‘I’ve been seeing her in my dreams… vivid dreams… scary dreams’

One of the most interesting archetypal dynamics in Star Wars, and particularly in the context of its treatment of the quest, is that between Anima and Mother; and this despite the fact that, although the feminine is a powerful presence in the films, women themselves are in short supply. The first three films are striking for their lack of any use for women. In Episode IV the only woman apart from Leia granted any lines is the short-lived Aunt Beru, who is never seen outside the home and whose function, in her few lines, is to make sure people have what they need and to represent the importance of truth to oneself – characteristics often associated with the nurturing ‘good’ mother and never after reprised in the Star Wars cycle. In Episode V Leia is the only woman to speak or even to appear. In Episode VI the only woman permitted speech apart from Leia is Mon Mothma, a leader of the rebel alliance who delivers a briefing to the rebels shortly before the final destruction of the Death Star. This is an interesting reprise of Leia’s Anima role in Episode IV as the holder of hidden knowledge hidden that facilitates the ego’s destruction of infantile identification with the Mother. Mon Mothma is the only woman apart from Leia to speak in episode VI unless you count the animated alien lead singer of the Max Rebo jazz funk band in Jabba the Hutt’s lair, voiced by Femi Taylor. The scene given to the Max Rebo dance band is in fact notable for the unusual number of female extras in non speaking roles, used as non-human backing singers and slave girls to denote the exploitative, decadent and cruel anti-morality of the Hutts. This, as we will see, is significant in terms of the Anima/Mother dynamic.

Episodes I - III, made some twenty years after the first trio, moderate this visual and aural/oral exclusion of women: Episode I is the only film of the six to contain more than one significant female presence, with Amidala sharing a good deal of screen time with Shmi Skywalker. We also see and hear from a female fighter pilot, a female captain of a Republic cruiser and Anakin’s friend Jira; additionally, Queen Amidala is often accompanied by her identical, mostly silent handmaidens. In Episode II we see, but do not hear from, more than one female Jedi and the assassin hired by Jango Fett to kill Amidala is a female changeling, Zam Wesell - interestingly, it’s Anakin who realises that this helmeted figure is female rather than male, underlining his sensitivity to the feminine. Amidala still has a female retinue, one of whom, Cordé, is assassinated near the beginning fo the film. The Jedi’s repository of knowledge is under the care of a woman, Madame Jocasta Nn, making a familiar association of the feminine with arcane knowledge[1]. There is a female waitress in the café Obi Wan goes to for intelligence in his investigation of the assassination. And Naboo is still under the leadership of a woman, Queen Jamillia, accompanied as Amidala was by a female retinue. In Episode III we see two female Jedi; Padmé’s funeral cortege includes the Queen of Naboo and other women, again silent. The final scenes of the film show the young Aunt Beru and the Queen of Alderaan (not granted a first name even in the film’s credits) cradling their adopted infants. But the only feminine voice heard in the film apart from Padmé’s is that of the robot midwife presiding at Luke and Leia’s birth. There is room in Episodes I -III for only one female leading character, Amidala, as there was room only for Leia in Episodes IV-VI.

[1] C. G. Jung, Memories, Dreams, Reflections (London: Fontana Press, 1995), p.69.