Gilligan's Island as Sisyphean vision of Hell
Well, after discussing the problem I posed yesterday, here are the answers we came up with. Start with the obvious: pride, the father of all the deadly sins. There is no one on the island more proud than the Professor. The fact that he made everyone continue addressing him as "Professor" was enough to give it away. In addition, anyone who looks at two coconuts and says, "I think I'll go for a radio" is one cocky S.O.B.After that, Lust is the next obvious one to place squarely on the sensual shoulders of everyone's favorite starlet, Ginger. In every episode she's trying to get a good look at the good old Prof's ivory tower, and consistently dresses for the part.
Next, sloth is pretty easily laid at the feet of Mrs. Howell, as she never lifts a finger to assist in any of the escape attempts.
Greed is pretty clearly Mr. Howell, as he is obsessed with his money and material comforts while stranded on an island where neither of them provide comfort of any kind.
Wrath clearly goes to the Skipper, as he is constantly enraged at his little buddy and hitting him with that ridiculous hat.
Envy only makes sense with Mary Ann, who is constantly trying to look as pretty as Ginger, but can never quite accomplish it.
That leaves gluttony. You might think that Gilligan is a natural fit, as he eats quite a bit. However, another interesting theory posits that the Skipper is both physicallly and metaphysically large enough to encompass two of the deadly sins, wrath and gluttony. This leaves Gilligan without a deadly sin of his own.
When you think about it, Gilligan was the one who got them all stranded. Each episode the other six are just about to get a plan that will finally get them off the island, only to have Gilligan unwittingly interfere and screw everything up. Someone argued that Gilligan is actually the devil and is there to make sure that no one ever gets off (out of) the island (hell). To top it all off, he always wears red.
Pretty interesting take on a rather innocuous show, in my opinion. Interested to hear other thoughts.
posted by Short Round @ 3:54 PM
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