Analyzing Evil: Thomas Wake, Thomas Howard, and The Lighthouse

hello everyone and welcome to the 23rd episode of analyzing evil featuring our patron pick for the month of april thomas wake from the lighthouse now you'll notice that in the title of this video i've put both thomas wake and thomas howard and that's for good reason though tom is the main antagonist of the film the film is all about the two of them together and i can't just focus on wake in this video to keep things simple for the rest of this video i'll be referring to thomas wake as tom and thomas howard as tommy to say that this film is one hell of a ride is an understatement and in an interview robert eggers even stated that one of his goals when making this film was to leave you with more questions than answers and oh boy did he succeed it should be noted that this video is after a good amount of research to ensure i wasn't making false assumptions what i took from the film and how i interpreted the events that transpire therein but again this film is one that leaves more questions than answers and my interpretation may be miles away from what was intended or what you took from the film now with that in mind let's just get right into it first we need to talk about some of the symbolism and themes in the film there are five things in particular that this film draws its symbolism and themes from those being homosexuality and its repression alcoholism and the struggle to overcome it greek mythology the works of carl jung and general myths regarding the sea derived from the superstitions of sailors and according to robert eggers this film was in part meant to be a what-if scenario regarding two gods proteus and prometheus meeting and interacting with one another tom represents proteus a messenger god of poseidon and tommy represents prometheus the titan who created humans in greek mythology and who stole fire from the gods to give to humans proteus shepherd of sea beasts who supposedly dwelt on the island of pharaohs which housed the lighthouse of alexandria is meant to represent change and is described by jung as also representing the unconscious mind proteus was also widely believed to be a personification of the soul and its many aspects and faces as well he is able to shapeshift and tell the future but will only reveal the future to those who seek it after he is caught now prometheus creator of humans in their civilization represents a few things but the most important thing he represents in regard to the film is his quest for the fire of the gods and his subsequent thievery of it to present to the humans to provide them with knowledge and intelligence for overstepping his mandate zeus sentenced prometheus to be chained to a rock where each day his liver would be torn out by a representation of zeus an eagle after which during the night his liver would grow back and the eagle would come again an endless cycle of torment and pain as far as tom and tommy representing these gods tom isn't a direct copy of proteus but with these attributes in mind we can draw a few important comparisons tom is ever changing his mood and personality shifting throughout the entire film and though he can't necessarily tell the future he is prophetic and full of superstition and warnings regarding myths of the sea his coveting of the light is in a way like proteus keeping the future from those who would seek it in that tom will deflect the subject at any cost desperately trying to keep the light to himself tommy in his quest to see the light is much like prometheus but he isn't seeking the light for some noble purpose and his reasoning is rather selfish in nature feeling that he should overstep his station and that he's capable of doing it even though he hasn't spent much time on the island and isn't an experienced wiki for this he suffers the same fate as prometheus at the end of the film when he oversteps his own bounds as far as sailor's superstitions we get quite a few different lines from tom that are heavy with superstition the two most prevalent are the superstitions surrounding the killing of birds and the mermaid who are often regarded as a herald of either good or bad fortune by sailors there is passing mention of two more superstitions saint elmo the patron saint of sailors and davy jones locker but those aren't as crucial to the story as the mermaid and the seagull as far as jungian influences go i believe the most important components of his philosophy in relation to this film are the persona which is the image of oneself you project onto the outside world the shadow the central components of who you are that you keep hidden either intentionally or unintentionally the anima which is the personification of the subconscious female aspects of a man's mind the unconscious mind which houses much of who we are that we're largely unaware of mythological representations of one's psyche such as proteus representing the unconscious mind and the self which is the completion of one's journey through psychological development the end goal of one's maturity where you accept and embrace every aspect of your true self this is a very brief explanation of these principles and will serve the purposes of this video however jungian philosophy and psychology is an extensive subject and i encourage you to research the subject on your own and draw your own comparisons to the film and his work if you feel i've left anything out or if you're well versed in the subject feel free to let us know about anything i missed down below as we go through this video let's move on to a brief overview of our characters i'll start with tom and i'll provide some summation of his character but keep in mind that this is largely irrelevant as i'll soon explain further along in this video the only glimmer of an origin we get from him is when he's telling tales of his time at sea who knows if any of what he says in these tales is true but we can at least establish a few things that are likely true those being that he was certainly at least a sailor at some point if not a captain he was married at some point and the injury he suffered to his leg is probably why he isn't a sailor anymore i pictured thomas as a man who was very much in love with his life as a sailor and after losing that love he spiraled into an alcohol-fueled depression resulting in his wife leaving him over