Long story short, Jennifer Lawrence’s “Mother” is Mother Nature herself, created by Javier

Bardem’s God, with their uninvited guests leading to a sort of hell-on-earth scenario that
directly parallels the Book of Genesis. You see, God’s creations have a tendency to go wild,
leading him to continuously wash away his work and start anew over and over until things run
more smoothly.

Bardem’s character is also obsessed with a mysterious crystal that he keeps in his office, which
nobody is allowed to touch, and often takes advantage of Lawrence’s kindly nature. But she
takes it in her stride, insisting that her husband is a very special sort of genius and needs time
and space to create his next work.

There’s also a frog, which appears briefly in the film and biblically represent “unclean spirits in
the sight of God.”

Then there’s the mystery lighter, which also appears on the film’s second illustrated poster, and
which reappears throughout the film and is the key to Lawrence’s eventual emancipation in the
film.

Embedded on the lighter is a strange symbol, which has since been identified as a Wendehorn.
According to an old Geocities site, the ancient rune represents “the cooperation between
nature’s eternal laws, working in effect and in accordance with each other.”

The site continues, “An example is Man and Woman, Male and Female – two opposites that
unite in accordance with nature’s eternal laws and compliment each other to effect change –
love, birth, sex (the central core of the lifeline and lifeforce of the folk), creativity. Whilst these
opposites unite in sacred unity they are not perfect and spark change – chaos spawned from
order and visa versa.”

Throughout the film Lawrence is seen pouring a yellow powder into her water, which makes the
water come alive with a magical CGI glow. It’s the one aspect of Mother! that is never properly
explained, though The Daily Beast has suggested it could be a reference to Charlotte Perkins
Gilman’s classic short story The Yellow Wallpaper.

The story finds a young woman driven slowly mad due to the submission insisted upon her by
her husband, and Lawrence’s mystery elixir, which helps her recover from random bursts of
pain, could be a subtle reference to it.

Sulphur is a bright yellow, tasteless solid and a very reactive element. It is found in a wide range of
minerals and is one of the products of a volcanic eruption. Perhaps this is why many people of previous
centuries associated sulphur (also known as brimstone) with the unpleasant afterlife known as Hell. In
the New Testament, Hell is described as a "lake that burns with fire and brimstone".

The element sulphur is a non-metal and will not dissolve in water. The pure element sulphur has very
little smell.
Despite all of the unfortunate connections, sulphur has long had a beneficial medicinal role. It was used
both externally, in the form of ointments for the skin and vapours to fumigate diseased places, or
internally as the medicine called brimstone. "Brimstone and treacle" was commonly used in Victorian
times, and was made famous in the stories of Charles Dickens. In the modern world, the group of drugs
known as sulphonamides are used as antimicrobials, one of the more important groups of medicines
available today to cure infections of the digestive system.

Aronofsky explains that the exclamation mark at the end of the title “reflects the spirit of the film.
The film kind of has an exclamation point; at the end of it, there’s a big exclamation point. So I
think the title was just a bit better that way.”

A man (Javier Bardem as ‘Him’ / God), places a vaguely heart-shaped crystal on a metal support,
because men love putting women on pedestals.
[N.B. The crystal represents Love and will play a major role in the film’s denouement ]

Her attitude to the anything beyond the physical confines of the house is wary and filled with
apprehension. I suspect this is because, as she represents mother nature and the house
represents the earth, what lies beyond is quite literally alien to her. This theme reoccurs in the
film and is a major symbol of her isolation.

She is clearly more content with their isolation than he, and this will continue throughout the film,
as will the theme of his writer’s block and its link to his lack of libido. On another topic, note how
she never wears a bra or shoes at any point in the film. This is done to highlight the sense of her
‘natural-ness’.

The condition of the heart represents the condition of the planet, which is a living thing. Here we
see the heart is pink/red and in perfect health, meaning the earth herself is in perfect condition,
as well.

She adds some yellow flavoured cocaine [pigment] to a thick porridge [clay-based paint] with
which she intends to paint the wall, and this suits her far better than the normal porridge.

