Solaris: Mirror of Self onto Other

Comments on Solaris:

“She's a mirror that reflects a part of your mind. You provide the formula.”

Gordon says this to Kelvin about halfway through this film, and I think it exemplifies the meaning of the film as a whole. The concept of seeing someone through the filter of your own desires is not an extraordinary concept restricted to science fiction; it is a reality of life. Kelvin may not have been seeing
the "real" Rheya, but even if he was, would it have mattered? He was still seeing what he wanted to see, just like many of the characters we have discussed throughout the semester.

Solaris served as a mirror for the characters, a mirror that reflected what they loved in life, what was important. Kelvin's desire to change the past and regret about his carelessness towards his wife became clear in his interactions with the "Rheya" that appeared in Solaris. However, he longed for a past that he could control, which was evident when he sent away the first Rheya. This version of the past, a past with a dependent Rheya, wasn't quite what he desired. It was interesting to watch him reject her first appearance and embrace her second appearance- in life, you don't get to control what "version" of someone you get. What you desire and what you actually get may be different realities, but there isn't much of a choice involved. In a way, Kelvin got to choose what kind of "wife" he wanted, a choice he didn't get in reality.

Another quote that brings to mind this disconnect between who a person actually is and who that person is perceived as through our desires is Rheya's suicide note:

“I'm not Rheya. I know you loved me, though. I know that. I felt that. And I love you. I wish we could just live inside that feeling forever. Maybe there's a place where we can. But I know it's not on Earth and it's not on this ship.”

Both Kelvin and Rheya had experienced an emotional emptiness of sorts at this point; Kelvin losing Rheya and having to deal with the emotional weight of his neglect, and Rheya the emptiness of the memories she had of Kelvin, because the memories had no experience attached to them. It is interesting that Rheya is saying she loves Kelvin, when she is nothing but a concept, a symbol. Kelvin himself represents a longing for the past, a desire for the love that he had but turned his back on. How can they really "love" each other? Is their love simply their fervent desire to have love itself, to have some comfort in a foreign world where nothing is certain?

Those questions bring to mind the song "What is Love", popularized on a Saturday Night Live sketch called "A Night at the Roxbury" by a very iconic turn of the head. What is love, anyway? Is it the realization of some of our deepest desires, a reflection of what we want for ourselves brought onto another human? Having desires and feeling love humanizes us, gives us purpose and reason. In this movie, it appears that love is a guiding, humanizing force that, when taken away, makes us turn our heads towards an empty existence.