St. Olaf College From Poppet to Pirate King The Intersection of Class and Gender in Elizabeth’s Monomythic Hero Progression Olivia Sullivan ASIAN 333: What is a Hero? Professor Ka Wong May 20th, 2017 Introduction Elizabeth Swann, daughter of Governor Swann of Port Royal, is the boon of young Will Turner’s heroic quest in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (Verbinski 2003). Elizabeth also follows her own monomythic progression throughout both the first film and the entire Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy (Campbell 28). However, this monomythic progression, which lacks a specification of morality, is not enough for American society and culture. Disney has a history of providing these good, moral role models (Ward 2), and does an excellent job in creating Elizabeth’s character to fit the bill by having her oppose the sexism and classism propagated by colonial Great Britain. The intersection of class and gender is especially key to Elizabeth’s monomythic progression, as she is initially hindered by her gender but benefits from her high status in the British colonial system. It is only through her journey, when she gives up her class in order to effectively fight the system that gave it to her, that she can truly take down Great Britain and its classist and sexist trappings. Although her original boon in the first film is to experience adventure and find a comfortable place within the British hierarchy, her final boon at the end of the trilogy is total freedom from the British patriarchy. This is achieved by demonstrating to both the British bourgeoisie and the pirate proletariat that she can, in spite of gender and regardless of her original British class, be a strong leader and fighter. Plot Summary The Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy is set in the 18th century Caribbean (Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides Set Visit!), although locations ranging from Singapore to the supernatural world of Davy Jones’ Locker are also prominent in the third movie. The following is a plot summary of the trilogy focusing mainly on Elizabeth’s storyline. In Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, Elizabeth Swann, the governor’s young daughter, is fascinated by pirates but is chided for her interest by both her father and Lieutenant Norrington on the crossing from England to Port Royal. After rescuing the young Will Turner, the only survivor from a wrecked ship, Elizabeth sees the Black Pearl sailing off into the distance and takes Will’s pirate medallion to protect him from Norrington, thinking him to be a pirate. Years later, at Norrington’s promotion ceremony, Elizabeth faints into the water after Norrington’s proposal due to her tight dress and is rescued by Captain Jack Sparrow. She is taken hostage by his former crew aboard the Black Pearl because of the pirate medallion she stole from Will, and leads them to believe that her last name is “Turner,” making her the child of Bootstrap Bill, who is in fact Will’s father. Eventually, Norrington rescues her, but she refuses to leave without rescuing Will, who has been captured by the same pirates; she asks Norrington to do this for her as a wedding present, and a battle ensues. The protagonists make it safely back to Port Royal. Upon their return, Jack is to be hung for piracy. However, Will and Elizabeth rescue Jack, and Elizabeth tells Norrington and her father that she chooses to marry Will instead. Unfortunately, in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest (Verbinski 2006), higher- up Lord Beckett of the East India Trading Company gets wind of Jack’s escape and issues arrest warrants for Elizabeth, Will, Jack and Norrington. With Norrington having resigned and left Port Royal some time ago, Elizabeth is put in jail while Will sets out to find Jack to trade his compass for Elizabeth’s freedom. Elizabeth’s father attempts to use his class and “standing with the king” to spring her from jail, but he is caught. However, Elizabeth escapes and threatens Beckett in order to get him to sign letters of mark for Will’s freedom. Through a series of witty plans, Elizabeth finds Will and Jack, and reluctantly assists Jack on his quest to find the heart of Captain Davy Jones, to whom Jack owes a life debt and upon whose ghost ship the Flying Dutchman Will’s father is serving an eternal term of service. After a battle between Jones and our protagonists, Elizabeth sacrifices an unwilling Jack to Jones’ beast, the Kraken. Will mistakenly believes that Elizabeth is in love with Jack, even though her changed demeanor is actually from the guilt of killing Jack. Norrington returns to Beckett with the heart of Davy Jones, effectively allowing the