this not due to the fact that he was away at sea for so long as he claims it was this loss of purpose in life that turned tom onto being a lighthouse keeper still finding his way to the thing he loved more than anything in life the sea it's this love of the sea and his superstitious beliefs surrounding it that factor heavily into tom as a person living his life according to the mantras he learned as a sailor as far as his personality goes tom is quite varied he seems to be well spirited when he's relaxing but he's a brutal and unforgiving taskmaster when he's performing his duties and has little patience for what wrongs he perceives in tommy frequently insulting him and questioning his abilities as his second though generally calm he comes unhinged at varying points in the story and is prone to bouts of violence or rage and alcohol-fueled tirades much like the sea he so loves whose fury can come alive at almost any moment all in all tom gives off the impression of a hard superstitious man with a jovial side to him particularly when he's drinking now we don't receive too much in the way of backstory for tommy either but what little we do receive i believe is the truth obviously he lies about his identity early in the film but later on he ends up revealing his true identity to tom the only real information we have to go off of is his former occupation as a logger and his propensity to move from job to job when he's unsatisfied with his work tommy is initially a reserved man and with the knowledge we have of his past from the latter half of the film and the uncomfortable look on his face when he's speaking to tom about the subject early on in the film we can peg tommy as someone who is desperately trying to forget their past and move on with their life taking the job at this remote outpost to try and hide what he's done and who he was part of what he's trying to put behind him is likely an ongoing struggle with alcoholism as adherence to the rules doesn't seem to be a good enough excuse for a man like tommy to shirk drinking on the job he's also trying to escape his repressed homosexuality which we get glimpses of several times during the film tommy remains mostly reserved throughout the film safe for when he's drinking and if not reserved troubled more than anything tommy can best be described as a man who's trying to forget and one whose past weighs heavy on their conscious now that we've established the characteristics of tom and tommy as well as the key elements present in the film let's incorporate all of them into what i believe is the true meaning behind this story feel free to disagree because i could be totally wrong but this is as i said in the beginning of this video what i ultimately took from this film first and foremost i believe this film is inherently supernatural in its premise while you could chalk up much of what you see in the film to hallucinations or dreams coming from tommy's fractured mind i believe that's not the case and what's actually happening is that tom and tommy are one person in a sense and tommy is suffering in his own personal hell a hell that's rife with symbolism that his damned soul can hardly comprehend or understand a hell overseen by his own shadow in thomas wake who he's actively trying to battle attempting to redeem himself by starting anew now i profiled their characters separately to highlight the different components of the characters but the worst parts of tom are essentially a part of tommy and who tom actually is is the god proteus i elaborated on tom's backstory but this could either be irrelevant or drawn from tommy's memory it could be his father someone he met during his life or it could simply be proteus putting on a facade but how did tommy get here well if i had to guess i would say that this is purgatory for tommy and this film takes place in the afterlife i can't say i know how he died but in essence i believe this is all an elaborate punishment for tommy one that he has a chance at overcoming and we can derive this from the jungian principles that i mentioned before tommy is lying to himself about who he is and covering up his dark past by pretending to be someone else this new persona is his attempt at redeeming himself in his own words he gave ephraim winslow a clean slate and had he not been so hasty to get to the light to find a shortcut to his acceptance of his true self he would have been able to use this persona to simultaneously atone for his sins while accepting his guilt to surmise the representations of the jungian principles going forward we have thomas wake as the unconscious mind and the mythological representation of it as the aspect of proteus the mermaid as the anima of thomas and the lighthouse as the self i'd like to note that since proteus and tom are a representation of the sea that the sea itself also represents tommy's unconscious mind the distinction about tom being tommy's unconscious mind and proteus is important as though he is acting as tommy's shadow he's also a legitimate aspect of the sea god proteus who is serving as tommy's warden so to speak one small detail that reinforces the notion that tom is tommy's shadow is the scene where tommy spies tom naked in front of the light it's only for a moment but you can see that tommy's shadow is replaced with toms i think the circumstances that we find tommy in fit perfectly into his story considering he has no prior experience as a sailor or of the sea that we know of this means tommy has been transported to somewhere completely alien to him an isolated dungeon in unfamiliar territory in which he has little knowledge or experience the perfect place for someone to be challenged and punished no dungeon would be complete without his torturer and throughout the film tommy is subjected to torment and deception from tom and these moments are meant to be seen as his battle with the components of himself he leaves buried in his unconscious mind that he's desperately trying to avoid namely his homosexuality his alcoholism and the insecurities and flaws he sees in himself the mermaid and his scrimshaw his anima represents the part of him that feels shameful over his feelings towards men and his alcoholism and the part of him that's remorseful guilty and sorrowful over what he's done to his former lover the more quote-unquote feminine emotions he keeps hidden away