Show Dark

Show Dark

            The Netflix science fiction series Dark requires concentration among viewers to be intense to watch and to understand what goes on. It is more than just viewers who cannot speak German or understand what the show’s characters are saying, putting down their phones to read and follow the subtitles. The German-language series requires viewers’ concentration to avoid missing small details, hidden meanings, and things amidst all of the show’s mind-boggling insanity and meticulous plots. The series, whose premise about the small town of Winden, Germany, follows several families and primary characters finding their way through the secrets they harbor that span generations, among them the abduction and murder of young boys. It is a show whose plot includes many time travels, which, together with allusions to pop culture, music, history, and, as covered in this paper, mythology, and folklore, help viewers keep up with the storylines, genealogies, and concepts of time.

The significant symbolism and subtle references to mythology and folklore in the series one of Dark add to the meaning of the tragedy in it. There are parts of series one that alludes to Ariadne’s thread, references which are based in Greek mythology. The glaring allusion to the Greek myth of Ariadne, Theseus, and the Minotaur has the character of Martha Nielsen playing the part of Ariadne in a school play in series one of the show. Jonas is Theseus fighting the Minotaur. Ariadne in Greek mythology is the daughter of Pasiphae and the Cretan King Minos. She falls in love with the Athenian hero Theseus, son of Aegeus, King of Athens and Aethra, daughter of Pittheus, the king of Troezen, or of the sea god Poseidon, and Aethra. Per Greek mythology, Ariadne falls in love with Theseus and helps him escape the Labyrinth with a threat of glittering jewels commonly known as Ariadne’s thread (Perry). This happens after Theseus slays the Minotaur, a beast that is half man and half bull that Minos, the first King of Crete and son of Zeus and Europa, kept in the Labyrinth. 

Martha Nielsen’s life is almost as complicated as Ariadne’s, who was the daughter of a king and queen, sister to a monster, mistress of the Labyrinth, and granddaughter of gods. Martha is seen to be dealing with the disappearance of Mikkel Nielsen, his little brother. The role of Ariadne in Greek mythology was to protect the Labyrinth and could be seen as a similar role played by Martha as she is kept from the truth. Martha does not know that she is Jonas’ aunt, the same way Ariadne does not know her relationship with Theseus. It is mostly Martha’s mother Kathariana who sees that it is more than her being an outstanding actress for the highs school production, which is why she rushes to the stage to comfort her daughter, even showing that their arguments have been somehow forgotten, despite how vicious they have been: “My mother told me all about the old world, before the flood. She said it had been of a different kind: sinking…, then the darkness in her eyes was stronger than the light,” Martha. Martha is overcome by the growing rift between herself and Jonas, without her knowing that she is his aunt all along. The story she performs alludes to Greek mythology and parallels the narrative viewers have been watching and creating theories over. The performance which occurs in Episode 6 paves the way to viewers getting more clues to the ultimate end of the series.

The allusion to Ariadne and Theseus’ relationship by Martha paves the way for clues as to the end of the show. Ariadne’s responsibility for protecting the Labyrinth on which ritual sacrifices are performed in Crete and which houses the Minotaur in its center ends up with her helping Theseus, who she falls in love with upon their meeting as he comes to kill the Minotaur. She uses the clump of thread as a token, which should help him navigate through the maze. However, once Theseus is out of the Labyrinth, he leaves Ariadne heartbroken. The monologue has Martha overcome with emotion, and during it, Ariadne alludes to the apocalypse, or the end, and how there are bonds among them tied together: “The old world came to haunt her like a ghost that whispered to her in a dream how to erect the new world, stone by stone… Yet something remains behind that cannot be severed…, an invisible bond,” Ariadne. The allusion the Greek myth of Theseus and the Minotaur in series one also has Jonas use the red string to find his way into and out of the maze of the caves, similar to how Theseus uses Ariadne’s thread to lead himself out of the Labyrinth.

More aspects of the Greek myth, however, can be identified to be alluded to in Dark and the relationships among its characters. Ariadne’s abandonment by Theseus on the island of Naxos, after he slays the Minotaur, happens because he has a dream where the goddess Athena tells him to abandon his love and sail away (Roberts, 438). The manner in which Theseus is so heartbroken to have him forget to change the sails of the ship to white, the signal he is supposed to use to show that he has successfully eliminated the Minotaur. As a result of the failure to use the predetermined signal, King Aegeus thinks his son is dead and takes his own life. In series one of Dark, Martha is abandoned by Jonas, alluding to Ariadne’s abandonment by Theseus. It is shown in the episode that Jonas’ reason for abandoning Martha is connected to supernatural knowledge. There also is the suicide of Michael, Jonas’ father, and despite the reason for the taking of his own life not being clear, it is almost likely that it is because he misinterprets a signal from his future son: “On Nov. 4th, 2019 I traveled through time to the year 1986. The boy from the future stayed, and in time he became a man. Mikkel became Michael (Kahnwald), who never knew where he belonged,” Michael. Time travel in Dark makes the viewer see the myth of Theseus played out in a different order. The changing time dimensions on the show make the maze even more complex. Generally, Dark’s time travel, which happens through a wormhole and which takes place over a 33 years lunar-moon cycle, brings the allusion to mythology out.

In the play, for instance, there are allusions to time, cycles, and fate, and it is seen that nothing much changes with time. There are significant parallels between the myth of Theseus and Dark’s narrative encompassing the journey through the tunnels Jonas has to endure to end the cycle. The time travels, which are common in the story, appear to be similar to the maze that has to be solved in most Greek mythologies. The Labyrinth for example presents a maze that has to be solved to save the life of the infant boy and is similar to the journey that has to e taken by Jonas. In the process, Jonas will defeat the forces of Noah or of an older version of himself, which might happen later on. Similar to how the Greek myth comprises of a number of consistent mistakes being made over and over by characters, Dark shows Jonas, alluding to Theseus, as the one who might stop Noah and the wormhole in the show, which might result in him losing of Martha. Claudia on Dark is the guardian of the cave portal in some way, especially with how she teaches Jonas to navigate it eventually. The journey by Jonas is similar to the Labyrinth, as he has to solve a maze despite having no knowledge of its ending. In the Labyrinth, Sarah is tasked with solving a maze in a bid to save her infant brother, which is similar to Jonas’ attempts to defeat the forces of Noah.

The first ten episodes of the Netflix original series Dark take the viewer through twists and turns, and symbols which require that they concentrate on understanding how the show alludes to such things as Greek mythology and folklore. Dark specifically alludes to Ariadne’s Thread and the relationship between Theseus and herself, which also involves the Minotaur in the form of the relationships between Martha, Jonas, Claudia, and the school play about Ariadne which Martha and Jonas are part of. Theseus in the Greek mythology becomes a hero for fighting an enemy he was not responsible for bringing up and is not different from Jonas, role in Dark as he was not responsible for the corrections he has to make by defeating Noah’s forces. There are similarities between Theseus’ myth and Dark’s plot, which add to the meaning of the tragedy in this first season of the show. Greek mythology has been in existence and most people have understood it over time hence its essentiality in creating meaning in other stories. Generally, the allusion is essential in helping the audience to understand the plot of Dark, which could be complex where it not for the inclusion of the ideas taken from Greek mythology.