East India Trading Company to control the seas by blackmailing Jones. In Pirates of the Caribbean: At World’s End (Verbinski 2007), Elizabeth works with Captain Barbossa to enlist the aid of Sao Feng, Pirate Lord of Singapore, to bring Jack back from Davy Jones’ Locker so that the nine Pirate Lords can come together at Shipwreck Cove to decide how to counter the growing East India Trading Company threat on the open seas. After bringing Jack back, Elizabeth’s relationship with Will continues to be strained: he is upset that she didn’t tell him about killing Jack—which made him believe that the sorrow she exuded over Jack’s death was because she loved him—and she is taken aback by his betrayal of their pirate comrades to get the Pearl for himself to rescue his father from the Flying Dutchman. Believing her to be the incarnation of the heathen goddess Calypso, Sao Feng barters for Elizabeth to be aboard his ship to Pirate Cove. While attempting to rape her, Sao Feng is killed by a cannon blast from Beckett’s ship and makes Elizabeth captain of his ship and one of the nine Pirate Lords. After much backstabbing and conniving by the protagonists both between other pirates and with Beckett, the pirates eventually end up at Shipwreck Cove. Elizabeth is voted Pirate King, and declares an act of war against Beckett and the East India Trading Company. Meanwhile, Barbossa unilaterally decides to free Calypso, who is actually Tia Dalma, the mystic that has been helping the protagonists along their journey. Calypso unleashes her fury at both the pirates that have enslaved her and Beckett’s ships, which houses Davy Jones, Calypso’s old lover. In a battle royale, Will and Jones are both killed. However, Will becomes the new undead captain of the Flying Dutchman, and aids the pirates, led by Pirate King Elizabeth, in destroying the British Navy in these waters once and for all. Great Britain as the Classist and Sexist Antagonist In the Pirates of the Caribbean trilogy, Elizabeth’s boon is to free herself and others from the sexist and classist grip of Great Britain. This colonial power is largely represented by Beckett as a classist antagonist, Norrington as a sexist antagonist, and by Governor Swann as both. Beckett’s war on piracy, representative of the proletariat in a Marxist reading, exemplifies the larger and more nuanced hierarchy of British society as a whole. Beckett is only concerned with catering to his high-class British customers for economic gain, which means exploiting the use of slave labor and eliminating the pirate threat at the cost of thousands of lives. To Beckett, “the immaterial [is] immaterial,” and rather, “currency is the currency of the realm.” Beckett is confident in his ability to restore control; he blackmails Davy Jones with his own heart, and is assured that Norrington will obey orders because “it’s what he does.” While Beckett acknowledges Elizabeth as a skilled adversary, he speaks with her only because her and her father’s class makes her a good pawn in his game to maintain control of the proletariat. On the other hand, Norrington sees Elizabeth only as a prize to be won. Although he cares deeply for her, this is not for her wit or courage. Instead, it is for her physical beauty and high class. Norrington wishes to collect this “fine woman” as his wife to compliment his new promotion, and uses his class to try and deter his competition, Will, from pursuing Elizabeth. He admonishes young Elizabeth for her knowledge of pirates as it is unladylike, even though it saves his life several times throughout the trilogy. When Beckett’s crew captures recently-proclaimed Pirate Lord Elizabeth and her men, he insists that Elizabeth, as a woman and their captain, take his quarters even though she is the enemy. Even when Norrington chooses to betray the East India Trading Company and help Elizabeth’s crew escape, he does this for her, and not the good of the cause. Similarly, Elizabeth’s father, Governor Swann, reduces Elizabeth to what British society deems appropriate for a woman of her class. Instead of encouraging her to be educated, he chides her for her study of pirates, even though it is Elizabeth who saves Port Royal from total destruction by the Black Pearl by using her knowledge of parley. Swann would rather have Elizabeth be more ladylike, and gives her a physically constricting dress to wear to Norrington’s promotion ceremony. Swann pushes Elizabeth towards Norrington instead of Will, as her class would dictate. When Elizabeth is jailed for helping Jack escape, Swann refuses to allow Elizabeth to use her own cunning and wit to get out of the situation, instead relying on his class ties to the colonial power that put her there in the first place.