Long Live the Pumpkin Queen: Tim Burton's The Nightmare Before Christmas

Jack Skellington was the protagonist of the prequel to this story: The Nightmare Before Christmas; in that story, his most pronounced characteristics were his enthusiasm, impulsivity and craving for change and variety. Those qualities initiated the conflict of the story. Sally, in that story, was the balancing wisdom and caution that (eventually) tempered his enthusiasm. In this story, Jack retains his love of novelty, but it is now balanced by Sally’s caution. He becomes better and wiser when he, having learned his lesson from Sally, symbolically incorporates her strengths by falling in love with and eventually marrying her.

In a young man’s quest/coming-of-age story, the princess is often the reward for success. By falling into a magical sleep from which Sally must wake him, Jack takes the symbolic role usually occupied by the princess. In Sally’s own story, Jack plays the role of anchor. Whatever role she assumes, he is the one who loves her essential self, the self that cannot (and should not) change. Because he cannot (and should not) help her fit into her new role, he must sleep with the rest of the worlds while she completes her quest and shapes her new role to fit her.

Albert and Greta are the governors of Dream Town. Although they love Sally and want her to stay with them, they treat her like the child they remember rather than the woman she has become. Accordingly, they sometimes do what they believe is in her best interest, failing to recognize that she has the right to choose her own course even if they think it is wrong.

Albert and Greta are governors, not king and queen. They are neither mother/guardian nor judge/commander. They lack the qualities possessed by Jack and Sally. All their decisions are focused first on safety and security rather than actively solving a problem. This is possibly because they live in a peaceful society where the only source of fear is the Sandman. They think in terms of retreat and self-protection, whereas Sally has been forced to rise to challenges even when she is still a child in many ways.

Inspired by Sally and motivated by their love for her, they overcome their essentially conservative instincts to leave the gate open, embracing the possibility that Sally might be successful and risking immediate security for the higher value of helping and protecting their child. In that, they take a step closer to maturity themselves.

Initially a figure of fear, the Sandman is ultimately revealed to be a misunderstood victim of his own nature—his inability to sleep. By combining her two natures—the daughter of Dream Town and the girl who grew up mixing potions and poisons—Sally achieves what no one from either place alone could do. She puts the Sandman himself to sleep, transforming him from a monster to a benign and kindly old man.

Part of Sally’s nature as a queen is to heal and transform, while Jack, the commander and judge, issues punishment. Jack, the judge and ruler, does not presume to punish someone the queen has transformed by her protective and healing power. To do so would be stepping outside his realm of authority and trespassing on hers.