The arrival of Adam here represents the arrival of Man in the Garden of Eden. Mother Nature is
not happy, as she recognises in Man a threat, though God is quite content as he was feeling a
bit lonesome. Additionally, the man mentions he is an orthopaedic surgeon / researcher, which
is interesting in that orthopaedics is the field of medicine that deals with bones…such as
missing ribs. Finally, the man makes a crack that he assumed mother was His daughter, not His
wife, in reference to the age difference that no doubt exists between God and the earth.
Also, do you see what a giant pain in the arse God is being here? He’s so desperate to be liked
that he won’t even defend his wife. One thing this film teaches us is that God is kind of an
arsehole, though many of us suspected that already.

The cellar represents purgatory / the entrance to hell, and it’s not a coincidence that the flames
start up when Man arrives.

He has taken the man up into his study, where the man learns that He is a writer/poet [creator]
and gushes about how much he admires his work. This is logical, as Adam was not a self-made
man.

[N.B. This room quite possibly represents the Garden of Eden as it’s found between the bedroom
(Heaven) and the ground floor (Earth). This analogy will become even more apparent when He evicts
‘man’ and ‘woman’ from this room after they touch the crystal he forbade them from touching. (See note
after 39:21)]

The cigarette lighter represents man’s discovery of fire (or god-like power), while the symbol on
it, a Wendehorn, is runic and represents life’s great dichotomies: good / evil , man / woman, fire /
ice, night / day, life / death…), which demonstrate that the man has this ability to distinguish
between right and wrong. She hides it from him because she understands the destructive
properties inherent in it and thus the risks it poses to her and her house.

After much debate and theorising, I’m confident when stating that the yellow powder
represents monoatomic gold (or Ormus), a snake oil type cure-all.

The next morning, while she’s preparing breakfast, the doorbell sounds. It’s the man’s wife
(Michelle Pfeiffer as ‘Woman’ / Eve). The instant she walks into the house, a smoke alarm goes
off in the kitchen and mother burns herself taking the hot pan. Would seem as though Michelle
Pfeiffer is still hot.

Woman: I can’t believe you did all this work yourself.

She: Why not?
Woman: It’s a lot.
She: Well, we spend all our time here. I want to make a paradise.

When mother physically prevents the woman from mounting the stairs, the woman repeats her
early sentence, ” Wow, you really do love him,” and then adds.

God help you.

As if that’s ever going to happen.
[N.B. It’s interesting to note that He enters laughing while the woman says this line, so it’s not just my
emoji’s that see the irony in the ‘God help you’.]
Woman: Look at you! If he’s not all over you, it’s either because of his age or…
She: Or what?
But the woman never explains what the other option is. To punish her, mother purposefully
loses the woman’s knickers behind the dryer, just as she did the man’s lighter. There’s no way
left for the couple to be hot now.

The woman left her kitchen a mess after making the lemonade. It’s not that mother doesn’t like
other people, it’s just that they all suck.

While investigating a strange, whispering noise, she walks into the bathroom and finds what
appears to be a human heart in the bowl.

In the man’s sack, she finds a photo of Him, which is all the more interesting as it proves the
man knew who He was before arriving, despite having said the contrary. The type of photo the
man carries is known as a Holy Card or Prayer Card, and historically Christians carry these
around to remind them about God and such.

The woman walks the the upper office, even though she was expressly told not to. She’s
tempted by the heart crystal, so perhaps that whispering mother heard earlier was the hiss of
the snake tempting the woman?

This scene represents The Fall in Genesis, when Eve eats the forbidden fruit.]
0:36:21

Her [to the man and the woman]: I think it’s best if you leave.
Interesting that in Aronofsky’s version, it’s Mother Nature who kicks them out of the Garden, and
not God.

After accidentally seeing them in bed, she witnesses the house reverting back to its burned
state once again and runs to the medicine cabinet for another dose of her gold dust.

