Standpoint.
We know that from the story of Achilles that the heel is a particularly sensitive spot of the hero. First, the heel is on one’s back side; therefore it signifies a place where one does not see oneself very well— where one is unconscious of oneself. Such places are unguarded and vulnerable to evil forces. Secondly l, the heel has to do with the foot and therefore is associated with one’s standpoint.
Achilles help problems represents the mother complex, because it was the place where the mother held Achilles as she dipped him in the river.
A person’s Ways.
Forest
The layer in the unconscious that is very close to somatic processes. The psychosomatic layer area of the unconscious. Just as the forest draws it’s nourishment from inorganic matter, so this layer of the unconscious is in immediate living contact with the physiological process of the body—matter itself. We generally project on to the body the “just so” reality of our existence and personality.
Shoes generally have to do with someone’s standpoint in life. If a boy or a girl grows up, the Germans say they should put off their childhood shoes. Or if a son follows exactly the life pattern of his father, we say he steps in his father’s shoes. And if a woman has her husband completely under her thumb, we say, “He’s under the slipper.” Traditionally the victor puts his shoe on the neck of the vanquished enemy, as if to say, “it’s my standpoint to which you now have to bow. I say how it should be and you must bow to it.” If a princess ruins her shoes by dancing, it means she progressively loses more and more of her standpoint on earth. She becomes estranged from reality.
Shoemaker
The shoemaker also has to do with clothing, but only for the feet, and therefore the difference between clothes in general and shoes has to be specified. If the clothes represent attitudes, then their interpretation must vary in accordance with the part of the body which they cover. You might say that trousers have to do with the sexual attitude and the brassiere with the maternal attitude—a woman often dreams of a brassiere to represent a criticism of this attitude. A German proverb says that a man’s shirt is closer to him than his coat; it is closer to the skin and therefore represents an intimate attitude. It has been contended that the foot is a phallic symbol, for which there is some support, the shoe representing the female organ surrounding the foot.
The sexual aspect is implicitly contained in the symbolism of the shoe, but it is not an outstanding aspect: we can assume that people of the layer of society depicted in this fairy tale would speak more directly and would say sex if that was what they meant, so there is a slightly different meaning. If we start from the hypothesis that the shoe is simply the article of clothing for covering the foot and that with it we stand on the earth, then the shoe is the standpoint, or attitude toward reality. There is much evidence for this. The Germans say when someone becomes adult that he “takes off his childish shoes,” and we say that the son “steps into his father’s shoes” or “follows in his father’s footsteps”—he takes on the same attitude. There is also a connection with the power complex, for one “puts one’s foot down” if one wishes to assert power, as the victorious soldier, illustrating that he now has power, puts his foot on the neck of his conquered foe. In German there is an expression “the slipper hero,” referring to the man who is under his wife’s domination—she puts her foot down, and he is subordinate to her in the house. Therefore you might say that our standpoint toward concrete reality always has to do with the assertion of power because we cannot take the standpoint of reality without, to a certain extent, asserting ourselves; when it comes to reality you have to make a choice, to make one side decisive. So the shoemaker would represent an archetypal figure similar to that of the tailor, but one specially concerned with the standpoint towards reality.
The shoemaker’s trade is regarded as one of the simple professions, even more simple than the tailor’s, though neither is socially on a high level according to the bourgeois level of these fairy tales. There are many legends and stories which have to do with the simple level of the shoemaker. There is a legend that Saint Anthony, who saw an angel of God, got the idea that he had achieved something and become a great saint, but one day an angel told him that there was a still more saintly man in Alexandria. Saint Anthony, feeling jealous, wanted to see the man, and the angel led him to a very poor quarter of Alexandria and to a miserable hovel where an old shoemaker, who had a miserable wife, sat making shoes. Saint Anthony was amazed but began to talk to him and, wanting to find out in what way he was more saintly, asked him about his religious views and attitude toward religion; but the shoemaker just looked up at him and said that he was just making shoes to earn money for his wife and children. Saint Anthony thereupon was enlightened. The story shows how the shoemaker has to do with the standpoint toward reality in contrast to Saint Anthony, who strove only to become more and more holy. The shoemaker had a completely human and humble contact with reality, which is what most saints lack and was what the angel of God told Saint Anthony. There is a proverb which says, “Shoemaker, stick to your tools,” for, if he leaves them, things go very wrong, which has to do with the relation to reality, for we have to be completely realistic and remain within our own limits. The shoemaker does this and, according to the proverb, is right
And the king, on entering to see his guests, saw a man there who had not robed himself in a WEDDING ROBE. And He said to him : “Friend, how did’st thou enter here, not possessing a WEDDING ROBE * * And he was as one tongue-tied. Then the king said to his officers : “Bind him hand and foot [in his works and ways]. Take him up and put him Outside into the outer darkness, where there is weeping and grinding of teeth [the Eating of hard experi ence].
Dreams and Symbols 