Freudian Symbolism and Teen Sexuality in "A NIGHTMARE ON ELM STREET"

It’s no secret that Wes Craven was a famously literate director. Having never really watched a film until out from his parent’s watchful eye, the young yet-to-be artist occupied himself with the canonical literature of the world, becoming one of the most well-read directors making popular film. One of Craven's most instrumental influences was German psychologist and psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud. Freud’s thumbprint can be found on any number of Craven’s film works and can be probably be identified as the catalyst for Craven’s obsession with dreams and possibly even for dualism, but Freud’s work has also provided something essential for one of his most popular films, the nightmarish imagery of A Nightmare on Elm Street. What Craven communicates through the symbolism of Freddy Krueger and the kills he commits is entirely substantiated by Freud’s conception not only of dreams but of pubescent sexuality, latent desires, and fears.

A Nightmare on Elm Street, the tale of a murdered serial killer who terrorizes teenagers in their dreams, causing them to die in real life, needs no introduction, but a brief summary of Freud’s ideas on dreams, symbolism, and sexuality is probably necessary. Sigmund Freud believed that dreams represented a form of “wish fulfillment”, and as such could be used to estimate or determine the unconscious desires or fears of the dreamer. He also believed mind, at some level, interpreted and conceived the world as made of symbols, and dreams could be interpreted symbolically. These are all detailed in his revolutionary work Interpretation of Dreams, but what does that mean for Nightmare? If Craven subscribes to both of these ideas, and his work indicates that he does, then the heart and soul of Nightmare’s themes can be determined through an examination of its imagery and symbolism.

The female aspect of teenage sexual anxiety has a denser exploration in Nightmare, spanning not just the experiences of Nancy Thompson (Heather Langenkamp) but that of her friend Tina Grey (Amanda Wyss). We not only see Freddy's kills or attempt to kill in the "real world" but both have their share of lengthy "dream world" sequences. When Freddy perches himself over Nancy's bed pushing himself through the ceiling, the imagery Craven conjures deliberately recalls the breaking of the hymen. And this isn't the only time Craven depicts this specific event. Curtain-tearing imagery is used in the opening scene with Tina's nightmare sequence, and later on, we see Nancy staring through a broken window on a door during one of her dream sequences as she's searching for Freddy. In fact, Freddy breaks quite a few windows and mirrors when attacking his victims. 

Beyond that, during the scene in the bathtub where Nancy almost falls asleep, we see Freddy's gloved fingers seep out from the water between her legs ominously, first revealing the razors and then the entire hand as it reaches for her stomach. Every one of these scenes emphasizes the classic phallic nature of Fred Krueger's fishing knives and recalls the old myth that a woman can and will feel intense pain upon losing her virginity.

This teenage sexual anxiety on display is two-fold, and while we never see Rod or Glen in the dream world, we do watch their deaths unfold in reality. Glen's (Johnny Depp) provides us the best insight into Craven's demented psyche with his death: a scene in which, while Glen is lying on his bed, Freddy pops from beneath the covers and pulls him into a newly created infinite pit in the bed, and just moments later this whole erupts into a Shining-esque geyser of blood, which is our signal to interpret the aperture as a proverbial vaginal opening. This signifies not only the pubescent male fear of the foreign organ but recalls in part the myth of vagina dentata, where Freddy's knives are no longer perceived as phallic nature but analogous to the mythical teeth supposedly hiding in the vagina, which during intercourse results in male castration and emasculation.

The manifestation of all of these fears coalesces into a figure that cannot be killed, protected against, or subverted by the parental figures. Freddy Kruger tortures all of these children through their dreams, a place where parents cannot enter, and sleep a place children cannot avoid. And so A Nightmare on Elm Street is not simply a tale of teenagers coping with budding sexuality and interactions with the foreign sex, but of adulthood. The fear of a life beyond the protection of their parents, and one confronted by very real terror.