Anatomy of a Scene: David Lynch’s lady in the radiator in ‘Eraserhead’
Eraserhead, David Lynch’s full-length cinematic debut and beloved cult classic, is a film not known for being a relaxing, switch-your-brain-off popcorn picture. Eraserhead is a creepy, eerie, black-and-white, post-apocalyptic nightmare where recent father Henry Spencer, who is played hauntingly by John Nance, the man who will forever be remembered for that unforgettable hair, is forced to care for his newborn, mutant son who can’t stop crying.
Over the years, the one scene that has managed to leave most viewers perplexed and led to long online discussions and debates is the infamous ‘lady in the radiator’ scene. Every time Henry Spencer is suffering, usually right before he sleeps because he can hear his son crying more clearly and without distraction, he turns for solace to his bedroom radiator, where he begins to have visions of a woman on stage. These visions are peppered throughout the film, but they are simply of a woman with slightly deformed cheeks. She sings a chilling song called ‘In Heaven‘ where she repeats the words, like a mantra, “In Heaven everything is fine”.
On first watch, you’ll be naturally confused. It’s a lot to process and doesn’t particularly fit neatly into the narrative of the film – if you can even say there is a narrative. In 1977, the year when David Lynch burst onto the scene, audiences were not quite fine-tuned to his artistic expression. Since then, he has been a prominent filmmaker for the last 50 years, so we can now attempt to dissect it.
To go right in and dive into theories of the meaning of the scene, you must first draw yourself to the conclusion that the woman in the radiator reflects the escapist fantasy Spencer dreams of. Trapped in an ugly, industrial world, which Lynch chose to film in black-and-white to make sure no beauty was captured in the photography, Spencer wants out. Alongside the world around him, his meaningless and nightmarish existence is only further personified by the mutant, a grotesque child that he has bore – screaming constantly. His lust for escape only intensifies with each scream.
“In Heaven, everything is fine,” she croons on stage. Now we see that the stage and curtain have later become a bit of a central metaphor in Lynch’s works – most notably used in Twin Peaks. While she sings this, looking directly into the camera, it harkens you back to old Greek mythology. More specifically, that of a siren song. A siren would sing from the rocks to passerby sailors, luring them to their deaths with their beautiful song. The lady in the radiator could potentially be viewed as a Grim Reaper-esque figure, singing about the wonders of heaven and thus pushing for the act of suicide.
The lady in the radiator, on top of these theories, clearly suggests the mental unrest Spencer has as he pictures her so vividly. This only shows his deranged mental state. She also repeatedly crushes sperm-like creatures at her feet during her performance, with these creatures looking awfully familiar to the mutant child he has crying on his dressing table. With ‘the lady in the radiator’ crushing these creatures, it reflects Spencer’s desire to kill the hideous child that caused his girlfriend to run and has trapped him even further in this nightmare. Many Lynch devotees have fought hard for the interpretation that the film reflects the fear of fatherhood, and this would tie nicely into that indeed.
At the end of the film, Spencer greets the lady in the radiator like an old friend. He slowly climbs onto the stage, and she reaches out for him. Slightly hesitant at first, he finally reaches out for her while a crescendo builds, and finally, the screen cuts black. Has Spencer finally achieved the happiness he desired throughout the film? Was approaching the lady in the radiator a sign that he had ended his own life? Lynch, naturally, is vague when pushed for the meaning of Eraserhead. He even claimed he is yet to hear the correct interpretation of the film. To paraphrase Albert Camus, one must imagine Spencer happy.