Faced with Songlian's seeming insanity, it is tempting to label her a victim of the world she was sold into; where jealousy and powerlessness keep the wives at each other's throats. Songlian does not go crazy, instead she has realized there being no way out, she must resort to a state of mind where her master would not desire control over her. By pretending to be insane, she becomes an unwanted object. The label of insanity frees her from the demands of her master, and relives her of responsibility for the demise of the third Mistress. Songlian learns that one way she can dissociate from her reality is to alter it. .
Ebert states, "If you are only given one game to play, it is human nature to try to win it." Songlian is caught in a game that has her freedom as its stakes. Although she is at first incensed at her fate, she reluctantly accepts it and gradually comes to realize that there may be only one way to protect her freedom. She must be willing to sacrifice everything materialistic in her life and withdraw from society altogether. As a madwoman, she is given freedom that she did not possess before. When Songlian first attempts to punish her maid Yaner, it backfires on her. Her servant stays out in the rain, despite the bitter cold, and refuses to come in. This is an example of true insanity, and Songlian is without the power to control her life in this environment. Once the maid exhibited signs of insanity, the household treats her differently and searches out the best possible care for her. As crazy is typically defined as a departure from proportion or moderation, the entire household is at least as crazy as the heroine seems to be at the end. Songlian's true objective is to detach herself from the world she lives in and free herself from the labels of being a marked woman.
Raise the Red Lantern depicts the enduring fight of a woman against a society that marks their women as "robes to be put on and taken off.