In a fit of anger, He knocks the doorknob off the door to his study and it falls to the first storey
where it makes a dent in the wooden floor. This is certainly largely symbolic (so much so it
appears on the poster), but I’m as lost as a Apple user with IOS maps.
[N.B. The doorknob no doubt symbolises His willingness to open up and let people in, thus the removal of
the doorknob here is the denial of that access. Still, why the refusal of access should damage earth is a bit
beyond me.]

He boards up the door to his office and announces that “They will never get in here again!”

The sons bicker over the man’s will (which says his inheritance will go into a trust controlled by
the woman), while He watches over them and doesn’t get involved. That’s so God.

The boys begin a physical fight and the oldest son takes the doorknob [see 38:34] and uses it to
open his younger bother’s skull.
[N.B. If the doorknob represents His letting people in, I’m not sure what it’s signification is as a murder
weapon.

The man grabs his oldest son and throws him into a wall, creating a gash on his forehead and
causing him to open up. This is a reference to Genesis 4:15 where God places a mark on Cain.

The older brother stumbles out of the back door because the best thing he can get right now is
away.

[N.B. This is in reference to Genesis 4:12, where God condemns Cain to be a restless wanderer.]

I’ll point out here that just beyond the stretch of grass seen in the screenshot lies and charred
and still smoking burn area.

Noticing all of the bloody doorknobs in the house, I can’t help but infer they are highly symbolic.
Their meaning, however, like the doorknobs themselves, is out of my reach. I’m assuming that
the bloody doorknobs are meant to represent how man has tarnished the open-ness that He
offered. In addition, as Cain killing Abel is the first crime in the Bible, the bloody doorknobs
represent sin, and how man is already soiling the ‘earth’, as the house represents the planet.

The stain the blood makes on the floorboards will become a living part of the house, meaning the world’s
first murder has permanently made its mark on the earth. Throughout the film, the blood in the wooden
floor represents the damage man does to the planet.]
0:47:11 She places her forehead against the tile of the bathroom wall and once again is given a
vision of the house’s / earth’s heart, which has darkened since we first saw it at 05:47.

The frog almost certainly represents the 2nd biblical plague, that of frogs.
The oldest son sneaks up behind her.

They left you all alone? You do understand.

What, that she controls the telly remote now?

[N.B. This is in reference to 43:38, where, after he commits the murder, the oldest son pleads with her to
‘understand’. What he needs her to understand is what it feels like to be relegated to second place, to be
forgotten, to be abandoned by those you love the most. The oldest son’s parents favour his younger
brother, and here she realises that He has put her at the bottom of his list of concerns.]

People treat Him a lot better than they treat her…no doubt due to their own nature.

More people begin streaming into the house and as the population grows, she becomes more
and more nervous. She asks a guest not to sit on the sink as it hasn’t been braced yet

She follows a couple who have mounted the stairs to the master bedroom / heaven and tells
them they aren’t allowed to be in there. Heaven is so popular, people are dying to get in. [N.B.
This scene is a reference the story of Babel (Genesis 11: 1-9), in which the peoples of the world
try to build a tower tall enough to reach heaven, so God gives them all different languages so
they cannot understand each other and disperses them throughout the world so they cannot
plan together. This chapter of the Bible explains the origin of different races, which is why the
trespassing couple is mixed race.]

Now some of the house guests are actually painting the house during the party! They should
leave and paint the the town instead, and use red.

[N.B. Whilst this scene sticks out a bit as regards the flow of the film, it’s meant to show that people have
decided to improve on the earth themselves, ignoring mother nature’s original intentions. It’s the first
salvo in the war between people and nature.]
All these people!
This is her protest to Him as the party begins to spiral out of control. At first they were only
crashing the party, now they’re crashing everything else.

