The Love Goddess and the Shawshank Redemption

The Shawshank Redemption (based on a story by Stephen King) has always been a favourite movie of mine. I’ve watched it multiple times, but it was only after watching it this past week that I recognized that the obvious theme of freedom and rebirth is explicitly linked with the Goddess.

For a synopsis of the movie check out Wikpedia.

First off, I noticed that Andy’s escape tunnel is juxtaposed with the warden’s safe. Both are hidden behind pictures. Andy’s tunnel is concealed by, at first, a poster of Rita Hayworth, then in the following two decades, by posters of Marilyn Monroe and Raquel Welch. The warden’s safe is hidden behind a tapestry (made by his wife in “Church Group”) depicting a quotation from the Bible, actually the Apocrypha: “His judgment cometh and that right soon” (Ecclesiasticus/Sirach 21:5). From here the symbolism of the tunnel and the safe is obvious. Both depict two representations of female sexuality. The warden’s safe represents the female, dominated by a ‘patriarchal’ reality and the tunnel is that of a ‘matriarchal’ reality, and unbridled female sexuality, disapproved of by the warden, yet, to his own downfall, overlooked, in his desire for power and control.

Andy tells Red that his wife complained that “he was a hard man to know. Like a closed book.” He adds that “she was beautiful” and he “loved her,” But he “didn’t know how to show it.” He believes that his coldness “drove her away” and that he was indirectly responsible for her death—leading to his false imprisonment for the murder of both his wife and her lover. It is while in prison, under the tyrannical reign of the warden, in a world of violence and abuse, that Andy is reconciled with the Love Goddess he spurned, and through her, he is finally set free. The tunnel is a passage of rebirth through the womb.

It is also noteworthy that Zihuatanejo, Andy’s paradisical destination across the border in Mexico is known as “the place where goddesses live.” According to Wikipedia; “There is a story that states that Zihuatanejo was a sanctuary dedicated to the goddess Cihuatéotl, who was of Olmec origin. She was considered to be the mother of the human race and the goddess of women who died in childbirth, and warriors who died in battle.”