My Analyzation of the story
Fifteen year-old Sarah lives in a fantasy world. Having lost her real mother, this fantasy world is her security. Instead of living in the real world, which we all live in, she has created her own world, which she lives more in than ours, which is dangerous. She doesn't allow intrusion in her realm, which is her Room. She is selfishly secluded from the rest of the world, safe within her own world, the Underground, until she wishes the goblins take her little brother, Toby, away. Thus her fantasies take a dangerous turn into reality; Sarah's mind is so strong, her world becomes real.
Sarah and Jareth are nearly equal but Sarah controls Jareth, for he's her fantasy come true; however, she lets herself play the victim, a role which she escapes at the end. Jareth falls in love with his Creator, Sarah. And in the end, Jareth loses, and Sarah resists him. He becomes a white owl, freed from his role as Sarah was from hers. Now he can only observe her from a window and must learn to live away from her, as Sarah must learn to live in the real world and put her fantasies away, having destroyed them. In destroying her fantasies, she has reached a new level of maturity and is no longer the imaginative young fifteen-year old, but a mature, responsible, independent teenager.
That's my analysis...that's what this movie makes me think about. I don't know if my theory is correct or not. Maybe, in the movie, all of this DID happen. Everything is real and not a figment of her imagination. MAYBE Sarah dreams all of this. MAYBE Sarah dreams of this and creates it with her mind. I don't know. Which theory do you prefer? =)
Speaking the words "I wish the goblins would come and take you away, right now" released Jareth, the darkness within her. Jareth has been living inside of Sarah, created by Sarah along with her world, having elevated himself to King. However, until now, Sarah has never summoned him or looked at him directly. Instead, she locks him in the center of her fantasy: the castle beyond the Goblin City. But with those words, Jareth is freed from within her, free to work his magic. First Jareth was forced to observe Sarah from within, fascinated with her as she was with him. He grew to love her. Jareth knows if he can make her love him, he'll be free forever. He must convince her to remain in her dreams. He believes if she falls in love with him, it will be easier to part with the real world.
At first, Jareth wants to keep Toby. He wants companionship in his secluded underground world, real companionship, which he can't get from his misshapen little goblin subjects. Toby cheers him up, and Jareth thinks of him as an heir. But later, Jareth falls more and more in love with Sarah, until his will is not just to keep Toby, but to keep Sarah. He doesn't know how to express himself without hints of malice, but interwoven in "Within You", is his affection and devotion. Both of them know they're in a fairytale, and they know the ending before it happens; Jareth is content at first, but later wants to change the ending. He pleads and begs her to free him from the story, wanting to be free, to live. She refuses, and banishes him, freeing herself and him, in a way. Jareth, the white owl, perches outside her window while she parties with her friends made in the Underground, and then flies away sadly, alone again.