[N.B. This scene is also the crux of the film, as it perfectly encapsulates the major conflict of the the story.
He / God is enjoying the attention and admiration of his guests, and wants to have as many people as
possible to shower affection on him. Unfortunately, his desire for praise blinds him to the fact that the
more people who arrive, the more destruction there is in his house (the earth), and the more dangerous it
is for his wife (nature). Sadly, he’s so eager for the love of others, that he’s ignoring that of his wife,
[N.B. This scene represents the flood, when God kills off everyone (the party guests) on the planet
(leaving the house) with a flood (after the pipe explodes because of their puerility). At 1:05:21, in the
background, one guest can be heard exclaiming, “We’re being punished.” It’s even raining when she
evicts them.]
1:07:27 Once they’re alone in the house again, they fall into a dispute.

Him: You know what? Life doesn’t always work out the way you want it to.
Her: You’re right. Mine certainly didn’t.
Him: Excuse me?
Her: You talk about wanting kids, but you can’t even fuck me.

Immediately after learning she’s pregnant, He leaps out of bed, naked, and sits down to write.
The crack of dawn isn’t the only crack we see.

[N.B. The book he’s inspired to write is the New Testament. After writing an earlier success (the Old
Testament), he loses inspiration until the imminent birth of his son inspires him.]
1:11:11 She pours her powder into the toilet. Now that she’s pregnant and He is writing again,
she feels sure she will no longer experience the stress, insecurity and loneliness that led to her
to take the powder in the first place. Sadly, she doesn’t realise that ‘stress, insecurity, and
loneliness’ is the job description for motherhood.

At the precise moment she feels her baby move for the first time, she finds Him standing in the
doorway, trembling. He’s finished his poem

She reads the poem and we are shown the pictures

In the beginning, he was alone and lived in a dump

2. She came along and cleaned things up for him

The End

[N.B. The poem is the story of this film. Just as mother! begins with the destruction of his previous house
and her rebuilding his world, so does His epic poem. This parallel is another point in my argument that,
in addition to Aronofsky retelling the Bible, he’s also establishing a connection between himself as a
creator and the poet in the film, who is also a creator symbolising God, the creator. Thus, in a
roundabout way, Aronofsky is drawing an indirect comparison between himself and God. Lest anyone
mistakenly believe this god complex is a one-way ego trip, it seems obvious that Aronosfsky is basing this
metaphor not on God’s strengths, but flaws (selfishness, love of power, egotism, neediness…).]
1:14:52 After reading the poem and realising how wonderful it is, she asks Him the question…

Her: Am I going to lose you?

1:16:36 Literally 2 seconds later the telephone rings. It’s his publisher and she wants him to talk
to the press. He claims he’d rather not, but discussing it, he doesn’t notice that she has walked
away, knowing more truth than he could write in his lifetime. She goes to the baby’s room and
sees the blood stain has returned to the carpet, even if the hole in the floor is still absent
Before they can sit down to a dinner celebrating the success of His poem (all of the copies sold
in one day), fans show up on their doorstep, and He’d rather bask in the glow of their admiration
than that of the candles on her table.

Zealot [Stephen McHattie]: We’ve all travelled a great distance and I fell that these words–I feel that they
were written…for me.
Him: Of course, they were.

Because so many guests are coming, the bloody gash in the floorboards is back.

[N.B. You’ll note that ‘zealot’ is now standing in a position of privilege compared to the other followers.]
1:21:46

They love it. They understand all of it, but if affects everyone in a different way.
Sounds like puberty…

[N.B. In fact, he’s talking about all of the different interpretations of the New Testament and all of the
sects (Catholics, Protestants, Baptists, Methodists, Mega Church…) that have developed from the same
text.]

At this point, the looting for souvenirs start

Get out! Stop, all of you! This doesn’t belong to you!

[N.B. In this scene, Aronosfky shows us what humans are doing to the earth. We are robbing it of its
resources for our own, selfish reasons, not caring what we do to mother nature in the process.]

The poet has some ink on his thumb that he accidentally smears on one of his admirer’s face.
This will become a symbol for the religious write.

Because his poetry is highbrow

 [N.B. This ritual comes from the Catholic rite of Ash Wednesday, where a priest draws the image of a
cross on a follower’s forehead using ashes from the burned palms of the previous year’s Palm Sunday.]

The zealot has taken the framed original draft of the poem and is using it as a sort of totem for a
procession in the living room.

