Elizabeth Swann Port Royal's Greatest Beauty - The Greatest Pirates Movie of All Times: Pirates of the Caribbean - The Most Evil Pirate to ever set Sail

Sweet Elizabeth

After the long day Elizabeth had, she is currently reading in bed, with an attendant that’s gossiping, while heating her blanket. She sense that Elizabeth is upset about something, so some small talk is in order. The first thing that comes to mind is the topic of men, specifically Norrington and Will Turner. Elizabeth also thinks of Jack.

This maid is the voice that’s stirring within Elizabeth when it comes to men in her life, her feelings and temptation of each one. Sometimes an extra is there to help a primary character become their voice that helps us get in the head of the character.

When she is asked about Norrington, Elizabeth comments on how he’s a safe bet, anda fine man, good for many women. She does respect him as a soldier, and what he does, she doesn’t feel romantic sparks with him. And when the maid brings up Will, Elizabeth dismisses him as too bold. The maid then excuses herself, telling her it’s not her place.

This shows the inner conflict within her. She wants to please her father who likes Norrington, and she knows he’d treat her well, but she has a taste of adventure, and she’s not ready for a safe match. She’s also conflicted on the matter of Will Turner. She likes him a lot more, but she’s still miffed by the push and pull relationship between them.

And as if it were an omen, after the maid steps out, the candle blows out. Now things have gotten serious. The pirates that attack Port Royal go to knock on the door, with the idiot butler just opening the doors, ignoring the fact that there’s a lot of commotion, and that a knocking in the middle of the night should require confirmation. Elizabeth runs up the stairs back to her room, locking herself in, with the maid from earlier pleading with her to hide, giving her a way to do so, as if she was planning to act as a diversion.

This shows that the maid has boundless loyalty despite her fear. Often, a maid like the one we see would be responsible for caring for a child, which is what she does during the attack. In all of this, Elizabeth is also wearing a white pyjama skirt, white being a colour of purity. Up to date, after everything we’ve been through, Elizabeth’s childhood will come to an end.

When the pirates catch up, she attacks them with the heating pan and drops the searing coals onto the pirate zombie facing her. This shows her inner passion getting ready to unleash, and it gives her time to escape, as we see the pirates harassing the maids and attacking the servants grabbing as much loot as they can.

After escaping, she gets surrounded and the cannonballs are causing damage, leading to a diversion to slip out to the study, with a pair of swords on the mantle. She reaches for the swords on the display but Elizabeth can’t wrestle it out, Therefore, she has to hide in order to avoid the pirates capturing her. That’s when she hears the two pirates revealing that they are drawn to the cursed gold, which is their primary objective.

And when the pirates find her hiding spot, she resorts to her final weapon: Initiating Parlay. She explains a lore detail about the Pirate’s code and that initiating Parlay means one cannot strike the other party. One of the two quickly explains that Elizabeth wants to be taken to the captain, and that is genuinely her intentions: Ensure the safety of her father, and to make sure that there are less victims of the bombardments.

This is Elizabeth’s baptism of fire, and exposure to the life of danger and mystery that she’s always craved. The part of the attack that’s focused on Elizabeth is more about her own mental state.

She is juggling her duties as a daughter when it comes to marrying Norrington, which she doesn’t like, even if she acknowledges his strength and capabilities, even acknowledging that she knows he cares for her, and the wild spirit, Will. She is fascinated by him, but she isn’t ready to consider him. A part of her was seduced by Jack and Jack’s spirit, but Jack’s world is ugly and dangerous. And the attack on the mansion was her world and now it’s crumbling down, as if her mental barriers are breaking down.

She foolishly let in the swashbuckling life, which killed a part of her, similar to what happened to the butler. The maid spoke of her thoughts on the men around her. The coals dropping from the one pan shows her unfocused passion, Even the parlay represents her inner self at the time. And now that it’s been battered and shattered, she loses another part of her mind that’s resisting the pirate life.

Elizabeth looks at the world in a romantic light. Even the swashbuckling, she isn’t fully aware of the dangers that lay in such a lifestyle, and that logically, she should have stayed on the island and helped fix the entire town. She leaves the island where she’s been safe all these years, and now, she’s ready to face the world.

