‘I just want to be perfect’- Nina Sayers. But who decides what perfection is and when you have reached this goal? Seeking perfection is a disease of our time, a modern disease unobtainable and unrealistic. In his tragedy, Black Swan, Darren Aronofsky manipulates the traditional tragic character conventions of hamartia, peripeteia and anagnorisis. He does this to demonstrate the dangers of perfection and its destruction within humankind. If perfection is an artificial construct, why is it that people strive relentlessly to achieve it, at the expense of their own humanity and sanity? Nina is just a representation of all of us, our society and our ongoing obsession with the insurmountable illusion of perfection.

Through the process of seeking perfection, we are constantly reminded of our shortfalls, which in turn drives our obsession to seek this unattainable goal. This is mirrored within our tragic hero Nina, whose multiple flaws compound through her pursuit of perfection. Aronofsky sets out to portray a different slant on the traditional tragedy. In doing so he provides a more realistic reflection of the tragic heroes in our modern society, particularly our women. Nina battles with the flaws of vanity, obsession, insecurity, passiveness and greed. The assumptions and stereotypes society places on women drive these destructive fatal flaws to consume Nina. Who dictates this standard of perfection? It must be those in our society who benefit. Those in positions of power, predominantly our men. This imbalance of power creates a toxic environment for our young girls. A suffocating situation where we can never be good enough, constantly measuring ourselves against unrealistic standards and goals. This is played out in Nina and Thomas’ relationship and as an audience, we witness this through dialogue. Thomas holds the power and sets the unrealistic standard of perfection for Nina capitalising on her fatal flaws. ‘Little princess’ he calls her, a term he used for his last protege. This term is dangled in front of Nina as the ultimate destination of perfection while ensuring she stays well within Thomas’ control. This belittling label reinforces the established hierarchy. Every girl wants to be a princess, but in our society princesses will always be placed under the control of kings and princes. Thomas wants Nina to be weak enough to control but not weak enough to disgust him. ‘Stop being so fucking weak’. Thomas’s inflated sense of ownership over Nina feeds into her neuroticism and insecurities. This double standard that men have in our society makes the goal of perfection so unachievable. White swan, black swan, what is it men want? Nina’s flaws are a reflection of society’s flaws. We are a product of our society’s flaws. And until we stop obsessing over this unmountable goal of perfection, we always will be.

‘I felt it. Perfect. I was perfect’. Unlike the traditional fall from grace of a tragedy, Aronofsky’s Black Swan is a reversal of the peripeteia. We witness Nina rising to grace, gaining and accomplishing everything she ever wanted. However, this does not come without a price as we see the sacrifice this has on Nina. This is demonstrated through costume and Nina’s transition from white to black clothing within the film. We live in a society where we are only exposed to each other’s external casing. This means that we miss the internal highway of impact. Outwardly Nina rises to grace, becomes the Black swan, peaks perfection but not without an internal collapse. ‘What happened to my sweet girl?… She’s gone’. At the birth of the film, Nina’s clothing consists of a montage of white representing her inner white swan. The white swan represents purity, innocence and virginity everything Nina was. The transition to black clothing in the film denotes the emergence of power and darkness. Driven by her desire to be perfect, blackness consumes her. Through doing so Nina loses herself, her identity and becomes the black swan. As Nina outwardly seeks the perfection of becoming the black swan her internal being becomes fractured. Just like a ballet shoe the perfected beauty on the outside masks the destruction and collapse within. The inner turmoil is in direct conflict with the external perfection. The destructive forces of perfection eventually cause the scales to tip. We witness this in the final black swan dance where Nina removes the veil covering her eyes to fully embrace the black swan. ‘Lose yourself’. Nina becomes what society desires and in doing so self destructs. We live in a world where we get our sense of worth through external gratification rather than intrinsic self-love. Fueled by the ideal, perfection. The fractured mirror is a reflection of Nina’s fractured mind, a shard of which ultimately kills her. The pursuit of perfection demands from us to be more than we are capable of being. While externally it may appear we achieve, its internal impact which has the greatest effect. ‘Only true love can break the spell’, here lies the problem. In seeking perfection you deny your self of love.

The most powerful element of a tragedy is anagnorisis. It provides the audience with a moment of awareness, a point where they can recognise and reflect on their own lives alongside the characters in the tragedy. All tragedies give us the gift of being observers. This, in turn, gives us time and distance to contemplate our own flaws and change in order to avoid the same fate as our tragic heroes. Unlike traditional tragedies our director intentionally ensures our tragic heroine Nina never really experiences a moment of anagnorisis. Whenever she is confronted with the opportunity for a moment of anagnorisis she runs and hides from it. Nina’s obsession with perfection doesn’t allow for reflection that will divert her attention away from her ultimate goal. ‘The only person standing in your way is you’. Thomas’ observation succinctly sums up Nina’s inability to experience anagnorisis. Here lies the conflict. If we never experience anagnorisis we are unable to learn and grow as humans. Despite Nina not experiencing anagnorisis, the audience does. Through witnessing Nina’s insanity we are forced to examine how the pressure of perfection inhibits her from being able to save herself. Mirrors are a tool of reflection and in this film, symbolism for anagnorisis. We are presented with a medium shot in the film where Nina is getting fitted for costume and her face splits and fragments creating multiple figures. This represents the fracturing of her sanity and therefore her desperate need for anagnorisis. When looking into a mirror we have the opportunity to reflect, however, if we are driven by perfection we will only ever see imperfection. Nina is never able to reflect because she never recognises or acknowledges the truth of what she sees. In the isolated world of ballet rather than seeking help, Nina continues her denial of the truth which compounds upon her mental instability. Nina’s inability to carry out anagnorisis eventually destroys her. In a close-up shot, we see a shard of the fractured mirror- which represents her final opportunity for anagnorisis- removed and thrown aside ultimately killing Nina. If we are unable to recognise and reflect on our own flaws how are we to become better people or even attempt to pursue this goal of perfection? Anagnorisis is essential to a successful life otherwise we will create and live out our own tragedies. Perfection is a disease that stops so many in our society from being able to carry out anagnorisis, to learn and grow and ultimately save themselves. Unattainable and unrealistic, it has us stumbling blindly into our own degradation and like Nina conclusively our ends.

Perfection is a flaw of society. We allow society’s flaws to dictate our lives and in doing so society’s flaws become our flaws. The modern tragedy of Black Swan creates a greater impact than most tragedies. Aronofsky’s manipulations of the traditional character conventions made this tragedy relatable. In doing so the impact of his film more devastating and the message we take from it more vital. Very few in society live out the perfect tragedy or follow the perfect tragic hero structure. Many live out flawed tragedies, like Nina, which is a more realistic representation in response to our modern society, our flawed modern society. Simply, we become flawed because society is flawed and through this, our lives suffer as a consequence. The pursuit of perfection is closely linked to the deterioration of mental health, increased anxiety and depression in our modern world. Constantly measuring one’s self against unrealistic ideals- reinforced through social media- will easily lead us to feel inadequate. This results in more tragedies in our society. While our egos continue to crave external affirmation this flaw will continue to debilitate our growth. Instead, if we each focus as much energy on what we do well, our inner strengths and beauty rather than seeking elusive perfection, we can avoid these tragedies.