The condition of the heart in the house (i.e. the health of the planet) is deteriorating rapidly.

The zealot has now become a priest and is instructing the followers on how to perform rituals as
he blesses them with the ink smear over the left eye.

In the midst of a riot that will devolve into a literal religious war, she starts her labour and, when
pushed to the ground, finds the man’s lighter she hid so long ago. That’s one way to see the
light.

[N.B. The lighter is here to remind us that man, not God, is what led us to this mess in the first place.]
1:32:01 In an interesting development, women are kept in a makeshift jail. My guess would be
this represents male dominance throughout history, though it could be an Aronofsky remake
of Caged Heat.

The herald is killing critics

[N.B. In a continued bout of symbolism, the Poet rescues her and she asks twice to leave the house and go
somewhere safe, but he refuses and insist that they mount the stairs. More proof that mother is not
allowed to leave the premises.]
1:37:26 As she begins to deliver the baby amongst the chaos, He tears down the boards
blocking the entrance to his writing room and ushers her inside. Symbolically, this makes sense,
as it’s the room where he creates, and now he’s creating his Son.

They brought us gifts.

After the birth of their son, He reaches out of the door to the room to recover some fruit and
water left there by some not so wise men.

Him: More gifts. Look. Look. For you. Clean clothes.

Her: Are they leaving?
Him: What? No, they…they just want to see him.
Her: No. Make them go.
Him: I can’t. I can’t.
Her: Yes, you can. They adore you! They would listen to you. Why won’t you?
Him: I don’t want them to go!

She nods off and He takes the baby outside to the adoring crowd. The people love the child to
death, or at least they will.

1:46:24 He gives the baby to the crowd and when the tyke pees on them, the scream ‘Alleluia!’
Either this represents baptism
The zealot explains that the baby is not dead because he will always be alive as long as people
mourn him. This is a direct reference to the poet’s toast during the younger brother’s wake at
55:18 and it’s also a reference to the resurrection.

Pushing past the zealot, she finds the baby has been torn apart on a makeshift altar and
devoured. Some people really eat religion up.

[N.B. This is a reference to the Holy Communion, where Jesus instructed his followers at the Last Supper
to eat his body and drink his blood.]
1:48:01 She takes a shard of glass and begins attacking those partaking of her child, until the
zealot knocks her out with a blow to head from the doorknob.

Him: We can’t let him die for nothing. We can’t. Maybe what happened could change everything.
Everyone.
Her: What are you talking about?
Him: We — you and I — have to find a way to forgive them.

Him: Please, have faith in me.

That’s so God.

1:50:04 She sees the heart inside the house go all but black.

[N.B. Note the similarity between this shot and the shot of the first mother being burnt, which started off
this post.]
1:52:34

Her: What are you?

Him: Me? I am I.

[N.B. In fact, the quotation is a reference to a famous Bible quote “I am that I am“, which is God stating
the obvious when Moses asks him what his name is. God is the smartest ass.]
1:53:18 He carries her burnt body to what he refers to as “the beginning” (A.K.A. the desk in the
charred remains of his office, where he created).

Him: It won’t hurt much longer.

Her: What hurts me the most is that I wasn’t enough.
Him: It’s not your fault. Nothing is ever enough. I couldn’t create if it was. And I have to. That’s what I
do.

Suddenly, all warmth drains from the house and he holds her still beating heart.

He peels away the coal around her heart to reveal a diamond inside. Laughing, he places this
diamond on a stand and the house is restored anew.

The end of the film (beginning with the placing of the crystal heart on a base [see 1:55:48]) is an
exact copy of the beginning. The crystal, the renovated house, and a woman waking up in a bed
without Him, wondering where he’s gone. [The new woman is credited as “maiden”,
The song playing during the credits is Patti Smith’s version of the “The End of the World”, an
oldie popularised by Skeeter Davis.
 poster!

