His stance is also one of superiority as he presents himself as the victim of his own vision and artistic expression. In this context, the generic pronoun "they" symbolizes Craig's detachment from the world around him as he feels superior which he believes, is what causes his isolation.
Craig's wife, Lotte, is perhaps the most radically changed as a result of traveling through the portal. She becomes convinced that she is a transsexual, and consequently, feels the only way she can be true to herself is to assume a new sexual identity, i.e. that of a man. However Lotte abandons her desire of sexual reassignment when she becomes aware that by starting a relationship with Maxine, she can in fact assume a different gender role simply by falling in love with Maxine. Maxine, on the other hand, embarks on a sexual relationship with Malkovich so she can be with Lotte. Through the masculine John Malkovich body, Lotte experiences a kind of reverse sexuality in which John Malkovich becomes the female part and Lotte functions as the male part. Rejected as a woman, Lotte instead experiences sex with Maxine through John Malkovich's body but while Maxine professes her love for Lotte, she rejects her in person, only accepting her in John Malkovich's body. The fact that Maxine only accepts Lotte as her lover when the latter inhabits Malkovich signifies that the former needs a masculine validation of the affair in the sense she is unable to fully accept a lesbian relationship, so she turns to a male figure i.e. Malkovich that can legitimize the affair to some extent. Lotte becomes gradually addicted to being someone else. She provides an extremely dramatic response to the experience of switching sex and gender roles which determines her husband to remind her that the is only experiencing the "thrill of seeing through the eyes of someone else," a thrill which he thinks will pass. Here, the addition caused by seeing through the eyes of John Malkovich is suggested to resemble that experiences by the film audience who is also allowed to be someone else, and see through someone else's eyes during films.
The motif of the beautiful woman is also explored in the movie using the character Maxine. This motif is one of the most utilized throughout the history of literature; the beautiful woman is unreachable and often causes misfortune and heartache for those around her. Maxine appears as a sort of temptress, the object of everyone's desire, and the reason which triggers Craig and Lotte's private war. They embark on a sort of competition whose prize is Maxine; however no one can possess her completely.
Maxine is also manipulative; in fact, one of the strongest themes in Being John Malkovich is manipulation. Malkovich becomes a puppet in the hands of those who control him; his identity as well as free will are compromised completely by the portal. Malkovich, Craig and Lotte are all manipulated by Maxine who uses sexual attraction in order to get what she wants i.e. money. Manipulation is given a double meaning; firstly one can consider manipulation as the handling of objects, in this case, puppets, and more specifically, Malkovich - the main puppet. Secondly, manipulation refers to the fact that the characters seem to lose their free will, and find themselves at the command of either other characters, or their own thirst for fulfillment. The issue of manipulation raises an important question i.e. who controls Malkovich? Who is the true puppeteer? In this sense, Maxine can be viewed as the true puppeteer in the movie because she is never controlled by anyone or anything, and her free will is never compromised. Maxine is never interested in the portal itself; she is not concerned with the implications and consequences of its existence. Unlike Craig and his wife, Maxine sees the portal as a solid business opportunity; as the plot progresses, the portal also becomes an opportunity for sexual gratification which Maxine seeks either with Craig or with Lotte depending on which of them happens to inhabit Malkovich at any given time. In this sense, Maxine is the only one who does not expect the portal to change her identity in any way; unlike Craig, Maxine does not wish for fame - she wishes for wealth. Unlike Lotte, she is not interested in experiencing what it is like to be the opposite gender. In the beginning, Maxine is not attracted to either one of the two. Maxine admits to her attraction to Lotte only when the latter inhabits Malkovich; she says she is attracted to the "feminine longing" in the actor's eyes...
Peter Mazelis suggests that while Malkovich has suffered "the virtual hijacking of his mind," the characters are all too willing to "trade their identity for love and acceptance" (which is a human strategy that plays out daily on a million stages). When Malkovich finally enters his own self through his own portal, it's like "being pulled down into the black hole of your own personality," writes Roger Ebert. The noted
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