The character of mother, played by Jennifer Lawrence, is the main protagonist of the film. Within the religious allegory, she can be seen as a representation of both Mother Earth and the Virgin Mary. The Mother Earth representation is more so the prominent one, but the likeness to the Virgin Mary is hard to miss. The character of Him, played by Javier Bardem, is a symbol of God or some divine creator. Him is the only character credited with a capital letter in front of His name, clearly a reference to God, as any pronouns used for His name are capitalized.
The opening of the film sees the aftermath of a house destroyed by fire, and a man known as simply “Him” places a crystal object on a pedestal in his office. As he does this, the house starts to repair itself and all evidence of the fire disappears. We then see a woman, known as “mother” awake in her bed. She wonders aloud where her husband, Him, is. We learn throughout the beginning of the film that Him is an acclaimed writer struggling with writer’s block, and along with his wife, he lives in a beautiful home which mother spends her time repairing and renovating. It can be said that this home represents the Biblical Garden of Eden (see Eden), but it could also represent an extension of mother herself. If mother is used to represent Mother Earth, then this house that mother is constantly renovating with Him can be seen as the Earth that God and Mother Earth are creating and changing together. Mother starts seeing unsettling things throughout the film, including a beating heart in the walls of the home, which continuously blackens over the course of the film. This is possibly to show how the home is an extension of mother herself, and it blackens because over time, human beings continuously disrespect the home she has built and along with Him, they keep taking more and more from her until we arrive at the film’s climax. (See Apocalypse) It isn't uncommon to see a character in a unsettling film like this one experience visions like beating and decaying hearts in the house's walls since it helps the audience to see the character's mind continuosly becoming unhinged, like mother in this film. (May & Bird, 1982)
Perhaps the main theme throughout the film is the rape and torment of Earth by human beings. When Man and Woman arrive at the home, they set in motion the destruction of mother, or Mother Earth. (see Man & Woman) We see this theme reappear throughout the film whenever humans arrive at the home, be it Man and Woman, Oldest Son and Youngest Brother, the mourners of Youngest Brother, or His faithful worshippers.
Him is also guilty, however, in the continuous torment of mother. It is Him who welcomes Man and Woman into the home despite mother’s advice that it’d be a bad idea. He leaves mother alone in the house after the Youngest Brother is killed in their home. He continuously chooses the humans that disrupt the tranquil life within His home over mother. The main way in which mother represents the Virgin Mary is when, in the second act of the film, mother is impregnated by Him. She wakes up the morning after and somehow knows immediately that she’s pregnant. These mysterious circumstances behind a pregnancy with God as the father, sounds a lot like Mary to me. It is also Him that essentially offers up the newborn baby to the masses of people, resulting in the death of the child. This reflects clearly the story of Jesus, when God was said to have forsaken his own son. He takes the house away, He takes the child away, and He takes the peaceful existence away from mother and she is destroyed because of it.
Mother appears to suffer from reoccurring pain and anxiety throughout the film and when she gets these bursts of pain or panic attacks, she runs to the bathroom and pours a mysterious yellow potion into a glass of water. She drinks it and the pain or anxiety seems to pass. This is one of the symbols within the film that no one really seems to be able to decipher. The closest anyone seems to get is that the yellow potion is a reference to a short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, “The Yellow Wallpaper”. This story involved a young woman who’s husband confines her to one room and slowly drives her insane. This is similar to how He slowly drives mother insane over the course of the film. (Stern, 2017)
