I could not help thinking of Freud while watching this movie. This is one of the most terrific films capable to review and to re-examine his concept of 'death drive'. In rough definition, death drive refers to "the bodily instinct to return to the state of quiescence that preceded our birth":
The death drive, according to Freud's later writings (Beyond the Pleasure Principle, "The Uncanny"), explains why humans are drawn to repeat painful or traumatic events (even though such repetition appears to contradict our instinct to seek pleasure). Through such a compulsion to repeat, the human subject attempts to 'bind' the trauma, thus allowing the subject to return to a state of quiescence (ref.1).
And in psychoanalytic theory, the death drive seems to oppose Eros: "Here Eros is characterized as the tendency towards cohesion and unity, whereas the death drive is the tendency towards destruction" (ref.2).
It seems that Harold would be the prefect example covered the vast shadow of death drive, for his thousand-times committing (performing) suicide, and for his eccentric addiction to death, as he re-decorates his Jaguar into a hearse, and attends funerals (instead of churches) for his own peace.
But, is Harold's queer behavior a repetition of painful or traumatic events? Do these acts oppose to Eros? Is his action a pursuit of returning to a state of quiescence? How could an action be a painful repetition and meanwhile be a pursuit of quiescence?
Obviously, Harold's case is not only the prefect model of 'death drive', but also the one to challenge the idea: the reason that Harold performs suicide is not a repetition of any traumatic events in his life, but an intention of grabbing other's (his mother’s) attention. What he hungers for are not any of destructions, but for the care, concern and love from his mother. In this point of view, Harold's act is far from the opposition against Eros; on the contrary, it is still a pursuance to Eros, which is actualized by his eagerness to mother's care and love, his tendency toward cohesion and unity (a state like an infant in mother's uterus). And In this point of view, 'death drive' is no longer the desire of returning to a state of quiescence; it is a proclamation in which the subjects shout for their instinct for Eros. It is an inmost desire of returning (or attaching) to the big Other, to the structures, and to Eros.
This is the essence of human living. Unlike sexual drive which compels people to attach to certain structures (big Others), death drive is the impulsion which stimulates people to change, that is, to detach from current structures (and seek for other ones). In fact, sexual drive and death drive should be two sides of one coin: wherever there is a structure, there is resistance; whenever there is attachment, there is detachment, and vice versa. In this frame, death drive is the core of our resistance, and thus is the kernel of human action. And these do explain Harold's dilemmatic feelings: he not only longs for Mother's love, but also tries his best to get rid of his mother's control at the meantime. In fact, Harold's performing suicide designates a 'triple death': first in the symbolic level, a pseudo-death he performs carrying out all those meanings behind; second in the imagined level, a death resisting the carelessness of the mother; and third in the real level, a death resisting his entire reality, his entire existence (which does not really exist, due to the totalitarian control of his mother).
Therefore, concealed by the images of death, the main thesis of Harold and Maude is indeed existence, is indeed living. Death images are just another pseudo-death; they cover the inmost eagerness of living of this fantastic film.
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P.S. As the kernel of human action, death drive can't be more ordinary in our daily life. A-Mei's song, Hostage, is one of the best examples. Describing a dangerous relationship between lovers, it says:
在我心上用力的 開一槍 Put a bullet into my heart
讓一切歸零 在這聲巨響 In this thunder all shall restart
如果愛是說什麼 都不能放 If love means never let go,
我不 掙扎 I won't struggle.
反正我也 沒差 Difference there is no.
Obviously, it is a metaphor of death drive. It is the awareness of realizing that death, is the ultimate escape from any predicament, and the final place where his eternal peace rest in.