Frozen: Elsa's Salvation, Part 2

Welcome back! In this post, I'll focus mostly on my impressions of "Let it Go" and "For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)." I view the topics of the last post as the show's prologue, explaining why Elsa and Anna are where they are when our story really begins, on the day of Elsa's coronation. Elsa has her powers, and is living in a perpetual state of fear and depression, constantly burdened with her responsibilities. Anna has felt shut out and lonely her whole life, and is desperate to feel some kind of love. Their relationship is all but non existent. 

We begin with "For the First Time in Forever," and without trying to point too many fingers at Anna, when does she once think about her sister? After all, it is one of the biggest days of her sister's life, but all she thinks (or at least sings) about is how excited she is for her chance to make things better for her. I mean, I can't really blame her for being the cheerful and hopeful person she is, but while she's dreaming of parties and attractive men, her sister is going through a private hell, on a day when most princesses would be ecstatic.  We do get a nice moment at the ball when Elsa and Anna get to have a real conversation for once. Elsa even plays a joke on Anna by volunteering her for a dance with Weselton. But of course, as soon as the possibility of a relationship beyond social niceties comes up, Elsa defaults back to her isolationist mode and walks away. Anna then gets seduced by one of the worst men to ever waltz across a Disney movie screen, Elsa tries to knock some perspective into her hopelessly deluded sister, they get in a fight, Elsa tries to retreat, Anna pushes a bit too hard, and then giant icicles of death happen. The Duke and many of her citizens, just like the trolls prophesied, immediately turn on her, and Elsa, in a completely natural and human response, runs away. 

And now, finally, my thoughts on "Let it Go." 

Now, I've been very conflicted about "Let it Go" since I first saw the movie. The problem is, Disney marketed it as the main song for the movie, complete with a single version cover and everything. And that's not surprising, given that, musicality-wise, it's a phenomenal song. If you're advertising a musical, you should put your best foot forward, and that Oscar was not undeserved. The issue with that is that because they made it the flagship song for the movie, people think that its message is the one the movie is trying to convey. But really, this moment for Elsa comes well before her character reaches it's resolution. I'm not saying that it's not an important development for her, and I'm not even saying that it doesn't have any positive aspects to it. But it's definitely not the solution she thinks it is. 

To start, let's take a look at what she's letting go of. Most obviously, the self-restraint and fear of her powers, and everything that came with them. And I can hardly blame her for that; She has this amazing ability, something that makes her unique, powerful and happy. But she's always forced herself to hide it, to be afraid of it, to feel guilty about it. She begins her song singing about all the rules that dominated her life before, all focused on keeping her powers hidden. Once she accidentally revealed her powers, those rules that had so defined basically her entire existence were broken, leaving her suddenly in a place I don't think she had ever even considered before. A place where there are no rules, and with no rules, no direction. A place born out of failure and isolation, but also a place where there's no need to control her powers, or hate herself for using them. She suddenly realizes that because of this failure, she can completely recreate her life and her self. She had never been able to do anything for herself before- not even create her own identity. With this new opportunity, she was able to choose her own path through life. She chose to transform from the proper, reserved Elsa into the powerful, passionate Snow Queen. And I won't hesitate to admit that the results are pretty stunning.

So far, so good, right? Letting go of fears, turning failure into opportunity, developing your abilities, creating your own identity; these are all good things, and I'm not trying to argue otherwise. But she's letting go of more than just her fears and cryokinetic self-restraint; she's letting go of everything. She sings decisively, "I'm never going back, the past is in the past!" And it's that attitude that I think is incredibly thoughtless of her. Because "back" on the other side of the mountain her kingdom and her family still needed her, and not just because she buried them in snow. Now, it was Elsa who was quick to forget her sister when things were looking up for her. And her parents died trusting that she would watch over and protect their kingdom as queen. "Unto whom much is given, much is required:" Elsa had been given incredible gifts, so she had a great responsibility to her family and people. 

It quite bothered me when she threw away her crown. Because it wasn't really "her" crown to throw away. It was the crown of Arendelle, and it deserved more respect. She could have at least returned it to someone in the kingdom- perhaps Anna herself.

But when she sings "No right, no wrong, no rules for me. I'm free!" she seems to think that she can live a life of amorality, where nothing she does matters, so she can do whatever she wants. But I firmly believe that right and wrong are things you can never be "free" from; inevitably, the consequences of your actions, good or bad, will manifest themselves. And Elsa is soon going to discover that just trying to let go of her responsibilities and morality will just make everything worse. If Elsa was unhappy being too cooped up, too controlled, too obsessed with being "that perfect girl" before, then I think she went too far on the other side of the scale, by not even trying to be the person the world needed her to be anymore. She went from not doing anything for herself to doing things only for herself, when really, happiness can only be found in between, by finding peace with yourself but still focusing on the good you can do for others. 

