The Evil Within
Throughout the first film in the trilogy, A New Hope, evil has been personified as a malevolent projection from without. The empire is a separate entity from the ragtag bunch of rebels in league against it. The Empire Strikes Backs bring home the reality that evil is not something which exists externally and separately from good, but alongside it. The capacity for good and evil co-existing within is most symbolically expressed in the dream Luke has of confronting Vader in the caves of Dagobah where in defeat, Vader is revealed to have Luke’s face. This foreshadows the revelation that the incarnation of evil in the empire—Vader—is actually Luke’s father. Thus, the Skywalker bloodline is not as pure as it seemed, but a combination of both the Light and Dark sides of the Force.
Faith
The thematic lesson which this film teaches is that true faith is required for belief in a higher power to do any good. By the film’s start, Luke has acquired a higher mastery of the Force than he possessed at the end of the first film, but he still has a long way to go before mastering it. Yoda is his guide toward the mastery and while Luke is physically prepared for the task, he reveals a weakness of will. He confesses his lack of true faith when his response to Yoda’s using the force to retrieve his spaceship from the bog is a flat out “I don’t believe it.” Yoda explains this is why he fails and the rest of the film essentially tracks Luke’s journey to embracing belief which culminates in his instant acceptance of the seemingly outrageous claim by Vader that he is Luke’s father.
The Belly of the Beast
Luke is placed by Han into the gutted belly of a dead creature to use the warmth of its body as protection against the deadly frigidity of the ice planet Hoth. Han inadvertently pilots the Millennium Falcon into the belly of a giant slug to escape the Empire. Luke ultimately confronts Vader in what could be termed the symbolic belly of Cloud City. Everywhere you turn, characters are going underground into something symbolically representing the twists and turns of the belly. All this symbolism connects and coalesces to serve the very significant theme also expressed in the very title. In order to finally win the battle against evil, the forces of good must proceed deeply within the very guts of the enemy and take him on there. They may win—such as the victory over the Death Star when Luke first treads into the belly of the beast. Then again they may lose, which is what happens throughout the sequel as the empire very successfully does strike back. Regardless, it is their only hope.
