Princess Mononoke - Analysis of characters in Princess Mononoke from the perspective of Lady Eboshi PDF

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This essay analysis the characters from the perspective of Lady Eboshi in Hayao Miyazaki's anime film "Princess Mononoke" ...

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Analysis of characters in Princess Mononoke from the perspective of Lady Eboshi There are several characters in Princess Mononoke who Lady Eboshi forms a variety of opinions on. These characters include San, Ashitaka, Jiko, the inhabitants of Iron Town, and the Emperor. Initially, Lady Eboshi views San and Ashitaka as threats to her power, however, later on, she changes her stance towards them. In Princess Mononoke, Lady Eboshi looks to use Jiko, the inhabitants of Iron Town and the Emperor to help her achieve her ultimate goal of ruling the world. Lady Eboshi initially despises San because there is a conflict of interest between San and Lady Eboshi. San wants to protect the forest and its inhabitants whilst Lady Eboshi intends to exploit the Forest for her own personal gain. San was raised by wolves after being abandoned by her parents in the forest, Lady Eboshi views San as subhuman due to San’s unconventional upbringing. Lady Eboshi believes it is her right to destroy the Forest even if San does get hurt, San is regarded as a dispensable nuisance. Furthermore, Lady Eboshi views San as an animal who lives with the wolves and prefers the inhabitants of the Forest. An example of Lady Eboshi seeing San as animalistic and subhuman is when she calls San “Princess Mononoke” which translates to “monster,” (Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke ) when Lady Eboshi says this, she places herself on a pedestal over San and sees San as repulsive. Lady Eboshi tells Ashitaka “when the Forest has been cleared, and the wolves wiped out, this desolate place will be the richest land in the world and Princess Mononoke will become human”. When Lady Eboshi says this, it reiterates that she doesn’t see San as human or equal to her and that she is the only one who can “civilise” San whom she views as “backward” (Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke). Lady Eboshi views San as a cold blooded murderer; in the first scene of conflict between the Iron Town army and the wolves, San kills some men who were defending Lady Eboshi’s mining interests. Lady Eboshi believes San is a ruthless murderer who is obstructing her ambitions of ruling the world, preventing her from destroying the forest. Lady Eboshi cunningly used the deaths of the men to gain the support of the women of Iron Town who begin to hate San for being a threat to their husbands. By doing this, it brings Lady Eboshi and the inhabitants of Iron Town closer together. This

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is exemplified in the scene where San launches a surprise attack on Iron Town and is on the roof of a building, Lady Eboshi tells San “If your seek revenge for the animals we have killed, well there are two women down here who I’d like you to meet, they want revenge as well for husbands killed”, fuelling the revengeful emotions of the widows against San and gaining their loyalty at the same time (Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke). Despite Lady Eboshi being responsible for the attack by San, through her deforestation program, she places the blame on San for killing the men, to gain the support of the widows in Iron Town, thus using San as a scapegoat to strength her own position of power. However, at the end of the film Lady Eboshi’s opinion of San changes. This is demonstrated when she tells the inhabitants of Iron Town “that crazy little wolf girl helped save us all,” acknowledging that San as instrumental in saving her and the people of Iron Town, but still retains an air of superiority referring to San as “crazy” and “wolf girl” (Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke). Through Ashitaka, Lady Eboshi is able to see the consequences of her actions; the curse inflicted upon him by Nago was because she transformed him into a demon. Initially, Lady Eboshi feels that Ashitaka undermines her authority; she wasn’t able to kill San because he stopped her, and his constant reminder about being cursed distracted the attention of the Iron Town inhabitants from Lady Eboshi’s ambitions of expanding her mining empire through deforestation, making them fear that they too may incur a similar curse if they tried to destroy the forest. Lady Eboshi felt a rebellion in her workforce would be harmful to her deforestation program and started to resent Ashitaka constantly mentioning his curse, “I’m growing a little bored of this curse of yours Ashitaka, let me just cut the damn thing off,” when Lady Eboshi says this, she is giving him an ultimatum not to jeopardize her ambitions by unsettling the people of Iron Town .(Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke). Lady Eboshi feels that Ashitaka is exaggerating the effects of his curse so that he can divert the people's’ attention away from Lady Eboshi and towards himself for his personal gains. But with the passage of time, Lady Eboshi realises that Ashitaka’s presence helped shape her as a person, he was not looking to undermine her authority, just simply wanted peace for all. At the end Lady Eboshi realised that she survived due to Ashitaka’s selflessness. This is exemplified when she tells the inhabitants of Iron Town “Ashitaka, can someone find him, I need to thank him, we’re going to start all over again, this