A couple of notes about the secrets hidden in the film’s poster… Apart from the obvious
reference to her literally giving her heart to Him even though it kills her, I’ve circled in yellow the
different clues Aronofsky leaves us regarding the symbolism in mother!.
 Beginning with the uppermost image on the right, we see a crystal heart (representing love) sitting in a
bloom
 Not far beneath it is a frog (representing the Biblical plagues God forced upon the earth to punish men)
 On the opposite side of the poster, at the same height, is His holy card (representing organised religion)
 In the flower beneath that is the doorknob (representing God’s power)
 On the right hand side of the poster, at the bottom is the lighter (representing Knowledge of Good & Evil)

The above are the best shots I was able to come up with for the yellow powders. On the top
line, I can make out ‘—able Remedy’, the I096 (which may or may not refer to this drug), then
nothing of the name except ‘yellow’, then ‘(illegible) by’ before what seems to be the
pharmacist’s address in ‘Buffalo, NY’. Does anyone have anything to add?

The Staircase: The massive, spiral staircase in the house represents the border between
Heaven (the upper rooms where, later, the guests are discouraged from going) and earth (the
rooms in the bottom where the people live). One reader, likka, has mentioned in the comments
that it is also a symbol of the Tower of Babel, which people wanted to create in order to reach
Heaven, but then God dispersed them to the four corners of the world (which would explain the
Poet’s separating people of different origins). [Heartfelt thanks to Simon, likka and John in the
comments who’ve developed this idea.]
The Bloody Floorboard: The earth is a living being, not an object. When she’s hurt, she bleeds.
This open wound gets worse, the more people are present in the house / on earth.

The Workshop: [Shout-out to Lucas Araujo, who brought this up in the comments]: The room between
the ground floor (Earth) and the bedroom (Heaven) could possibly represent the Garden of
Eden, especially when considering He evicts Adam and Eve from here and boards up the room
when the couple disobey his orders and break the heart he forbid them from touching.
The Poem: After the Flood has cleared everyone away, the Creator makes a new creation which
is idolized by the world. Unfortunately, the creation is so beautiful that everyone comes to the
house and destroy it by their sheer number, greed and selfishness. This new
creation? Simon (in the comments) realises this is the New Testament! The New Testament of
the Bible caused people to arrive en masse to the Church on Earth, and then to treat the planet
badly, using their love of God as an excuse.

The Yellow Powder / Liquid: [Shout out to Adrian in the Comments Section who shared this with us.]
The gold powder is something called ‘monoatomic gold‘, an element found in nature that purports
to perform miracles. It’s currently sold online by disreputable sites as a cure-all, much like elixirs
at the turn of the 19th century. Just read the claims of one site:
Monatomic Gold helps with physical and mental energy. It is very calming and balancing, strengthens
the blood and heart, reduces infection, and boosts the immune system. It’s great for the skin and hair and
has anti-aging properties. It invites from within you a truer form of you, a natural youth that you’ll see
and feel.
The placebo mentioned above sells for $84 per ounce despite doctors’ research stating it has
the same health benefits of table salt. Still, in olden times, these types of spurious vitamins were
all the rage.

The reason she stops taking the powder when her son is born is that she feels she no longer
needs artificial cures as being a mother will heal her naturally.

The Crystal: The crystal represents Love. In the final sequence, the Poet desperately asks if
she’s still in love with him and she begrudgingly admits that she does. Then he asks her for one
more thing before she goes and she says she only has one thing left to give. Following that, he
reaches into her chest and pulls the crystal from where her heart would be. [A shout out to Simon,
who explained this in the comments!]
The Lighter: [Shout out to Khalid who mentioned this in the comments section.] The lighter probably
represents knowledge. In many cultures, Gods give fire to humans as a power, but a double-
edged power because it has the power to destroy as well as to help. The lighter is Man’s way of
defying the Poet and Mother and to show he has some god-like powers (the power of fire), as
well. Which is directly linked to…
The symbol on the lighter: It has been misidentified as a Pisces symbol, but I think the article at
Popsugar successfully identifies it as a Wendehorn. The symbol represents life’s great opposites
(man / woman, fire / ice, night / day, life / death…), which demonstrate that Man has this ability
to tell the difference between right and wrong, a direct quote from the Bible in which God tells
Adam not to eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. Man has awaken, and is now
aware of both sides of life.
Why Adam is a doctor: Adam is an orthopaedic doctor, which is mentioned too many times for it
to be random. Orthopaedics, in fact, is the study of bones and joints, so would be the speciality
required to treat someone with a…damaged rib. [A hearty ‘thank you’ to Simon, who explained this
in the comments!]