The Man Whom Hell itself Spat Out…

Elizabeth is brought on board the Black Pearl during the night with the intention of negotiating the cessation of the attack on Port Royal, where we see the gloomy ship, and she suddenly isn’t sure about her harebrained scheme. We now meet the antagonist of the movie, Captain Barbossa, the former First Mate of Captain Jack Sparrow. His pet monkey, Jack is a constantly hated figure, by all but Barbossa.

Some symbolism in monkeys would include playfulness, joy, intelligence, innovation, agility, adaptation, good luck and protection, all traits that Barbossa twists, but there are many negative symbols related to monkeys. Some of these include imitation and superficiality, something that Barbossa does, as he seems to want to imitate Jack as a pirate, but he is more of a mirror to Jack, as Sabretooth is to Wolverine.

They also symbolise base instincts, lust and greed, and this does tell us that Barbossa doesn’t truly think deeply on things. He imitates it, but deep down, it’s all about base desires to him. Restlessness is also noted, with Barbossa often easily distracted by not just what he wants, but a lack of awareness of his foes, such as Jack Sparrow.

There are also two more fascinating symbols the monkey represents that truly represents Barbossa: The Devil and a cautionary tale. A cautionary tale in matters of greed, deception and a misuse of power. Jack warned him not to go after the treasure, but he let his greed get the better of him, and he took the treasure of the Aztec treasure, then marooned Jack, spent the gold as it dispersed through the empire with the curse taking hold and forcing the pirates to find every single coin to return to the chest, and it could only be paid in blood.

The blood of Bootstrap Bill was the only one that could help lift the curse. The reason for specifically Bill’s blood may be revealed later, but Bill Turner’s child is also someone that Barbossa is looking for. And the other symbol, the Devil demonstrates how much of a villain Barbossa is. He is villain, and Elizabeth will soon learn that you do not make a deal with the devil.

She is first introduced to Barbossa’s first mate, and African giant of a man that pimp slaps her, telling her she has no right to speak, only for the Captain to interject, remind him that she wished to initiate Parlay, something that was instilled by pirates in different ways. Some took it seriously, others played around with it, which is why when it comes to pirates, it’s a game of Russian Roulette. When Elizabeth reveals her intentions, and asks for him to finish attacking the ship, he mocks her, commenting on how she speaks big words, and laughs at her, as if women wouldn’t know what they mean. He replies to her request with big words, then summarizes it meaning it’s a “no”, still treating her like a child.

It’s only when she reveals the coin that it catches the pirates’ intentions, and shows her leverage, which she threatens to drop it in the sea. She then reveals that she remembers the ship from eight years before. Her story actually amuses Barbossa, She then threatens release the chain it’s connected to, and Barbossa replies with a “No!”, realising she is serious about her demands.

Elizabeth also lies about her name and identity, calling herself “Elizabeth Turner”, and claiming to be a maid in the governor’s household, which Barbossa believes her, despite her first class pajamas. It does reveal that the Devil isn’t as smart as what he would like to think. He also asks her how she got it, and she tells him she didn’t steal it. This is when he says that he will stop the attack if she gives him the medallion.

He then orders the ship and crew retreat as the terms of the deal dictate that he is to leave and never return to Port Royal. It’s then that she realises, he also has no intention of letting her leave, as he twisted the terms of the deal, as he never swore to return her.

She brings up the Pirate’s Code, only for him to reply in kind that it’s more guidelines, and that she isn’t a pirate, so it doesn’t apply to her. Some pirates may respect it when non-pirates initiate Parlay, but Barbossa, like the Devil, twists the words and deal around to fit his needs, and he pretty much dictates that he needed her anyways, and intended to take her regardless of the terms, even if she stated it in the deal.

The thing about the Devil in New France culture is that someone makes a deal, often the man, and gets something great, and needs to return something of great importance, and the terms are very vague, so the Devil could take advantage of it. Then you have the partner, likely the wife that outfoxes the Devil. In this movie, it’s the other way around. It’ll be Jack and Will to the rescue after this.

That is the danger of dealing with pirates. You have to pray that you do not cross one such as Barbossa, who represents the Devil in the story.

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