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time we’ll build a better town”, showing that Lady Eboshi has learned a great deal from Ashitaka and is a reformed character after witnessing the destroyed landscape returned to its former beauty, realising that humans and nature must work in peaceful harmony. (Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke). Lady Eboshi initially sees Jiko as an ally to get the Forest Spirit’s head for mutual benefit. When Jiko tells Lady Eboshi that the women who work the bellows “are an amazing bunch of girls, they were wasted in the brothels,” Lady Eboshi senses Jiko is flattering her for personal gain, and has some reservations about his ambitions. In a different scene as Lady Eboshi is about to depart for war, she asks the women working the bellows, “will Jiko be satisfied with the Forest Spirit’s head or will he be after my iron works as well” and “Jiko’s riflemen may turn on us,” showing Jiko’s seemingly religious demeanour is just a façade, realising that Jiko is a mercenary. (Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke). Lady Eboshi’s suspicions prove correct when Jiko excitedly tells Ashitaka “I actually might get everything” as he carries the Forest Spirit’s head, Jiko’s selfishness and greed is apparent, he shows his true colours (Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke). The inhabitants of Iron Town are made up of dispossessed people, lepers and former brothel workers. Simply because she has given them refuge, Lady Eboshi expects them to be grateful to live under her protection. In return Lady Eboshi manages to extract hard work from them, the women rescued from the brothels feel a sense of gratitude towards Lady Eboshi and she is very much aware of this. Lady Eboshi exercises a sort of benevolent dictatorship over the former brothel workers. The ladies are strong-willed with independent personalities, but when it comes to matters such as the war against the forest-gods or the war against Lord Asano, the ladies become a cohesive team dropping any personal differences and unite against their common enemy. Lady Eboshi’s leadership qualities are evident amongst the inhabitants of Iron Town, when a messenger from Lord Asano comes to the gate of Iron Town, the women fire at him to protect Lady Eboshi. The women and lepers are indebted to Lady Eboshi, in return they do not question her decisions, in their eyes she cannot do wrong. “How can Lady Eboshi do wrong when she saved us from the brothels?” Thinks Toki, leader of the women working the bellows. Lady Eboshi recognises Toki as a strong character who influences other women, Lady Eboshi establishes a strong bond with Toki for obvious reasons,

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Lady Eboshi knows that this will help create a ruling hierarchy with Toki supporting Lady Eboshi’s decisions and ultimately controlling the women who work the bellows. The men who live in Iron Town do not question Lady Eboshi’s authority, she views them as her subjects. She can be quite ruthless even to her own army, seeing them as mere pawns to be used for her ambitions. When Gonza asks Lady Eboshi “what about the men Moro pushed over the cliff?” She replies bluntly “they’re dead; let’s get the living home,” displaying little concern over the deaths of the men (Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke). Lady Eboshi has the attitude “better them than me,” she feels that the men are obliged to protect her and should be prepared to sacrifice themselves for her. This is shown when Ashitaka is giving water to one of the rescued men, the man says “I failed her” referring to Lady Eboshi,, the man is more concerned about failing Lady Eboshi than his injuries, it shows that Lady Eboshi has managed to indoctrinate the men to please and serve her above all else. In another scene the lepers says to Ashitaka “Go and bring back Lady Eboshi, we’ll hold them [Lord Asano’s men] off as long as we can,” as they fight to save Iron Town in her absence and again in yet another scene Osa says to Ashitaka “you must not take your revenge on Lady Eboshi who sees us as human beings, the world hates and fears us, but she took us in and washed our rotting flesh” (Miyazaki, Princess Mononoke). Lady Eboshi was an angelic figure for them, whilst the rest of the world shunned them. Lady Eboshi resourcefully used anyone to fulfil her ambition to rule the world. She knew she would command respect and loyalty from those who felt rejected by others, if she provided them refuge and dignity. The Emperor was preoccupied with achieving eternal life, he had made it known that anyone who brought him the head of the “Spirit of the forest” would be rewarded handsomely in gold. Both Lady Eboshi and Jiko wanted to please the Emperor for different reasons, Lady Eboshi wanted protection and Jiko just wanted gold. I believe secretly Lady Eboshi wanted to eventually displace the Emperor but was clever enough to never divulge this, however once the Forest Spirit’s head was removed, Lady Eboshi was able to see the forest get destroyed, and this experience changed her for the better.

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Lady Eboshi initially saw San as another forest animal who had to be destroyed as she was no longer identified as a human being after living with the wolves for so long, in fact she feared San more than the forest animals as she was aware that San understood human and animal traits and was more dangerous than animals. Ashitaka’s position switched from foe to friend to saviour. Whilst Jiko remained cunning and elusive to the very end perhaps representing the persona of a government agent. The inhabitants of Iron Town were well treated by Lady Eboshi who knew they would owe her gratitude, as lepers and brothel workers they were shunned by society, in Iron Town they could live and work as respected citizens, but Lady Eboshi’s ruthless nature was exposed when she did not bother rescuing the men who had fallen down the mountainside into the river, regarding them as expendable. The emperor remained an elusive figure who had to be pleased and served, although Lady Eboshi wished to present the head of the Spirit of the Forest to him in return for favours, but the cunning Jiko was already on his way to hand the head over before fate intervened. With the head of the Spirit of the Forest restored to its body, the forest regained its previous glory, I believe Lady Iboshi became a more compassionate person, vowing to build a better town at the end of the film.

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Works Cited

Princess Mononoke. Dir. Hayao Miyazaki. Toho, 1997. DVD.

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