“The Queen’s Gambit”: Lights and Shadows on the Path of Life.

YouTube link:

https://youtube.com/shorts/YbSAZeWdcxY?si=vvp71g4v0vHyK7Zi

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On the Netflix series “The Queen’s Gambit “, based on the 1983 novel by Walter Tevis, young and talented actress Anya Taylor-Joy has developed a fascinating character: Beth Harmon, whose story is about her rise to international fame as a chess prodigy, while also getting involved in drug and alcohol addiction.

It would be very extensive to try here a deep analysis on Beth’s personality, so we’re going to only focus on a decisive fact in her life.

As a child, Beth Harmon is orphaned after she loses her mother in a car accident and her father refuses to take charge of her.

When a person goes through that kind of traumatic situation, they are going to experience a mourning process that can happen beyond their awareness.
Let’s then consider those scenes where chessboards, then chess pieces begin to appear to Beth on the ceiling. We could connect it as a part of that mourning process related to her mother’s loss.

Regardless of the fact that Beth was given tranquilizers which could have some influence on her perception, let’s ask ourselves this question: why does she see all that by looking up at the ceiling? Wouldn’t it be more natural to look at the floor, a table or a wall instead?

Before answering this question, we should keep in mind that: sometimes when things are left unsaid they end up somehow being expressed by returning in some other way.

Then a possible answer for that question could be: maybe that could express that after the death of her mother, Beth’s world changed dramatically. She was orphaned, so all in her world kind of turned “upside down” (“the ceiling becomes the floor”), where nothing makes sense and everything makes sense both at the same time.

In addition, we may interpret that Beth’s interest with looking “up there,” is connected to the culturally deep-rooted idea that: after someone dies,  “they go to heaven, up there.” It’s like if she was asking herself: “where is the playing of life supposed to take place? Is it up there in heaven or here on earth?”

So a process like this will come to an end as long as she realises that “life goes on”, and it is here on earth. But only after paying a necessary price of pain to say goodbye to the beloved one who has gone forever.