the Dalaverse

Elizabeth is up, and I'm afraid my thoughts are a bit more disjointed, because I love the girl but she spins me around in circles.

Elizabeth Swann

When I first saw the trailer for DMC, I thought the shots of Elizabeth in her yellow dress in the rain were heart-stoppingly beautiful. I also thought she was sitting in a graveyard (at Weatherby's grave, to be precise, so I am doubly glad to see he's made it through more or less intact). When the lights went down, these shots were in the opening sequence and that was her wedding dress as I'd thought -- yet there was clearly no grave. But the visual mourning metaphor still fits, and bookends neatly with Elizabeth at the end of the movie, when she truly is in mourning.

In the first film, it was established that both Elizabeth and Will, despite their altruistic qualities (Elizabeth does negotiate with Barbossa to leave Port Royal alone, after all) are ruthless in their desire to protect one another. The difference is that Elizabeth is better at it. Will tries to manipulate Jack and Barbossa, and both plans fail. Elizabeth learns from her own failed attempt to deal with Barbossa, and then goes for two easier targets: the man who loves her and wants to believe she loves him in return, and a rum-soaked, wobbly-legged, eventually slumbering Jack. Elizabeth? Is good at piracy. What's more, she knows it (and so does Jack, but that's for another entry). I've seen the complaint that the whole 'No, he's a pirate' line indicates how little Elizabeth has learned during the course of the first movie, but I disagree. She got a real taste of pirates during her time with Barbossa and his crew, and if she still retained all her romantic notions she wouldn't try to deny and fight her own nature.

Piracy both intrigues and frightens Elizabeth, and so does the idea of marriage. In the expression on her face in that first scene and the rain mussing her bridal gown, I see her fear over marrying Will -- the fear of losing what little freedom she has, the fear of losing herself, the fear of failing him. In her line 'I thought I'd be married by now...I was so ready to be married' (or is it 'I'm so ready to be married'? I can't tell, but it doesn't really change the meaning of the line...) I see her hope that marriage will dampen down her darker urges. Notice that she doesn't mention his name, just the state of being married. Loving Will isn't ever really the issue; it's what she is willing to risk or give up for that love.

Elizabeth is torn between freedoms and confinements. Marrying Will frees her from the temptations of her darker side-- maybe -- but confines her to a life at his side, a life whose twists and turns she's really just as unsure about as those of piracy.(1) This is also ironic because her love for Will is exactly what has brought out her darker side in the past. In this movie, she seems to be exploring a bit on her own, not merely reacting on behalf of Will's safety.

Now, indulging those darker urges offers freedom, the freedom which Jack embodies and to which the compass is drawn (I think Jack's speech about the Pearl and freedom in CoBP pretty well cements Jack=freedom in her mind; the connection is never once played as simple physical attraction, even though the stupider of the critics seem to interpret it so). However, the consequences of those choices -- that's where the confinement is there, as inevitable as the confinement she fears in marriage.

Jack lies and omits the truth and tells it when he knows no one will see it as such, but Elizabeth hardly ever speaks without not saying what she means. I hear all of the above uncertainties and fears beneath the line about being ready for marriage, and I hear guilt for her own role in the business under 'James Norrington, what has the world done to you?', and I hear disappointment when she praises Jack for respecting her honor. Perhaps most importantly, beneath 'I'm not sorry,' I hear 'I can't allow myself to be sorry, because if I question the choice I've finally made, I won't be able to live in my own skin.' Elizabeth's extraordinary bravery and self-assurance go hand-in-hand with her cowardice and doubt regarding her own path.

I love -- love -- the complexity of this character, and Keira's performance was endlessly satisfying. There's the great comic acting at the beginning of the threesome swordfight, and there's the longing and desperation and urgency of her kissing Jack, and then there's my favorite -- the scene at Tia Dalma's where what she has done is tearing her up inside, despite how she's been trying to deny it. The sheer physical pain on Keira's face during that scene, and her eyes when she says 'Yes' instead of 'Aye' -- I enjoyed her immensely in CoBP, but she had completely blown me away come the end credits of DMC.



(1) One of the fics I reeeeeally want to write is Elizabeth insisting on getting married after killing Jack (and Will giving in because -- because god, he's Will and she's Elizabeth and there is absolutely nothing the boy can do to change that). Problem is I don't know how to get the deed done -- first I thought Will could marry them because he'd be voted captain in Jack's stead (and he would be, he so would be), but then I remembered they don't have a ship, and anyway I don't think it's possible before that scene in Tia Dalma's. But then that leaves me with Barbossa, and I just don't know if Elizabeth could bring herself to do it. Ah well. Maybe they could get Tia Dalma to do it, or maybe a new crew member was once a pastor. I'll figure it out, because I want Elizabeth to throw herself into marriage in an attempt to dissociate herself from 'Pirate.'

Again, more to come in the character interaction sections, after James and the villains get their turn


Meg would like me to add this: "Megan strongly disagrees to what I am typing, even though she has no idea what my analysis contains. What a surly, contrary bitch." Her words, not mine.