dancers in the company. For all the years, she's been driven by the dream to be a perfect ballet dancer, and the audition is a once-in-a-life-time chance to elevate her from an ordinary ballerina to a featured dancer. Nina's failure in the Odile’s coda leaves her completely devastated. As Thomas later explains, Nina's perfect dancing technique and her fearful and fragile style make her an ideal choice for the White Swan; however, due to her obsession with perfection, her strong sense of discipline and self-control, there's no chance for her to portray the destructive and seductive Black Swan. 5. What does Nina see on her way home that disturbs her so much? What does it indicate? After the audition, Nina is walking home, devastated. Then all of a sudden, she sees an attractive girl in black coming to her direction and when the girl slips by, Nina takes a glimpse and sees a face exactly like her own but with a strange wild smile, which gives her quite a start. What Nina imagines to see gives us a hint that the pressure has become so unbearable for Nina that her mind, while unable to seek a normal way out, starts to produce hallucinations.
6. How does Nina come to Thomas the next morning and ask for the part of Swan Queen? Why does Thomas force a kiss on Nina? How does Nina respond to it? Loosing her hair down, wearing pretty white dress and thick lipstick, Nina comes to Thomas’ office. Nina pleads to Thomas for a chance to play the Swan Queen and assures Thomas that she can finish the coda, the hardest technical part for the Black Swan. Yet, Thomas emphases that Nina lacks the spirit of letting go for the role of Black Swan. Disappointed, Nina turns to the door. Right at that moment, Thomas forces a kiss on her. The director is making a last attempt to test her potential. Nina is shocked by the sudden attack and bites Thomas, who is equally shocked by such a strong instinct.
7. Why does Thomas choose Nina for the role of Swan Queen? How does Thomas view Nina’s response to his kiss? It is Nina's strong reaction to his forced kiss that changes the director's mind. Thomas sees in that bite a different Nina, wild, aggressive, and full of self-assurance, all of which are the demands of dancing the Black Swan.
8. How does Nina’s mother celebrate her daughter’s winning of the new role? How does her mother respond when Nina feels reluctant to eat the big piece of cake? Why does Nina change to say that she loves the cake again? To celebrate her winning of the audition, Nina's mom prepares a cake of vanilla flavor with strawberry filling, which she claims to be Nina's favorite. However, Nina shows obvious reluctance to try the
big piece of cake, and her mom feels annoyed by the daughter’s ungratefulness. She claims coldly that she should throw the whole cake into garbage if Nina doesn't appreciate her way of celebration. Nina, for fear of making her mom unhappy, immediately puts on a smile and assures her mom that she loves the cake as she always does. 9. Who is Lily? How is she different from Nina in terms of her personality and appearance? What does Thomas say about her dancing? Lily is a dancer from San Francisco who's recruited by the company to play a part in Swan Lake. Her sexy make-up, seductive tattoo, care-free style and vigorous personality present a sharp contrast to the fearful, fragile, self-controlled Nina who cautiously observes all the rules of perfection. Lily follows nothing but her own passion and desire. Therefore, as Thomas says, Lily may not be able to dance like Nina with perfect techniques, but her moves are effortless, impulsive, and therefore attractive.
10. What happens to Nina’s nail while Thomas is announcing Nina as a
new star to the guests of the company? What does Nina find when she is trying to clean the nail in the bathroom? Why?
When Nina is presented by Thomas to the company's distinguished guests as the new Swan Queen, she sees her nail bleeding. Later she goes to the bathroom trying to clean it up and peel off the bleeding skin, but to her surprise, a second later she finds her finger in perfect condition. In fact, all the blood and the pain are out of her hallucination. As Nina is more strained by the role of Swan Queen, her hallucination is escalated to such a level that it starts to arouse her sense of physical pain. The bleeding may also indicate Nina's painful transformation from a disciplined and fragile self into a dark and destructive other.
11. Why does Nina feel uneasy when meeting Lily? How does she feel when
seeing Beth in the lobby?
With her own passion and desire being suppressed for too long a time, Nina only feels uneasy and cornered by the presence of the care-free Lily. Moreover, Thomas admires Lily's dancing and thus Nina takes Lily as her rival and thus feels more threatened by Lily. Nina shows sympathy to Beth when confronting her in the lobby. Beth viciously accuses her of seducing the director. Nina is embarrassed by the groundless accusation but she's not tough enough to defend herself. 12. Why does Thomas leave Nina the assignment of touching herself at home?
How does that relate to her role of Swan Queen?
