Sarah Williams

Jennifer Connelly as Sarah in Labyrinth.

Sarah Williams (played by Jennifer Connelly), is the main protagonist in Labyrinth.

Role In The Film

At the start of Labyrinth, Sarah is seen acting out a scene from the play The Labyrinth with only her sheep-dog Merlin with her as company. When the town clock strikes seven o' clock, Sarah remembers that she has to babysit her infant brother Toby, quickly raises the skirt of her long gown to reveal a pair of jeans and runs back home.

Upon returning home Sarah is told off by her step-mother for being late, as she and Sarah's father Robert were due to go out for the evening. This provokes Sarah's anger, and she storms upstairs to her room. Her parents ensure that Toby is safe in his cot, and much to Sarah's disgust call up to her to say they are leaving without checking on her. Upon discovering that her toy bear Lancelot is missing from her shelf, Sarah storms into her brother's room and finds the bear with him. Sarah flies into a rage and initially wishes that someone would take her away from "this awful place", lifting Toby out of his cot and telling him a story that closely mirrors her own situation. She calms down, but as she leaves the room Toby continues to cry and she says "I wish the Goblins would come and take you away. Right now." Sarah flicks the light switch off, but the next moment Toby goes silent. When she tries to turn the light on again, the switch fails to work. Upon re-entering the room, Sarah finds that Toby has vanished.

After Toby's disappearance a white barn owl flies into the room, and transforms into Jareth, The Goblin King. Jareth tells Sarah that he has taken the baby as she asked, and offers her a crystal that will reveal her dreams if she forgets about her brother. Sarah declines, and Jareth tells her that she has thirteen hours to rescue her brother from his Labyrinth and that he will turn the baby into "one of us forever" if she fails to reach him in time.

Sarah sets off on her quest and quickly encounters Hoggle, a dwarf who works as a gardener in Jareth's Labyrinth. When Sarah first meets Hoggle, he is stunning faeries with a spray-gun. Sympathetic, Sarah lifts one of the faeries up in her hand to tend to it, only for it to bite her finger. After this, Sarah asks Hoggle to show her the entrance to Jareth's Labyrinth and is led to the front gates the open as she approaches. Hoggle leaves Sarah to enter the Labyrinth alone, and the doors of the Labyrinth swing shut behind him leaving Sarah with no choice but to move forward.

After running through the same walled corridor for a sustained period of time without making any progress, Sarah stops and hits the walls in frustration. She slumps down against one of the walls in defeat, and is addressed by a Worm who lives in a crack in the wall. The Worm tells Sarah that things in the Labyrinth are not always what they seem, and suggests that she try walking through the wall adjacent to them as it contains an opening. Unable to see a way out, Sarah nonetheless approaches the wall and finds the Worm was telling the truth. Sarah enters a new, disorientating area of the Labyrinth formed of oddly shaped walls and dead ends. Sarah tries to mark the route she is taking with lipstick, but eventually finds there are small creatures over-turning the stones she is marking, making her system useless. Sarah eventually encounters two guards assigned to two doors; one of the doors leads to the next area of the Labyrinth while the other leads to certain death. The guards challenge Sarah with a logic puzzle, which after some thought she solves. She takes the correct door, but fails to look where she is going and falls down a tunnel lined with hundreds of animated, scaled hands that catch her mid-fall. The hands ask Sarah if she wants to go up or down, and Sarah chooses down only to find herself lowered into an Oubliette, a dark pit where The Goblin King is said to leave people he wishes to forget about. Hoggle is sent by Jareth to release Sarah from the Oubliette, and by tempting him with the offer of a plastic braclet she has with her Sarah is able to persuade him to take her back into the Labyrinth. Hoggle leads Sarah past a series of huge false alarms (animated faces cut into the walls of the passage) to the entrance but they encounter Jareth, who is disguised as a blind beggar. Sarah irritates Jareth by describing his Labyrinth as "a piece of cake", provoking him to send a large, mechanical device (known as The Cleaners) after her and Hoggle which makes them run for their lives. Faced with a dead end, they manage to push down a false wall and escape moments before the machine collides with them.