Open questions
Here are some questions that I and other readers have which are still considered to be
unanswered. Will you be the one to solve the mysteries of the womb?
Adam’s sickness: A dear friend of mine recently asked at a dinner party, “Saint Pauly, Adam is
constantly sick and coughing in the film. What The Fuck is up with that?” Good question! I’d
completely forgotten how important it is to the first act. Would any of you have an idea as to
what the first human might be ill with? I could offer that it’s to symbolize he is mortal, thus is
fatally ill with the human condition, though this feels a bit vague. Any better ideas?
Earth’s exile: Jennifer Lawrence’s character cannot leave the house. If Mother Earth is Eden /
the planet, this would be logical, but then begs the question where does the Poet / God go when
he walks around? And from whence come all of the other people / fans?
What was the thing in the toilet? The day after Adam is sick in the toilet, She notices there’s a
beast which resembles a heart which is clogging the bowl. She prods at it with the plunger, it
screeches and then emits an inky substance before disappearing. Does anyone have a clue as
to what this could mean?

That adoration can be more important to a creator than the love of a partner. After all, what is
the logical outcome when presented with a choice between the love of one or the love of many?
For someone who craves love and attention, that choice is an easy one.

When the creator turns his back on the person who loves him the most, she then destroys the
relationship between them. She’s the one who demolishes the house, not the others. That she
leaves saddens him, but also prepares the way for a new relationship where he’ll continue to
make the same mistakes.

The writer and director, Darren Aronofsky, already gave us some hints about that matter, as you
can read in this interview. Quoting him:
[the yellow powder] it’s harkening back to Victorian novels and this idea of a deeper connection
for her and the house.

We see the mother drinking the mysterious liquid three times:

1. On the first night, right after she caught the man (Ed Harris) — also known as Adam —
 throwing up in the toilet.
2. On the second day, right after she caught Adam having sex with the woman (Michelle
Pfeiffer) — also known as Eve.
3. On the second night, right after she caught the cupbearer (Jovan Adepo) on her bed with the
whisperer (Stephanie Ng Wan).

The thing in common between those three events is that she caught them. People were doing
things she was neither aware of or agree with.

After the guests leaves, the couple have sex and sleep. On the next morning, she realizes that she’s
pregnant. After His (Javier Bardem) rush to write, she says: “I’ll get started on the apocalypse”.
Literally, she meant last night mess. Metaphorically, that’s the bible last book, also known as
Revelations. The next thing she does is to throw away the powder into the toilet. This last
apparition has a difference: it happened right after something she controls. She wanted the baby!
now she knows exactly what she’s doing.
[ali tako je izgubila i mogućnost smirenja, kasnije nema ovo da se smiri!]

As the house is refilled with guests, things starts to happen again.

First, a war. Fists, blades, guns, everything. After minutes of action, the couple passes through
some hungry old ladies, just before the baby — also known as Jesus Christ — is born and quickly
faces death. The mother then commits her first murder, followed by several more. He saves her
from being beaten, which brings her to destroy the floor, in response to the house essence’s
death. That rage still echoes and drives her to explode the whole house, bringing silence.

But the last paragraph’s bold words are the movie representation of the apocalypse seals. I’ll be
quoting the Revelations book using the King James Version of the bible, and comments by Ernest
Renan on Frederick Charles Cook’s book, with preterist views. Note: these comments were
written in the XIX century, which is the same period as the Victorian Literature, as you may recall
from the interview I’ve mentioned earlier.

War
Revelation 6:3–4
3 And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
4 And there went out another horse [that was] red: and [power] was given to him that sat
thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given
unto him a great sword.

