Gilligan's Island is an old television show that played in the 1960's. Its reruns continued years after the show ended. They also made some TV movies to remake the short lived series. I was reminiscing about this show with someone the other day and they pointed out the most interesting thing I have heard in a while. The Seven Deadly Sins. He mentioned how this television show in particular, discretely had each character represent one sin. When I looked into the show more and watched some old episodes I realized he had a very good point and decided to share it with you. To refresh those of you who don't remember or who don't know, the seven sins are;
1. Pride: is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individuals recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise.
2. Envy: is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.
3. Gluttony: is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.
4. Lust: is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.
5. Wrath: is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. Also known as Anger.
6. Greed: is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual.
7. Sloth: is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.
After going through the list of characters we matched them to each sin we saw best fit to them.
Ginger represented Lust. She was the "temptress", she was always wanted by the other men and desired to be wanted by them. She was very flirtatious in the series.
Mrs. Howell a.k.a. "Lovely" represents Gluttony. She always wanted more than she could have because she was so materialistic and obsessed with power.
Mr. Howell represented Greed. He always bragged of his riches. He was known as the millionaire on the show.
Skipper represented Wrath. He was always angry and rude to mostly Gilligan through out the series.
The Professor represented Pride. He was "always right" during the show. He didn't usually take others opinions because he thought of himself as being smarter then every one else.
Gilligan represented Sloth. He was very lazy through out the series. He barely ever wanted to help do work to get them off the island.
Mary Anne represented Envy. She desired to be Ginger "a real movie star".
There is a possibility that the director of this show began to see the sins in people all around him. With the growing economy in his time period he may have began to realize how people started to change. Many people don't appreciate what they have or the opportunities they were given. I think the director was trying to show that through this series. By making a show that had a person represent each sin gave people the opportunity to compare themselves to someone on the show. When people begin comparing others to the characters in the show it allows them to see how almost everyone they know runs mainly off one sin, even themselves. Do you think this show was trying to pass a message to the public?
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Wow! I really like how you thought about and analyzed this show. I think that it pretty cool. I also think that it could be true that the producers were trying to show the seven deadly sins in characters by behavior, physical appearance and other ways. I would personally probably never even think that deep to come up with this type of analyzation. This really does make you think about what the ideas were behind this show. Do other shows have these types of characters? What does it mean and why would they do this?
ReplyDeleteI believe there is a definite message trying to be sent to the public. Most TV shows are directed for us to Identify with a person on the show. This was such a great insight you pointed out. Everyone in society struggles with a different sin, whether they feel that as religious or just a conscious feeling. So I do agree that this show was reaching out, because each person can recognize with a person on the show and maybe see that they can change or how they should be acting. Again, you are also right that our economy is growing and more believes and attitudes and way of thinking has changed and people need to see that. Is there more to this?
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