Sarah and Hoggle climb up a ladder and emerge in a courtyard which is home to The Wiseman, who offers Sarah a few words of rambling advice in exchange for her ring. Hoggle attempts to leave Sarah after their encounter with The Wiseman, but she snatches his collection of plastic jewellery and refuses to return it unless he agrees to lead her through the Labyrinth. Reluctantly, Hoggle agrees to take Sarah as far as he can. They both continue through a hedge garden, and as they are walking Sarah tells Hoggle he is the only friend she has in the Labyrinth. Hoggle seems startled by this, and tells Sarah he has never had a friend before. Just after this exchange, they are stopped by a pained roar that makes Hoggle flee in fear despite Sarah's attempts to stop him. Sarah goes forward to investigate the noise, and finds Ludo, a huge, shaggy-haired monster, being tormented by a group of mounted guards wielding horrific, biting monster on sticks. Sarah makes the guards leave by throwing rocks at them that Ludo, who has power over rocks, moves towards her. Sarah releases Ludo from his bounds, and finding that he is kind and gentle she allows him to join her on her journey. Together, Sarah and Ludo find two doors with talking door knockers attached to them. Sarah and Ludo pass through one of the doors into a dank, dimly lit forest. Soon after they enter, Ludo vanishes and Sarah is left to go through the forest alone.

Sarah soon encounters the Fireys, a group of wild, fun loving creatures with detachable body parts who attempt to remove Sarah's head. Sarah runs away from them, and comes to a rocky cliff face. She is saved by Hoggle, who lowers a rope for her to climb. In her gratitude, Sarah kisses Hoggle and they both instantly drop through a trap-door. They come out on a ledge above the Bog Of Eternal Stench, and manage to avoid falling in by edging their way across to safety. They meet Ludo as they are finding their way across the Bog, but are stopped from leaving it by Sir Didymus, a small, fox-terrier like Knight who considers it his duty to defend the bridge at all costs.

Sarah in her ballgown.

Sarah asks Sir Didymus for his permission to cross the bridge, and they are allowed to go across. The bridge breaks as Sarah is crossing it, but she clings to a branch hanging overhead and is saved from falling into the Bog by Ludo, who makes rocks rise up in the bog that Sarah uses as stepping stones.to get across.Together, Sarah, Hoggle, Ludo and Sir Didymus (on his sheep-dog mount, Ambrosius) move forward, entering an enchanted forest.

Worn out by exhaustion and hunger Sarah is delighted when Hoggle offers her the peach Jareth ordered him to give to her. Sarah takes a bite, but the peach is poisioned and she falls unconscious as Hoggle, wracked by guilt, leaves her. Sarah enters a dream-world where she dances with Jareth at a magnificent ball. As they dance, Sarah notices a clock in the corner of the room that indicates the thirteenth hour is drawing near. Remembering her brother, Sarah breaks away from the dance and flees, shattering the dream-world by smashing the edge of it with a chair. She falls, landing in a vast Junkyard where she is met by The Junk Lady, a withered old crone with a mound of possessions piled on her back. The Junk Lady takes Sarah to an exact copy of her room at home, and while Sarah is initially convinced she has returned home she eventually remembers she has to save Toby, and escapes from the room as it collapses around her.

Sarah finds Ludo and Sir Didymus, and together they approach the Goblin City. They are nearly blocked from entering the city by the giant robot Humongous, but Hoggle leaps onto Humongous from above and stops it before it can attack them. Once Humongous is stopped, Hoggle leaps down from it onto the ground and is reunited with Sarah, who tells Hoggle that she forgives him for giving her the peach.