Another thing I've heard people say is that only once she stopped trying to control her power was she able to actually control her power, but honestly, I don't think that what she did during "Let it Go" counts as control over her powers. Sure, she could direct them just fine, making her stairs and castle and dress and all of that good stuff, but I think real control means being able to use them or not use them at will, and she still can never dissolve or remove her power until the denouement of the movie. In fact, after she "lets it go," her negative emotions begin to elicit just as powerful magic reactions as her positive ones, as seen by the way her castle changes, and the fact that she repeatedly created giant blizzards.

Now all that said, I'm not trying to be too hard on Elsa, because this was an important moment for her. Of course she wasn't happy in the life she had before. Of course all the burdens she had were unfair and way too much for one person to handle alone. Of course she needed a way out of the tortured life she’d been living. She had built up so much pain over the years, and when an opportunity arose to leave that pain behind, I can’t blame her for rushing into that perceived release. The only problem was that pain isn’t something you can just run away from; if you try, it will inevitably follow you, just like it did for Elsa. The only way to conquer pain is to heal it with love. 

Really, "Let it Go" summarizes quite well how complicated Elsa's character is. I know that in her heart, she wants to do the right thing. But she also wants to finally experience what it's like to not live in a constant state of fear. In her mind, running away is the right thing both for her and everyone else, because then she's positive that she can't hurt anyone and she gets to have her own life. She says as much when Anna comes to find her. If you you look at it from her perspective, of course she had reason to be happy about this change. So as much as I'm sometimes tempted to, I can never really fault her for having this moment, even though I think that many of the choices she made at this point were very misguided and led to more pain, for both her and Anna. Granted, it's true that she can never go back to the way things were; her life was changed completely the moment she summoned those icicles. But when something in your life goes wrong, even something that big, you don't just "let go" of your entire life, run away from everyone who cares about you, and try and start a new one. Everyone experiences major set backs in life, and I guarantee that at some point or another, things will veer far of off the path that you had intended. But that's what life's about, forging a new path, finding a way to move forward anyway, without giving up on everything you've worked towards and everyone who depends on you. The moments when you mess up are the moments that your responsibility to others becomes more important than ever. Inevitably, things will catch up to you if you just try to escape from them. Magic allows the filmmakers to show this in a dramatic and blunt way with the eternal winter that Elsa creates as she escapes.

This is official artwork, so why is Anna carrying a torch? Anna doesn't have a torch in the movie. Oh well, I still really like it.

So, as I'm sure she would have with or without the storm, Anna comes to find Elsa. I liked that, if nothing else, there was no anger between them. Anna offers her compliments and apologies, and Elsa thanks her and lets Anna know that she doesn't need be sorry. But, Elsa also insists that Anna shouldn't be there, she should be in Arendelle. Anna replies that Arendelle is also where Elsa belongs, to which Elsa replies "No, Anna... I belong here, alone, where I can be who I am... without hurting anybody."  Here, I see her making another heartbreaking mistake; while I'm all for her exploring her potential and creating her own identity, there's never such a thing as an accurate self-image which is incompatible with family and love. I'm inclined to agree with Anna: no one really wants to be alone. I mean, I'm not saying there's no such thing as introversion, or that it's bad; I have no problem with people who are not quick to open themselves up to others. But in the end, I believe that we are created to exist in families- it's just how we're made. It's part of our souls. Whether that be the families we're born into, the families we find in close-knit friendships, or the families we create through marriage, I believe that family is an inseparable part of who we are. And it's so sad to me that Elsa thinks that it can't, or shouldn't, be that way for her. 

Olaf then makes his timely interruption, and they both think back to good days, when they were both close and happy. But the image of the accident flashes through Elsa's mind, which was a clear sign to Elsa that they can never be close again. See, I'm not doubting that Elsa truly loves Anna, or even that what she does she's doing for Anna. This is an act of love for her, because if you think about it, she wants things to be like they were just as much as Anna does, so isn't she sacrificing her wants for her sister's safety? From Elsa's point of view, this is the only way she can love her sister, and she's acting according to that. It's just that she's totally wrong. When we aren't the person those we love need us to be, the answer isn't to just leave them, it's to become that person. Which is a much more difficult and frightening prospect. And to Elsa, it's an impossible one, because she doesn't believe that anything can conquer her dangerous flaws. She always put more stock in the fear of her powers than she did in the love and trust of her sister. But if she had done it the other way around, she could have had everything all along. Love needs to be accompanied by Faith and Hope for it to work properly. Elsa had plenty of love, but no faith in either of them or hope for a better future, and therefor she just makes everything worse.

