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Based on my knowledge and the web search results, I can provide detailed information about the main character's goals and obstacles in Possession (1981).
Mark just wants his wife back so that he can maintain the status quo of their relationship as it existed in the past.
Mark's obsession is generally about learning why Anna, who he still loves, wants the divorce.
Mark's seemingly fruitless efforts in salvaging his fractured marriage display his innate jealousy and will to possess Anna.
His goal becomes increasingly desperate as the film progresses - The desperation to save this marriage can be seen when Mark decides to quit his job to spend time with his family. However, by that point, it's too late to salvage it.
The film begins with Mark returning to West Berlin, only to find that his wife Anna wants a divorce. At first, the film seems like a standard domestic drama—a portrait of a marriage in ruins. But very quickly, it becomes clear that something is profoundly wrong. Anna's behavior is erratic, emotional, and increasingly violent.
Most of their issues stem from a lack of communication; they're both talking to each other, but neither is truly hearing one another.
Mark has no clue what's going on with Anna, but neither does Anna.
Mark finds out that Anna has a lover named Heinrich.
Early in the film, it comes to light that Anna has been cheating on Mark with a man named Heinrich for over a year. This leads to violent confrontations where Mark visits and fights Heinrich, who beats him.
The most disturbing obstacle is Anna's secret relationship with a monstrous creature.
Mark discovers that Heinrich was not the main person responsible for his wife's estrangement, but the monster.
Mark hires a private investigator to follow Anna and discovers that she has been keeping a second flat in a derelict apartment building. When the investigator discovers a bizarre tentacled creature in the bedroom, Anna kills him.
Throughout the story, Anna kills at least three people in order to protect the monster and keep their relationship a secret; Mark's private investigator, his lover Zimmerman, and her friend Margie. This escalating violence becomes another barrier to any reconciliation.
Caught in the middle is their infant son Bob, who Mark uses as a gage to Anna's mental state.
After recovering from a destructive drinking spree, he visits the apartment to find Bob alone, unkempt, and neglected. This adds urgency to Mark's desire to salvage the family unit.
Mark faces the obstacle of his own character flaws.
Mark is an emotionally abusive, immature, and obsessively controlling man, whose occupation as a mercenarial Cold War spy of some sort only feeds his suspicious nature. He is much more at home exercising tradecraft than he is in the domain of troubled domesticity.
The creature itself represents their toxic marriage in its physical form. There are so many hints to this, one of them being that everyone who comes from the outside seems to be disgusted by it, while the couple appears to normalize it and even get physically attracted by it.
Mark's efforts ultimately fail catastrophically.
Anna and Mark both die after a standoff with the police, sacrificing themselves (or perhaps freeing themselves). Meanwhile, Anna's creature—now a full-grown double of Mark—appears at their apartment, where he meets their son and the schoolteacher who looks just like Anna. As the doppelgänger knocks at the door, the child refuses to let him in and screams in terror while bombs are heard falling in the background.
The film presents Mark's goal of saving his marriage as fundamentally impossible, not just because of external circumstances, but because both characters are trapped in a cycle of possession, violence, and mutual destruction that manifests literally through supernatural horror elements.
The query asks about 'the main character' but Possession (1981) is structured with dual protagonists. Anna's goal is to break free from Mark's possessive control and pursue her own desires (manifested through the creature). Her obstacles include Mark's violent possessiveness, her own guilt/inner conflict (Sister Faith vs Sister Chance), and the destructive nature of what she has created. The film is as much about Anna's journey as Mark's, and omitting her perspective fundamentally misrepresents the narrative structure.
The subway scene where Anna experiences a violent 'miscarriage' that births the creature is one of the most iconic moments in the film and represents a crucial turning point in the narrative. Anna describes this as miscarrying 'Sister Faith' leaving only 'Sister Chance.' This scene is essential to understanding Anna's psychological breakdown and the origin of the creature.
Helen, Bob's teacher who looks identical to Anna (also played by Isabelle Adjani) but with green eyes and a calm demeanor, represents Mark's idealized vision of what he wants Anna to be - docile, nurturing, undemanding. This mirrors Anna creating an idealized Mark through the creature. The doppelganger theme is central to the film's meaning.
The film's setting in Cold War-era West Berlin, with frequent shots of the Berlin Wall, is highly symbolic. The divided city mirrors the divided marriage, and the film's apocalyptic ending alludes to nuclear war. This was intentional by Żuławski to layer political commentary about his exile from Poland over the personal divorce narrative.
While the summary mentions Mark's 'violent and controlling nature' as an obstacle, it does not specify that Mark physically beats Anna during their confrontations, matching her violence. The mutual physical abuse is a key element of their toxic dynamic.
The summary does not mention that Mark murders Heinrich and stages it as an accidental death. This shows Mark's own descent into violence and criminality, making him more than just a victim of Anna's madness.
Possession (1981) is structured around dual protagonists - both Mark AND Anna are main characters with distinct goals and obstacles.
MARK'S GOAL: Mark wants to understand why Anna wants a divorce and to save his marriage by possessing/controlling Anna and maintaining their relationship as it existed in the past. His obsession centers on learning the truth about her estrangement. He becomes increasingly desperate, even quitting his spy job to focus on his family, though by that point it's too late.
MARK'S OBSTACLES:
ANNA'S GOAL: Anna wants to escape Mark's possessive control, pursue her own desires, and create an idealized version of Mark through the creature - a perfect lover who fulfills her needs without Mark's controlling, abusive traits.
ANNA'S OBSTACLES:
THE OUTCOME: Both characters fail catastrophically. Mark and Anna die together in a police shootout on a stairwell. The creature, now fully transformed into Mark's doppelganger with green eyes, escapes to their apartment where Helen (Bob's teacher and Mark's idealized doppelganger of Anna, also played by Isabelle Adjani) awaits. Bob drowns himself in the bathtub rather than face this 'new' version of his parents. The film ends apocalyptically with bombs falling, suggesting World War III.
KEY THEMES: The film uses body horror and supernatural elements as metaphors for the psychological devastation of divorce. Set in divided Cold War Berlin with the Wall prominently featured, the geography mirrors the severed marriage. The dual doppelganger structure (Anna creates ideal-Mark, Mark finds ideal-Anna in Helen) shows how both try to reconstruct their partner according to their fantasies rather than accepting reality. The film was written by director Andrzej Żuławski during his painful divorce and forced exile from Poland, layering personal trauma with political allegory.