With all of her friends alongside her, Sarah enters the Goblin City. They are quickly attacked by the Goblin Army, but Sarah and her friends manage to dodge all attempts to stop them and reach Jareth's Castle together. When they reach the Throne Room of the castle, Sarah realizes that Jareth must have hidden Toby elsewhere in the castle. Sarah tells her friends that she has to go forward alone, and leaves them to go further into the Castle by herself. Sarah finds herself in the Escher Room, a vast, disorientating chamber filled with gravity defying stairways. Jareth is in the room with her and Toby, but Sarah successfully avoids him and focuses entirely on finding Toby. Sarah finally reaches a high ledge, and finds that Toby is sitting above a pit a long way below her. Closing her eyes, Sarah leaps from the ledge to reach him.

Sarah lands gently on a platform that is suspended on mid-air, pieces of rubble floating around her. Jareth approaches her from a shadowed alcove, and desperately attempts to distract her, telling her that he did everything she asked of him and begging for her love, fear and obidience. Sarah ignores him, and recites the speech from the play Labyrinth she could not quite remember at the beginning of the film. Jareth holds out a crystal for her to take, but Sarah disregards it and tells Jareth that "You have no power over me." The words defeat Jareth, and Sarah finds herself back in the entrance hall of her house as a white barn owl flies from the window.

Sarah runs back upstairs to check on Toby, and finds him sound asleep in his cot. Returning to her room, Sarah starts to pack away some of her childish possessions, when her friends speak to her from the mirror of her vanity. They tell her she can call upon them if she ever needs them, and Sarah tells them that she will always need them. With that, her friends suddenly appear in her room along with other creatures from the Labyrinth, and they all celebrate Sarah's victory.

Appearances in Other Media

Marvel Comic Book Adaptation

Sarah is generally portrayed in the same way as the film in this adaptation, however there are some small but note-worthy diffirences. Instead of fleeing when she notices a clock and remembers Toby as she does in the ballroom scene featured in the film, Sarah tears herself away from Jareth after he attempts to kiss her. She runs from him, crying out 'Oh where am I? Where am I?' At the end, instead of simply defeating Jareth as she does in the film by proclaiming 'You have no power over me' Sarah gives the moment extra emphasis by saying 'You have no power over me. None that I haven't given you'.

Music Videos

Sarah appears in the music video for the David Bowie song As The World Falls Down, which was featured on the film's soundtrack. In the video, Sarah appears both in clips from the film and in new scenes that feature an older, unknown actress in the role.

As The World Falls Down

Sarah's portrait in the music video for As The World Falls Down.

In the clip, Sarah is shown in an office next to a photocopier which is printing multiple images of Jareth's face. Sarah initially appears to be mesmerized by a copy of the photo that is pinned to the wall and approaches it, only to jerk her face away suddenly as she nears it. A number of abstract set-pieces feature next, one of which shows Sarah lying against a huge cast of Jareth's face. Sarah is next seen in a romanticised portrait which hangs on the wall of the room where Jareth (along with Hoggle) is performing the song. The portrait falls as Hoggle is adjusting it, and the crash prompts Jareth and Hoggle to look to the door as if hopeful someone is about to enter. No one is there, and Sarah is last seen back in the office seen at the start of the clip. She is leaning against a table, and elevates one of her feet, allowing one of her high-heeled shoe to fall to the ground.

Return to Labyrinth

In this manga sequel to the film, Sarah is a supporting character. She is introduced as living a subdued life as a teacher, and is shown to share a close relationship with her half-brother Toby, sympathizing with his difficult relationship with his mother. A stylized, younger version of Sarah appears frequently in flashbacks and in scenes that take place in Jareth's imagination. The malevolent sorceress Mizumi briefly takes Sarah's form to torment Jareth over his obsession with her, tempting Jareth with a Sarah who is compliant and acquiesces to his wishes.

At the climax of Volume II, Jareth appears at Sarah’s door in the real world. Their interactions at the start of Volume III indicate that Sarah has no memory of Jareth or her adventures in the Labyrinth, and he masquerades as an old theatre friend of hers in order to gain access to her home. Jareth invites Sarah to attend a performance at the Enigma Lain Theatre, an offer Sarah takes up in the fourth and final volume of the series.

