Its a Funny Ol World Innit Jack Sparrow Gif

izzythehutt asked:

Please elaborate on POTC as a metaphor for sin and the Incarnation

Begun by blood! By blood, undone!

So about 10-15 minutes into the movie we are introduced to the idea of a curse that turns you into the living dead (Sparrow actually references Dante before the curse is mentions - "the deepest circle of hell is reserved for betrayers and mutineers").

There are three important concepts/symbols behind this theory: the apple, the blood, and the curse.

The apple figures prominently in this movie when it comes to Barbossa and his inability to experience sensual pleasure. Of course it is classically associated with sin, and death (the Genesis 3 story mentions no specific fruit, but in Latin the words for apple and evil happen to be homonyms). In this scene it is only after Barbossa offers Elizabeth an apple that she thinks twice about what she is experiencing:

Barbossa: You must be hungry. Try the wine. And the apples? One of those next.

Elizabeth: It's poisoned.

Barbossa: There would be no sense to be killing ye, Miss Turner .

Barbossa tells her the story of his crew's lust for earthly pleasures, and the consequences which they now suffer as a result:

There be the chest. Inside be the gold. And we took 'em all. We spent 'em and traded 'em and frittered 'em away on drink and food and pleasurable company. The more we gave 'em away, the more we came to realize: the drink would not satisfy, food turned to ash in our mouths, and all the pleasurable company in the world could not slake our lust. We are cursed men, Miss Turner. Compelled by greed, we were, but now we are consumed by it.

Before we know anything about being undead, about moonlight and skeletons, Barbossa tells us that the consequences of his sensual overindulgence resulted in an increase, not a decrease, of sensual appetite, and that in and of itself was a curse.

He continues:

There is one way we can end our curse. All the scattered pieces of the Aztec gold must be restored and the blood repaid . Thanks to ye, we have the final piece.

Elizabeth : And the blood to be repaid?

 Barbossa: That?s why there's no sense to be killin' ye - yet. Apple?

Elizabeth has inadvertently represented herself to the pirates as the child of their old comrade Bootstrap Bill Turner, whose blood they need to end the curse. Right before offering a drop of Elizabeth's blood to into the chest of cursed gold to end the curse, we see the fullness of Barbossa's moral philosophy:

Gentlemen, the time has come! Our salvation is nigh! Our torment is near at end.For ten years we've been tested and tried, and each man jack of you here has proved his mettle a hundred times over and a hundred times again! Punished, we were. The lot of us - disproportionate to our crimes!

Clearly no repentance; Barbossa and his pirates have not learned from their curse.

You know the first thing I'm goin' to do after the curse is lifted? Eat a whole bushel of apples.

The apple represents the sensual appetite, and and in a sense, the curse itself. Barbossa has learned nothing. Once the curse is lifted, he isn't going to live anything resembling a reformed life (we would be shocked if he did) - he will go straight back to dissolute piracy.

Now we get into the soteriology of Jack Sparrow. After this scene Will rescues Elizabeth and Jack is captured by Barbossa. We return to the captain's cabin aboard the Pearl:

Jack: I suppose I should be thanking you because, in fact, if you hadn't betrayed me and left me to die, I would have an equal share in that curse, same as you. [bites into an apple] Funny ol' world, innit? [offers him an apple]

In-universe he is simply taunting Barbossa, but on a meta level Sparrow associates the apple with the curse. And more significantly, we see him speaking of his own personal freedom from the curse, while voluntarily and symbolically accepting it (in the form of the apple)

In the next act Jack pulls a gambit to wipe out the treacherous pirates, liberate himself from the British, save Will and Elizabeth, and reclaim his beloved ship.

What's fascinating is how Jack accomplishes this. He wins because he uses the artifices of evil to his own (in this scenario, righteous) end. What Jack does to save the day is tovoluntarily accept the curse of the treasure - death.He casually takes four cursed coins from the treasure chest, and returns only three of them.

The curse cannot now be lifted until Jack spills his blood. He takes the curse upon himself, thereby defeating the curse and giving himself freedom to break the curse in the fullness of time - the "opportune moment."

Sparrow's voluntary acceptance of the curse and its consequences (the wages of sin is death) in effect ransoms Will from Barbossa. They cannot now lift the curse until Sparrow lets them, and does not let them until he is able to kill Barbossa. Who, of course, dies inexplicably grasping the apple, the symbol of his own fate.

I am not entirely satisfied with this impromptu essay. There is more to this theory than I have put down here, I think.

And of course PotC isn't an allegory. There isn't a one-to-one correlation between these symbols and figures. And none of this carries through into the vastly inferior sequels (which I really enjoy - they're just radically different from the first movie).

changsniters.blogspot.com

Source: https://catie-does-things.tumblr.com/post/615881783584636928/please-elaborate-on-potc-as-a-metaphor-for-sin-and