Elizabeth in PotC: Dead Man's Chest
After we watched PotC2, a friend of mine had two comments: Elizabeth is a slut, and Elizabeth is a murderer. That threw me, because that was the least of the issues I had with the characters. I won't even talk about his calling her a slut; it never would have crossed my mind if he hadn't whispered it, because she has only three potential love interests, and has probably only kissed two men in her life. But I understand "murderer" even less. I fail to see how sacrificing Jack to allow the rest of them to get away is worse than tricking Will into a hundred years of ghostly labor or giving control over all the oceans to a shifty merchant. Her actions had mitigating factors that Jack's didn't, as well, even if you can talk down Norrington's responsibility: Jack did, after all, cause the whole Davy Jones mess in the first place, and Elizabeth had only recently learned that he'd blithely tried to sacrifice her fiancé's soul. (Although, really, what did she expect?)
Her actions were "bad" in the same way Norrington's were bad in the first movie -- although obviously more underhanded and without the backup of the law -- in that they both had the role of protecting innocents by making Jack take responsibility for what he's done. Jack's a sympathetic, lovable character, and we do seem to be encouraged to take his side. Still, I can't bring myself to think of Elizabeth (or PotC1 Norrington) as evil for meddling with his plans.
Especially because we don't know for sure that Jack would have done the right thing on his own if she'd given him the chance -- at least, not right away. I do believe that it all would have turned out all right in the end, at least for the major characters, but only because I know that this is a movie. I wouldn't expect Elizabeth to be so confident. She wants Jack to be a good man, but she's willing to do what she has to do to make sure that it works out, just in case he isn't one. I respect her for that, even if she's not behaving strictly honorably, and even if it does come out that she's killed Jack, I wouldn't call it murder.
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Her actions were "bad" in the same way Norrington's were bad in the first movie -- although obviously more underhanded and without the backup of the law -- in that they both had the role of protecting innocents by making Jack take responsibility for what he's done. Jack's a sympathetic, lovable character, and we do seem to be encouraged to take his side. Still, I can't bring myself to think of Elizabeth (or PotC1 Norrington) as evil for meddling with his plans.
Especially because we don't know for sure that Jack would have done the right thing on his own if she'd given him the chance -- at least, not right away. I do believe that it all would have turned out all right in the end, at least for the major characters, but only because I know that this is a movie. I wouldn't expect Elizabeth to be so confident. She wants Jack to be a good man, but she's willing to do what she has to do to make sure that it works out, just in case he isn't one. I respect her for that, even if she's not behaving strictly honorably, and even if it does come out that she's killed Jack, I wouldn't call it murder.
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