Jareth confronts Sarah with a grotesque puppet show that caricatures her own life, the display triggering the return of her stolen memories of her time in the Labyrinth. Jareth asks Jareth Sarah to help him create a new world from their shared dreams, and despite her initial reluctance Sarah accepts. When her transformation into a queen for Jareth is nearly complete, she learns that the Labyrinth is on the edge of destruction. Sarah refuses to let her loved ones suffer while she idles away her life in a dream world. Her will, which had been manipulated by Jareth, returns to her and she tells Jareth they need to leave their new world to save the Labyrinth. Jareth is initially upset, but ultimately concedes to her wishes and the Labyrinth is saved.

Personality

At the start of Labyrinth, Sarah is an immature and petulant teenager who resents her infant brother and her responsibilites as his sister. A pan of Sarah's room at the start of the film shows that she has a number of children's books on her shelves, including The Wizard Of Oz, Alice's Adventures In Wonderland and Maurice Sendak's Outside Over There. The reading material shown in Sarah's room indicates that she has a love of fairy-tales and fantasy, a trait that is also suggested by the fact she is first seen rehearsing a play in pseudo-medieval costume.

Her self-absorption is also symbolized in the movie by the fact you never learn much about any of the other characters besides Sarah. The world seems to revolve around her. She never tries to appreciate any other point of view or history. She also has issues near the beginning of the Labyrinth where she always seems surprised about elements of the world that, given her extensive role-playing, she should know by heart. Over the course of the film, Sarah matures and learns to accept her responsibilities. She becomes a kind and caring friend to her companions, and learns to appreciate the value of their friendship. While she never does try to learn anything about anyone, even at the end, at least she has begun to value what teamwork and friendship can accomplish. She also matures in how she deals with the Labyrinth, reasoning things out instead of just "taking things for granted". Perhaps the biggest tell of her matured personality is that the Fireys are included in the party in her bedroom, even though Jareth is not. Considering the very violent and terrifying things they did to her (or threatened her with), that seems very generous of her.

Appearance

Sarah is fifteen years old. She has long, straight, dark brown hair and clear green eyes.

Costumes

At the start of the film, Sarah is seen wearing a pseudo-medieval gown with white ribbons in her hair. This is quickly shown to be a costume, as she lifts it up to reveal a pair of blue jeans as she runs home. For the majority of the film, she is seen wearing a white blouse, patterned waistcoat and blue jeans, a practical outfit suitable for her journey. During the dream sequence where she dances with Jareth, Sarah wears a shimmering white and gold ball-gown, with huge off-the-shoulder sleeves and a full skirt. She has eleborate, vine-like decorations in her hair, which has been curled, and extravagant jewellry. This costume matches that of the figurine in the music box seen in Sarah's room.

Relationships

Jareth

Prior to encountering Jareth directly, Sarah knows him solely as a character in the play The Labyrinth. When she first comes face to face with him, she is terrified and concerned only with getting her brother back. As she goes further into the Labyrinth, she becomes more openly defiant with Jareth and at one point describes his Labyrinth as a 'piece of cake' when confronted by him. When drawn into a dream-world by the poisoned peach given to her by Hoggle, Sarah is shown to be searching the crowd for Jareth, who initially hides himself from her. Eventually, he emerges and they dance together, seperating when Sarah remembers her quest and breaks free from him. They meet again in the Escher Room of Jareth's Castle, where Sarah again suceeds in ignoring Jareth's attempts to distract her as she tries to save Toby. Their final encounter comes at the end of the film, where Sarah ignores Jareth's pleas for her to give up and defeats him by reciting the climatic speech from The Labyrinth.