So, Elsa walks away from Anna, yet again. But, yet again, Anna pursues her, and we get to "For the First Time in Forever (Reprise)," which is one of the songs that has grown on me the most over time, and not just because I always love a good antagonistic duet. I think anyone who listens to "Let it Go" should listen to this song as well before they make any judgements on what the message this story is trying to send is, because this moment shows the consequences of Elsa's choices. Anna is pleading with Elsa to let her help. Anna is saying that she understands it now, she can really be close again. When she sings the phrase "for the first time in forever" before she makes her promises, I feel like Anna acknowledges that she wasn't entirely there for Elsa before, but she's simultaneously vowing that she can and will fix things now. Elsa, however, is sticking to the decisions she made in "Let it Go." She's still convinced that she belongs alone. She tries to convince Anna that they can both have everything they want this way (except, of course, each other, but she doesn't bring that up). She tries to ease Anna's mind of her worry for Elsa, singing "Yes I'm alone, but I'm alone and free." Which, by the way, is a sentiment that I personally have a really hard time understanding, and one that I don't think is possible. I believe that true freedom comes from the healing power of love, because only through the love of our Savior can we be released from the bonds of fear, and pain. "Free" and "Alone" are mutually exclusive. 

But anyway, at this point we get a critical moment: Anna informs Elsa that she had created an eternal winter. And suddenly, everything comes crashing down for Elsa. As her emotions quickly create a blizzard, she realizes that she doesn't actually have control; she realizes that the freedom and release she thought she had obtained by letting it go was all just a lie she was telling herself, and in an instant, all her fear and pain comes crashing back down on her. "I'm such a fool, I can't be free; no escape from the storm inside of me. I can't control the curse." I really love this scene, because the standoff between Elsa's fear and Anna's love is shown so dramatically. Elsa is the eye of a storm, but Anna is braving the winds and the snow to reach her. Elsa is singing about fear and pain, and Anna is singing about hope and love: "For the first time in forever, you don't have be afraid. We can figure this out together; we'll reverse the storm you've made. Don't panic, we'll make the sun shine bright. We can fix this thing together, we can change this winter weather. And everything will be all right." Anna is offering her a chance, Anna is offering her a way out, but Elsa is blinding herself to that possibility. In fact, the more Anna's love presents itself, the more Elsa's fear pushes back. This culminates in Elsa's outburst of fear and doubt ("I can't!") when she freezes Anna's heart. 

Anna please, you'll only make it worse!

There's so much fear... you're not safe here!

This scene is another key moment that I find very symbolic of our relationship with our Savior. Anna doesn't really mince words when she talks about all the trouble that Elsa had caused, just like our Savior will never ignore or set aside our sins. But what they both say afterwards is "But there's hope! I believe in you! We can fix this! Everything will be okay if we work together! You can be healed!" But Elsa's hardheartedness becomes so evident at this point: she's refusing to let the virtues of faith, hope and love into her heart. Not out of any intentional sinfulness, but because she's so accustomed to her fear and pain that she doesn't believe anything can overcome it, which is such a tragedy to me. Especially because it's such a realistic one; I've felt it so often in my own life, and seen it in the lives of many I love. And inevitably, rejecting love will hurt those around us. After all, Elsa was the one with the frozen heart, but Anna was the one who started dying because of it.

But neither of them were aware of that at the time, so they continue their argument. Anna tries one more time to insist that they can make things better, but Elsa doesn't understand how that could even be possible: "What power do you have to stop this? To stop me?" Faced with an ultimatum thanks to her sister's refusal to give up, Elsa again chooses fear over love by removing Anna, and everything she offers, from her life.

Which is basically where we left off in the last post, except that everything is that much worse this time. There's an interesting observation to be made here. Last time Elsa rejected Anna, she did it passively, by just not opening her door. The price was 3 more years of a tortured existence, and eventually a curse upon her kingdom and an attempt on her life. This time, she had to be proactive in rejecting Anna, by summoning Marshmallow. The price will be even greater for her: the next time she meets her sister, Elsa's greatest love in the world, it will be over Anna's frozen corpse. The more she rejects love, the larger price she pays, and soon she's going to lose everything because of her hardheartedness. And yet, because of the ultimate sacrifice of someone who loved her completely, she will be redeemed and have everything restored. I hope I don't have to spell out the analogy I'm making again (but I will if I need to). We'll see this all unfold in my last post about Elsa, so I hope you get a chance to read it!