Renan interpreted the Second Horseman to be symbolic of The Great Jewish Revolt and the
insurrection of Vindex. During The Great Revolt, civil war broke out among the Jews, just like the
war that happens inside the house in the movie.

Famine
Revelation 6:5–6
5 And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I
beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6 And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a denarius,
and three measures of barley for a denarius; and [see] thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

That happens very quickly in the movie, as the couple stumbles on a group of starving old ladies
while on a rush to have their baby, but it fits perfectly in the book’s narrative.

Death
Revelation 6:7–8
7 And when he had opened the fourth seal, I heard the voice of the fourth beast say, Come and
see.
8 And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell
followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with
sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

The death of the baby is the movie’s most shocking scene. It’s a checkpoint both as the middle
seal and as the irreversible part of this mother story. From this point, the end is certain.
Martyrdom
Revelation 6:9–11
9 And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain
for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:
10 And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not
judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?
11 And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they
should rest yet for a little season, until their fellow servants also and their brethren, that should
be killed as they [were], should be fulfilled.

Revenge, you say? Watching her son die triggers on mother a series of killings, only stopped by
being lynched.

Earthquake
Revelation 6:12–17
12 And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and
the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood;
13 And the stars of the heavens fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs,
when she is shaken of a mighty wind.
14 And the heavens departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and
island were moved out of their places.
15 And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and
the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the
rocks of the mountains;
16 And said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth
on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb:
17 For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?

When saved by her husband, she feels the house is already dead. This triggers an anger in the
character, which makes her break the floor, just like an earthquake.

Silence
Revelation 8:1–6
1 And when he had opened the seventh seal, there was silence in heaven about the space of half
an hour.
2 And I saw the seven angels which stood before God; and to them were given seven trumpets.
3 And another angel came and stood at the altar, having a golden censer; and there was given
unto him much incense, that he should offer [it] with the prayers of all saints upon the golden
altar which was before the throne.
4 And the smoke of the incense, [which came] with the prayers of the saints, ascended up before
God out of the angel’s hand.
5 And the angel took the censer, and filled it with fire of the altar, and cast [it] into the earth:
and there were voices, and thunderings, and lightnings, and an earthquake.
6 And the seven angels which had the seven trumpets prepared themselves to sound.
Revelation 16:1
1 And I heard a great voice out of the temple saying to the seven angels, Go your ways, and
pour out the vials of the wrath of God upon the earth.
Renan noted about the “silence”: it indicates that the first act of the mystery has ended, and
another is about to begin. The movie shows this as the creation cycle on the very first and very
last scene, as we manage to see three different “mothers” with the same beginnings and endings,
although only one’s story is fully described. The silence is the gap between a mother and another
one.

Antichrist
Revelation 6:1–2
1 And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder,
one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2 And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was
given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

Renan interpreted the First Horseman to be symbolic of the Roman Empire, with Nero as
the Antichrist.

???????????????????????

So, if the yellow powder is actually the Antichrist, this gives me uncertain conclusions: could it be
a contraceptive medicine? How could she get pregnant if she drank it three times in the span of
two days before copulating? What does it have to do with the “idea of a deeper connection for her
and the house”, as Aronofsky describes?

???????????????????????????????

The most popular opium derivative was laudanum, a tincture of opium mixed with wine or water.
Laudanum, called the 'aspirin of the nineteenth century,' was widely used in Victorian households as a
painkiller, recommended for a broad range of ailments including cough, diarrhea, rheumatism, 'women's
troubles', cardiac disease and even delirium tremens. Many notable Victorians, who used laudanum as a
painkiller, included Elizabeth Barrett Browning, Charles Dickens, Elizabeth Gaskell, George Eliot, Bram
Stoker, Gabriel Dante Rossetti, and his wife Elizabeth Siddal, who died of an overdose of laudanum in
1862. Wilkie Collins used laudanum for the pain of gout and other maladies.
http://www.victorianweb.org/victorian/science/addiction/addiction2.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laudanum