature of the offer is rejected. Back at the Hotel Earle, Barton hears erotic sounds of a couple sexing next door to his flat. His interest in the sound piques his interest and he, subsequently, puts his head against the wall. The sounds are a manifestation of Barton’s inner desire for Audrey Taylor. Yet the sounds emitting from the wall are ambiguous; is the woman being hurt or pleasured? The ambiguity brings rise to what Barton’s own sexuality is. Barton keeps his ear to the wall, but finds his typewriter calling him back to his seat.
The sexual acts are hidden behind the walls of Barton’s unconscious mind. Barton discloses that he has no sweetheart and that his work leaves little attention that he can give to a lover. His typewriter pulls him from his desires and thus his sexual desires are repressed into his unconscious mind. The sounds emitting from unseen origins are the fleeting vestiges of Barton’s unconscious desires and wishes. His work is more important than his need to remedy his loneliness.
Barton’s complaint about the noise next store leads to a confrontation between him and the liaison of his unconscious mind, Charlie Meadows (John Goodman). Charlie is a replication of Barton Fink’s immediate thoughts of what a wrestler is to him. Charlie is physically “well endowed”, a common man, and shows signs of humanity through struggle. Their connection as divisible, yet symbiotic entities is exemplified during the scene in which they exchange their respective shoes to one another. Their different shoe sizes show their differences, but their mannerisms in how they put on their shoes is identical. They put on their shoes one at a time in an identical fashion. Additionally, their personal lives are identical. Barton and Charlie are both single and, for Barton eventually, have no family. They are one in the same, but represent the conscious and unconscious respectively.
Barton’s flamboyant tendencies and gestures radiate through his work and life. During is first appointment at Capitol Pictures, studio executive Jack Lipnick (Michael Lerner) comments that one of his colleges described Barton’s play as a “little fruity”. Barton is also chastised as a homosexual by detectives Mastrionotti (Richard Portnow) and Deutsch (Christopher Murney) as they accuse him of having a sexual relationship with Charlie. While the outside world ridicules Barton for his colorful gestures, Charlie (the unconscious) welcomes it. The sequence in which Charlie wrestles Barton to the ground is shot at suggestive angles connoting a homo-erotic engagement. Charlie who is on all fours eggs Barton on with a welcoming smile.
The pressures of the outside world to conform are too much for Barton, who subsequently finds comfort by repressing his unconscious homosexuality with a façade of heterosexuality by making love to Audrey. The sounds resulting from it flow into the pipes of the unconscious gutter in which the omniscient Charlie can hear all. The sounds of tender kissing turn into high pitched screams. Barton’s unconscious is being repressed and so Charlie takes measures to repress his heterosexual conscious state by murdering Audrey. Barton is not heterosexual by any means, but is instead torn between loving himself through Charlie, and loving others.
The bipolarization of Barton brings into question Barton’s true self. Barton self-righteously purports that he is a writer for the “common man”. He is a creator and his mind is his uniform. While, Barton might write for the common man, he does not listen to them. During various encounters with Charlie, Barton cuts Charlie off right before he discloses one of his stories. Barton disregards Charlie’s stories because he is confident that he already knows what the strife of the common man is without experiencing it. Barton’s work is a vicarious affair. He wears the shoes of other common men (the shoes without owners lining up in the hallway), but the essence is just as “phony as a three dollar bill.”
After days of mental exhaustion and the departure of Charlie, Barton finally writes and completes his play. To celebrate this momentous occasion, Barton goes to a USO party. After having his share of a dance with a dame he denies a sailor shipping off to war a dance with the woman. Barton puts himself on to a Christ-like pedestal and proclaims that he is a writer and a creator. There is an underlying connotation during Barton’s wild proclamation. He sees himself as the creator and voice of the common man, but in fact is a disillusioned betrayer of them. Barton sees himself as a higher being than the common man. He exclaims that the completion of his work is far more important than the struggle the common man would face in World War 2.
The truth eventually hits Barton like a bullet to the chest. Barton’s inner pain, which he dredges up within, is the truth which is disclosed to him by Charlie who puts Barton in his place. Charlie explains to Barton that he isn’t a common man; rather he is just a “tourist with a typewriter.” Barton doesn’t know what pain is because he hasn’t experienced hell. How could Barton live in a common man’s world when he complains about something as little as a sound coming from next door?
While running down a detective with a shotgun, Charlie screams to Barton to “Look upon me! I’ll show you the life of the mind!” The life of the mind has no road map, but the inward travel can be hell. Charlie asserts himself ironically as a man who brings who brings peace of mind to people, but is shown as bringing chaos. In fact, in the end Charlie brings peace to Barton by giving him the truth. Barton’s battle with himself comes to a close as the truth of who he is revealed. He no longer has to prove to himself or to others who he is. He ends up on a serene beach looking at a beautiful woman, content with himself; the journey has ended. The life of the mind is an odyssey of self-revelation.
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