Eraserhead The only response to this movie more amusing to me than the "it's too confusing, and therefore stupid" response is the "the baby represents sin and premarital sex and male responsibility" response. As if David Lynch were a Christian conservative - just see his other movies. Ironically however, 'Eraserhead' is Christian in a pessimistic way. Interpretation, spoilers: The movie begins and ends with an over-worked worker sweating himself to death over a machine. (The worker exemplefies the common man; he is not God as some people may spuriously claim, because his name is Man in the Planet.) Besides these two shots, everything else in the movie is a fantasy of this worker. First of all, take the title, "Eraserhead." The origin of this name is shown in a dream sequence (a dream within a fantasy according to my interpretation) in which Henry is decapitated. The head is taken and transformed into erasers for pencils. Metaphorically, the worker feels like an eraser. His work is monotonous and completely un-unique, with continuous lever pulling as his only action.  He is just like every other eraser; creativity and individuality are totally absent. He is more of an eraser than a man. In the modern world, machines turn man into another utility seeking device. (When the man tests the eraser, he blows the remaining dust into the air: another biblical allusion, this time to the "ashes to ashes, dust to dust" quote. Hinting at the futility of earthy life compared to the heavenly. Thus, the end scene in which Henry is again surrounded by dust particles before being united with The Lady metaphorically represents his "dying" and having reached heaven.) Consequently, the world of machines is dark, dirty, dreary, and depressing. The chicken is a great representation of the horrors of complete industrial integration - chickens are manmade now;  its movements even mimic those of a machine - and utterly repulsing. Given his eraser-like feeling, The Worker's fantasy consists of him being introduced into the bodily personification of an eraserhead (Henry's hair makes him look like an eraserhead.). More so, given his dislike of work, of course his fantasized eraserhead is on perpetual vacation. The fantasy thus consists of Henry searching for other non-work related areas of life to find happiness in. He looks for this happiness in other people. Henry soon finds out that people are boring and annoying however. Conversation is either nonexistent or superficial. Other people are represented as sex objects, catatonics, neurotics, and psychotics. The father is the only character that appears to be happy, but his happiness is shown to be entirely unfounded and probably the result of denial. His knees and left forearm are crippled, he has worked as a plumber for 30 years, and his family is constantly having near mental breakdowns. His angry outburst leads the viewer to the belief that his happy countenance is a mere front.   People are also repugnantly characterised as disgusting worms. The first worm arrives in Henry's mailbox: the epitomization of human connection and communication. Then Henry realizes that his wife whom he had just told "I love you" is also infested with worms. She is so unpleasant to him that they cannot even sleep in the same bed. The baby - being that he has no limbs - is the head worm and represents complete human union: sexual intercourse, as called by Mrs. X. (The name "X" is also used to represent the non-humaness of work-caused alienation.) Yet even an innocent child made from human love is seen as disgusting, representing the completion of man's alienation from man. Scenes in which Henry is viewed with the head worm further illustrate the baby's symbolization and the fact that Henry is also a disgusting worm cut off from human contact.  As Henry found out with Mary, sex does not equal happiness. Only by renouncing human contact and the world even can Henry reach true happiness (Henry does not realize this initially, causing the baby to laugh at Henry's naivete): through the Heater Lady. Henry sees her when he is in bed and thus day dreaming. She is a dream that represents heaven - as her song illustrates. But, with the baby that represents human contact still around, Henry cannot unite with The Lady. In the end, he kills the baby since he has reached his conclusion regarding happiness. He may thus wake up back into The Worker/Man in the Planet and live for the only happiness he sees available to man: a heavenly illusion. He did not actually die and enter heaven because it was Henry who died and he is only a fantasy of The Worker's. "Heaven" and happiness are found through imagination and hope. This is demonstrated by the beginning scene in which Henry is thinking about the worms and then both disappear because The Worker must go back to his lever pulling. Perhaps Lynch was influenced by Sarte's view that "hell is other people." In this case, Eraserhead's world could be a representation of hell, making a nice contrast to the heavenly conclusion. It's interesting, but a relatively small point compared to the general conclusion.  There is an optimistic interpretation to the dark conclusion. The entire movie is an attempt to illustrate the environment in which technology has taken over. Thus, it is technology that alienates man and perhaps in another environment happiness could be attained with human contact. Or, Lynch could also be trying to make a broad generalization. Either way, both the movie itself and the meaning are quite bleak and pessimistic. Great movie for either the active movie participant (if you liked interpreting 'Lost Highway,' you should enjoy this one) or the arthouse aesthete.