The Jump Rope: A Dark Symbol

The image of the jump rope in Viridiana is pervasive throughout the movie. It provides sinister foreshadowing for the character of the uncle, symbolizes the theme of corrupted innocence, and accompanies the blasphemy in the film.

We first see the jump rope in an innocent light, as nothing more than a young girl’s plaything. However, this is also the very first scene in which we see Viridiana’s uncle, who is still “innocent” of the sexual molestation he will commit against his niece later in the film.

The uncle directly interacts with the jump rope, taking it from the girl…

 …and leaving it dangling on the tree.

 This image intensely foreshadows the uncle’s suicide later in the film, in which he hangs himself by that jump rope from that very same tree.

Once the rope has become a tool for suicide, it has been blasphemed. The uncle crossed a line by using an innocent child’s toy as a pathway for death, something it was never intended for. He also corrupted the child’s innocence; after his suicide, when the girl tries to play with the jump rope again, her mother scolds her for not respecting the dead. The uncle destroyed the joy of the jump rope.

In a parallel way, the uncle also destroyed the innocence of Viridiana when he drugged and sexually assaulted her, and then killed himself when she rejected him. She was so disturbed that she refused to enter back into the convent--something that had previously been her life’s dream.

To expand on the theme of blasphemy in the film: According to Plate, sacred entities need a threshold (i.e., hand-washing) to appropriately separate them from the profane. He states, “Blasphemy is fundamentally about transgression, about crossing the lines between sacred and profane in seemingly improper ways.”

Therefore, the attempted rapes in Viridiana are horrible acts of blasphemy. Forced sex and blasphemy are both essentially transgressions. Thresholds or rituals that separate sacred intimacy from profane sex could include marriage, love, procreation, or even simply the consent of both parties. When those rituals are ignored and someone forces themselves sexually on another, they are advancing to sex improperly and profaning a potentially sacred act of unity.

The jump rope, yet again, is visually connected to corruption of innocence and blasphemy in the second attempted rape of Viridiana, when the beggars she somewhat trusts turn on her. In the shot of her final struggle against her attacker, she is clutching the same jump rope. Even its handles are clearly visible.

The journey of the jump rope mirrors Viridana’s own journey: innocence, corrupted once, then blasphemed yet again.