Hatred

Right from the start of Princess Mononoke, hatred is personified by a boar turned into a demon/god which attempted to raid and kill a town. The movie begins with Prince Ashitaka taking charge and going to fight off this demon, but in the process of doing so, the demon got ahold of his arm which marks his skin black; as the boar died, he stated that everyone else will feel his hatred. He wasn’t sure what the effects of this touch would be, until he begins his journey and passes through another town – in which he was attacked causing him to have to shoot his arrows at the men. In doing so, he shot so powerfully that he decapitated one attacker and shot off the arms of another. This is caused by the curse of hatred, which he wasn’t aware he was under, but whenever he was around hate, his arm grew stronger and causes him to fight like a “demon” as stated in his first scene fighting after he shot at the men. This is exemplified again later in the film, when Lady Eboshi was showing Ashitaka her new rifles for her plan to destroy the forest and he uncontrollably goes to grab his sword, and has to use his other arm to hold himself back. The wise woman sends the prince on a journey to the west with his “eyes unclouded by hate” in order to cure the curse. 

Showing hatred in this film in the way that it did was a great way to expel the message that hatred is a curse, but more importantly, that it can make you do things that sometimes seem out of character and unhealthy. For example, to relate to what I said above, the way Prince Ashitaka stopped himself from attacking Lady Eboshi showed that he knew it was wrong and didn’t necessarily want to, but the curse acted up causing him to do something completely out of character.

Curse  

Along side hatred, curse is the other theme that carries the movie on its back. What I mean by that it that the entirety basis of the film is a curse given to Prince Ashitka after killing agod and defending his village. The wise woman tells him to travel with “eyes unclouded by hate” to lift his curse, and until then he cannot return home. 

I liked the way that Princess Mononoke expemlified curse. It’s not a topic that I think about often, mostly because the majority of what I watch doesn’t contain the theme in them. In addition, I feel like most movies that have curses in them are typically given to people for no reason, or just out of bad luck, like in Sleeping Beauty, for example, and her curse to stay asleep. Prince Ashitaka was cursed for trying to defend his village and I think the message that’s being displayed is that even though you do something out of the goodness of your heart, sometimes the outcome isn’t what you expected, and there may still be consequences.