Ms. Dominico’s Year 12 VCE English Class

Emotional reality versus literal reality
Two realities are presented in Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. The tangible and objective reality of the ‘real’ world of the text is contrasted with the realm of memory, emotions and subjectivity as revealed through Joel’s subconscious mind. The emotional reality recounted through memory is concerned with what is felt, with those things that cannot be proven to exist but are experienced as real. Here, the feelings associated with an event make it real, even if it only exists in dreams, observations or intuition.

In contrast, the film constructs a literal or ‘real’ world as one that can be objectively defined and touched. This world is filled with objects that can be named and is shaped by conscious experiences, waking logic and detached observation. Ultimately, the film privileges emotional reality and the feelings associated with memory over this concrete, ‘real’ world of the text.