While Jareth is shown spying on Sarah and closely following her progress throughout the film, Sarah is mostly single-minded during her quest and is completely focused on rescuing Toby. She does however appear mesmerized by Jareth when dancing with him in the dream ballroom, and seeks him out as the sole familiar person in sight. Nonetheless, she seems to be largely oblivious to Jareth's interest in her and fails to acknowledge his attentions.

Toby

While Sarah is shown to deeply resent her brother Toby at the start of Labyrinth, she demonstrates that she actually cares for him deeply by taking up Jareth's challenge to get through his Labyrinth in thirteen hours in order to save him. At the end of the film when Sarah returns home with Toby, she gives him Lancelot - the toy bear she believed had been stolen from her for Toby's sake at the start of the film - and tucks him into his cot.

Hoggle

When she first meets Hoggle, Sarah is horrified by his cruelty as she sees him gleefully stunning faeries with a spray-gun. Her initial repulsion is tempered when she realizes the faeries are pests, and she attempts to persaude Hoggle to help her find the entrance to the Labyrinth. After asking him the correct question, he shows her the entrance to the Labyrinth, leaving her there to start her journey for herself.

Ludo

Her relationship for Ludo is a sign of her growing maturity. While she initially dismissed Hoggle without thinking after he showed her the entrance to Jareth's Labyrinth, she acts selflessly upon first encountering Ludo by saving him from a cruel and sustained attack. While she is dismissive of Ludo's clear anxiety in the firey forest, she later comes to respect his brute strength and ability to call rocks and use them strategically during the battle in the Goblin City.

Sir Didymus

Sarah has made more progress by the time she meets Sir Didymus. Guessing correctly by this time that each character seems to have his own quirks, she exploits Didymus' chivalrous and adventurous nature to escape the Bog of Eternal Stench. During the battle in the Goblin City, the fact he has wandered off to battle on his own worries Sarah to the point where she calls out for him repeatedly until he rejoins the group.

Robert Williams

The relationship between Sarah and her biological father seems tense, though not as difficult as her relationship with Irene. He comes across as being very laid back and at the start of the film Sarah is upset by his aloofness, perceiving his lack of engagement with her as cowardice. Robert is dumpy, humble, laid-back and unwilling to make waves, and Sarah seems to resent him for his lack of assertiveness.

Irene Williams

Sarah is shown to be extremely resentful of her step-mother in Labyrinth, finding her strict and unreasonable. When they are first seen together, they

Linda Williams

A scrap-book in Sarah's room features multiple clippings and articles that feature a woman called Linda Williams, who is revealed in the novelization of the film to be Sarah's absent mother. Clippings referring to Linda are also stuck to Sarah's vanity. While she is never referred to explicitly in the film, it is implied that Sarah perceives Linda as a sort of idol. As well as featuring in the scrap-book and in the clippings tacked to Sarah's vanity, Linda is seen in photos in other parts of Sarah's room.

In the fourth volume of Return to Labyrinth, Linda is featured in three distinct scenes with a young Sarah. The first is a dream of Moppet's that features Linda, Robert and Sarah, whose appearance alternates between that of a teenaged Sarah and Moppet herself. Linda is shown encouraging Sarah's passion for theatre, and tells Sarah of her plans to take her away so she can learn to be actress. When Sarah questions Linda about her relationship with her father, Linda replies that she and Robert are still happy together and in love.

In the second sequence to feature Linda, an adult Sarah witnesses a grotesque puppet show where caricatures of herself and her family appear. In the show, Linda is shown to callously abandon Sarah to run away with her boyfriend Jeremy.

The final scene to feature Linda is a continuation of Moppet's dream, and shows Linda becoming gradually more frustrated with Sarah/Moppet as she rapidly recovers the painful memories taken from her when Mizumi split her soul. In this scene, it is suggested that 'Moppet' was the affectionate nickname Linda used for Sarah when she was a child.

The veracity of all of the scenes in Return to Labyrinth that feature Linda is highly dubious, with the first and third taking place in a dream of Moppet's and the second being a puppet show put on by Jareth to stir Sarah's memories of him.