highlighting his struggle to come to grips with his feelings this is best seen when we see the mermaid beckoning to him underwater after he's seen a vision of his former lover's body adrift amongst some logs a nod to the feelings he has hidden beneath the surface about the situation another important component to tommy's story is the seagull tommy kills out of frustration the goal represents a warning and a test for tommy serving as his last chance at redemption so to speak to move past who he is and make it out of his own hell without relapsing into the faults of his former self he fails in this test however and due to this he's doomed himself to be trapped with his own unconscious mind and without being ready he is forced to face an answer to the demons he holds within him when looking into the light of the lighthouse though tom and everything around tommy are constantly trying to goad him into shedding his persona and succumb to his demons like with the constant prodding and insults and the water being undrinkable on the island tom his unconscious mind tries in a small way to warn him against becoming that which he's trying to shed by urging him not to trifle with the seagulls i see this as something i believe we can all identify with and that's the struggle we live with on a daily basis with some of our worst impulses and tom represents the little voice in the back of our heads that's telling us we'll do better that tomorrow will be better some of us manage to listen to that voice and overcome some of our worst aspects perceived or real but a great many of us end up relapsing and ignoring that voice just as tommy does when he kills the goal dooming him to face what he's so desperately trying to escape this romp with his shadow and the destruction of his anima is what ultimately leads tommy to spilling his beans showing that he isn't remorseful for what he's done and he hasn't learned anything this notion is best expressed in the scene where tommy finds tom's logbook which is an account of all of his own insecurities that his unconscious mind has stored away the thoughts that haunt him buried beneath the surface but instead of reaching this point through acceptance he instead still remains unrepentant of his sins decrying the truth is false and further damning himself tom even remarks that he lies to himself but he doesn't have the sauce to see it in the end rather than accepting his shadow and the darkness in his unconscious mind tommy kills it failing even further in providing himself redemption tommy then sees in the light all of the things he's failed to come to grips with throughout his journey on this barren rock his true self coming to this point without putting the proper work in rendering him unable to handle the truth this is his promethean suffering coming full circle and we see tommy lying half dead with an eye missing as the representations of proteus seagulls peck at his innards just like the eagle of zeus and prometheus the most crucial aspect of that scene is the fact that we see tommy missing an eye i believe that this indicates that the former assistant that went mad that tom was referring to earlier in the film was in fact tommy and like prometheus who was sentenced to have his liver torn out each day only to regrow at night and be torn out again upon the next tommy is caught in an endless cycle in which he's being challenged to confront his sins and his true self so he can repent for his sins and forego his wrath and embark on a journey towards accepting his own truth and until he does so he's doomed to repeat this cycle in perpetuity if tommy resisted his temptation to murder the seagull his own self who is warning him against what's to come he wouldn't bring the curse of the storm down upon himself and would instead leave the island in peace but not for good tom remarks before the storm hits that tommy has the makings of a wiki and soon enough he'll be tending the light this is meant to symbolize tommy showing progress and making it off the island and then coming back time and time again renewing the cycle in a positive way repeating successful stints on the island steadily learning more and coming to terms with who he is and what he's done until he's eventually reached the point where the light of his own soul won't hurt him and will instead bring about his salvation this is what could be if tommy were to acknowledge and accept his guilt for who he is and what he's done but his impatience outweighs his sense suffering through this cycle of denial for who knows how many countless times never quite understanding how to reach the salvation that he seeks this is the story of thomas howard and his eternal imprisonment in purgatory hopefully one day tommy will find it in himself to see the truth of his own self and find redemption but until then he's caught in an endless cycle of pain and torment cursed the suffer under his own sins buried deep within his own mind suffocating under the weight of his own evil thank you all for tuning in to this episode of analyzing evil and i hope you've enjoyed what are your thoughts on the lighthouse and the two toms let us know down in the comment section and leave a suggestion for a villain you'd like to see featured in a future episode while you're at it if you liked this video and want to see more like it appearing in your feed feel free to subscribe and leave a like on this video while you're at it i want to say thank you again to all of my existing subscribers for your amazing support if you'd like to support the channel even further consider signing up as a patron over on patreon where you'll get access to different perks as well as more to come in the future thank you to everyone who signed up so far and a most vile thank you to those whose names you're seeing on screen now join the channel's discord server to interact with myself and others in the community and follow me on the social media platforms listed in the description for occasional updates on the channel as always thanks for watching and i'll be seeing you soon you

Channel: The Vile Eye

Views: 128,287

Rating: 4.9487562 out of 5

Keywords: Thomas Wake, Thomas Howard, The Lighthouse, Wilem Dafoe, Robert Pattinson, Robert Eggers, Horror, Jung, Proteus, Prometheus, Greek Mythology, Evil

Id: Ff7XsO3ndAI

Length: 18min 20sec (1100 seconds)

Published: Mon Apr 19 2021