What is the significance of the musical sequences in "Dancer in the Dark"?The musical sequences seem to work to support Marx in multiple different, but not mutually exclusive ways. On page 298 Marx writes, "the fact that labor is exernal to the worker, i.e., it does not belong to his essential being; that in his work, therefore, he does not affirm himself but denies himself, does not feel content but unhappy, does not develop freely his physical and mental energy but mortifies his body and ruins his mind. The worker therefore only feels himself outside his work, and in his work feels outside himself." The musical sequence at the factory really works to show this statement. Selma steps out of her work and into the world of her mind where she is able to develop her mental energy. Here she is able to escape the world of alienated labor and recognize her true self so to speak. The sequence allows the mundane and depressed atmosphere of her work situation to be even more obvious when compared to the imaginitive communal scenes that happen in her mind.
Why is Gene so important to Selma?
It would be far too simplistic to answer this question by simply saying that Gene is her son. According to Freud, Gene would be much more than a son to Selma. Freud writes that after a girl realizes that she lacks a penis, "she slips-- along the line of a symbolic equation, one might say-- from penis to baby. Her Oedipus complex culminates in a desire, which is long retained, to receive a baby form her father as a gift-- to bear him a child." Since Selma is female (obviously) Gene is not only her son, but her compensation for not having a penis. He is the thing that makes up for her femininity.
Looking at their relationship from a Marxist view brings about a whole new culmination of ideas. Marx states that workers are both alienated from their self and from other workers. This, to me sounds like a lonely state. When Selma has this baby, he represents the community that Selma is lacking. Gene is a means towards revolution. Gene represents the understanding by the Proletariat that the system is man-made, that it can be changed, an
d he is the unifying factor in our community of characters. He is what helps the workers move from isolation to community. He ties the group together after Selma's death, is the recipient of all she has worked for, and gives his glasses to her in the end. He is no longer blind to the system. Thanks to Selma's hard work, he can now see the broken system and is able to work against it.
d he is the unifying factor in our community of characters. He is what helps the workers move from isolation to community. He ties the group together after Selma's death, is the recipient of all she has worked for, and gives his glasses to her in the end. He is no longer blind to the system. Thanks to Selma's hard work, he can now see the broken system and is able to work against it. 
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