The ultimate concern for Thomas is to bend Nina and mold her into the Black Swan so that she can be a Swan Queen even more successful than Beth. To push Nina to embody the dark impulse and sexuality of the Black Swan, he asks Nina to touch herself because he believes this
can help Nina arouse the lustful other self, and thus achieve the transcendence from a White Swan to a Black Swan. As an ambitious art director, all Thomas cares is the success of the show and he uses sexual seduction as a way to manipulate the mind and emotion of his dancer so that she can be made into a perfect Swan Queen.
13. What brings her to an abrupt stop at touching herself in the morning?
What is Nina afraid of?
Early next morning, when Nina is touching herself as suggested by Thomas, she suddenly sees her mom sleeping on the couch right beside her bed and that brings an abrupt stop at her attempt. For all the years, Nina's mom is always by her side, trying to bring her up as a perfect little girl always depending on mom's care and instruction. Nina has been reduced to an infant who cannot freely grow up into her full self and as mom's sweet little girl, Nina is so afraid of her mom's watchful eyes and so scared by the idea of breaking the rule of perfection that she has been held for years.
14. What happens to Beth? What is Thomas’s attitude toward her? How does
the incident affect Nina?
Feeling abandoned, Beth walks to the street, gets hit by a car, and her legs are seriously injured. Thomas feels sure that Beth does it on purpose because she always acts out of a destructive impulse. Nina is quite shocked and feels guilty for taking the role from Beth. Though Thomas assures Nina it has nothing to do with her and she should not get distracted by the tragic incident, the guilt of destroying Beth and the fear of being later destroyed by someone else still adds up the pressure on Nina.
15. In their late hour practice, how does Thomas inspire Nina through
action and words? Does Nina think Thomas is a brilliant teacher? Why or why not?
Thomas picks up the role of the prince to show Nina how to be seductive and dominant while dancing the Black Swan. At first, Nina moves stiffly and nervously, but soon she starts to respond to Thomas’ seductive words, touches and kisses. Nina cries for her slow improvement, and she believes Thomas is a brilliant teacher. Thomas is harsh and tender, strict and helpful, making efforts to mobilize her full potential, helping her achieving real perfection on stage, and thus make her dream come true.
16. Nina has been feeling frustrated at not able to perform well the Black
Swan. What happens to Nina when she is taking a bath? What does Nina finally see in her mirror? Why is Nina being haunted by the dark figure of her other self?
Back at home, Nina is taking a bath and she starts to touch herself again, trying to follow the director's suggestion to let go of herself.
When she immerses herself into the water and opens her eyes, she sees drops of blood dripping from above and suddenly, she sees her other self showing up right above her, giving a scary and evil grin at her. Jumping out of the water, Nina sees blood on two of her fingers. When getting out of the tub, Nina sees in the mirror the bleeding scratches on her back, and she starts to cut off her nails but only to see her vicious other self again in the mirror, staring at her with hatred. 17. Why is Nina’s mom so concerned about Nina’s career? How would you
describe the relationship between the mom and the daughter?
Nina's mom is once a ballerina who also dreams to be a star dancer. But then she falls in love with her director, gives birth to her daughter, Nina, and that brings an end to her career. Nina's mom wants Nina to achieve what she fails to achieve at a young age. However, the mom's high expectation and possessive control lead to an unbridgeable distance between the two of them.
18. How does the evening at the night bar affect Nina? Why does Nina
fantasize with Lily in her room? How does Nina feel about herself sexually and emotionally?
Nina resents her mom’s control and to show protest, she accepts Lily's invitation to go out to the night bar for fun. The evening soon turns out to be a dramatic adventure for Nina. Being pushed by Lily, she starts to try drugs, flirt with guys and indulge herself with wild movements on the disco dance floor. While coming back home, Nina, under the impact of drugs, has a fantasy about having sex with Lily, out of which she has experienced for the first time the ultimate sexual and emotional pleasure and freedom. For a time being, she sees Lily's face suddenly turn into her other self. This sudden shift of her fantasy indicates how Lily is taken by Nina’s sub-consciousness as someone resembling her suppressed other self. When whispering \girl\and that seems to indicate a self-awakening moment when her sub-conscious other side of mind is fully aroused.
19. In the next morning's stage rehearsal, does Nina perform differently
from previous days? How can you tell? Why does Nina throw away all her stuffed animals when getting home?
Nina's dancing in the next morning is no longer frigid and mechanical. For the first time, she smiles a hearty smile and for the first time, Thomas gives her an encouraging gesture, and later tells Nina her performance in that morning is a breakthrough. However, Nina is still deeply worried about the premier. Out of deep fear and anxiety, she convinces herself that Lily drugs her on purpose so that she can take advantage of her being late for the practice. Lying in bed, she is at first lost in thought, then suddenly knocks the music box off the