The Hell That is Gilligan's Island.

Philosophy Forums Philosophy
1

Is Gilligan’s island Mildly simbolic of hell

  • Yes
  • No
0 voters

As i Person who find extreme pleasure throguh discovering alligories and satires in literature, i had a philospophy orgy yesterday.

Apon watching my favorite of all Televisions shows Gilligans Island i noticed that all of the characters seems to have one major flaw in their personalities.

I also noticed that gilligan always seems to mess up any attempts to leave the island as a sort of (comic Relief)

Now i started to think about the nature of the show and have come to the conclusion…

That Gilligan’s Island is a allegory for hell and all its inhabitants are examples of the catholic 7 Capital Sins,

  1. Pride-from which all sin is based
  2. Avarice greed-sins against generoisity
  3. envy sin against love
  4. Wrath/anger
  5. Lust
    6.Glutonny
  6. Sloth

Now each chacter is a symbol for one of these sins (in the skipeprs case its too, but hes two people in mass lol)

  1. Skipper = Gluttony /anger

“I’ll go straight to an Italian restaurant and have 8 or 10 pizzas, 6 dozen meatballs, and 2 miles of spaghetti, and then I’ll have dinner.” His favorite steak sandwich? A filet between two top serloins!~~Skipper

  1. Ginger = Lust

Any man worth his weight in hormones would give his right arm to be stuck on an island with Ginger Grant. Ginger is an alluring and sexy actress, reminiscent of Marilyn Monroe, who persists in worrying about her gowns, her appearance, her career, and Hollywood gossip.

  1. Professor Roy Hinkley, Ph.D. = Pride

Obviousely thinks himself the brightest on the island.

  1. Millionaire Thurston Howell III - Greed

Sits around counting money all day with his wife .

Known as the Wizard of Wall Street, he has been convicted 6 times on antitrust suits, and investigated every year for income tax evasion. He owns up to 12 corporations, and as chairman of the board, has 5,000 employees and an office on the second floor.

“No one can pull the wool over my eyes. Cashmere maybe, but wool, never.”

  1. Mary Ann Summers = Envy

constantialy jealous of ginger(lust) and tryingto emulate her actions.

  1. Mrs. Lovey Howell = Sloth

dosent do anything but sit around the island and count money.


Now.......Gilligan can be viewed as the Devil.  On Every attempt to leave the island, Gilligan is the sole reason they stay stranded.

on a physical noted he is always wearing red.

Making the main character a symbol of Lucifer, while still casting him as this comic relief poses quite a conudrum which in my opinion plays no effect on the characterization of him. 


[u]The following are MAJOR stretches[/u]

7 cast aways=  7 Capital (deadly) sins

3 hour tour= symbolic of holy trinity.

Boat = symbolic of ferry ar charon (hell in mythology) (dante inferno)

Island = Purgatory in Dante's Inferno
2

Mary Ann envious of Ginger? I have never seen that. I doubt that she is overly worried about Ginger’s physical attributes, as Mary Ann was always the better looking of the two.

The red shirt as satanic symbolism was genius though, I must admit.

3

oops…i must admit iwas mistaken…shes envious of her being a movie star…not her looks…(mary ann is better)…she is constantly asking question about movies hollywood gossip and such

4

I think you’re giving the writers too much credit. I think the primary reason Gilligan seemed to foil the plans was that if they ever did get off the island, there would be no more show. I used to ponder why if the professor could make a radio out of coconuts, why he couldn’t patch a hole in a boat.

I see where you’re coming from and you’ve drawn up some nice allusions but I don’t think it actually goes that deep.

And I think we can all agree that Mary-Anne was definitely hotter than Ginger.

5

I think you can find the same themes in the Sartrean ‘no exit’ principle that hell is other people.

In a sense the island and the permanent residence of a group of people represents an inescapable loss of freedom by the objectification of each by the Other- Giligan will always be what he is with as much inertia as: “oh, its just Giligan.”

The point of the island setting is the finality of subjectivities and social diversity- those people are the extent of each subjects ‘world’ and the possibilites of freedom are extremely limited.

Each one will be, and only be, what they are to the Other. If there could be a hell, it is none other than the Other’s judgement of you in extremely limited circumstances. Our sense of freedom is based on our possibilites and when those are only what the Other see’s us as, then eight sets of eyes don’t give us much to work with.

6

I don’t really care whether that allegory was intended in the writers’ minds or not thats just a great idea.

In regards to what Detrop said on the Sartean ‘no exit’ principle, could we also enclose ourselves into a good relationship with a small group of others even though it might be limited by only “eight sets of eyes?”

In other words does this ‘no exit’ principle key on the idea that others create only hell for eachother in limited numbers? Or could they, despite their lack of freedom, create a heaven for eachother too?

I mean I’ve always felt that living on a beautiful island and surviving off the land with an odd bunch of people would be absolutely slendid.

7

i think that while the writers may not have inteded it…if a mass reads it as an allegory, it becomes one by default.

8

Alright, I’ll play the game.

I have always likened the concept of the island to more of a prison with no guards than to an actual ‘hell’. The exiles were confined to Eden yet they spent so much time trying to find a way off the island that they did not stop to look around and find that they were already in a paradise.

They were tantalized by the thought of the mainland as paradise. Just watching the show for a few episodes makes clear the fact that they will never reach this nigh-mythical place. Not by science, as personified by the Professor, who with the resources available in his microverse can achieve near anything except the deliverance they all seek. Not by wealth, as personified by the Howells, nor by beauty and art (Ginger), nor by being a good person (Mary-Anne), nor pragmatism and industry (the Skipper).

Most watchers identify with Gilligan, the everyman who finds that he is often the victim of each of these beneficent social forces’ attempts to escape the island. When we find him attacked by sharks or falling from the sky in some ill-fated attempt to escape the island, we understand Heidegger’s claim that we are cursed with freedom. There is a prevalent theme in every episode of an inability to reach God. Always there are symbols of the vain and fleeting nature of man’s efforts to connect to something greater than himself.

The other overriding themes center around the loss of self and the inexorable proposition of non-existence. The prospect of annihilation into the abyss of quicksand is ever present. So complete is this form of destruction that nothing is left of the victim, not even clothing or bones, unless they have a hat which serves as an impromptu grave marker.

I find that Sartre’s “Hell is other people” manifests itself more as the ‘people’ on the ‘other’ side of the island. These cannibals consume their victim’s flesh, just as ‘other people’ subsume their victim’s identity.

The ultimate absurdist humor is derived from the fact the show is still being broadcast to new generations, as it probably always will, as long as the medium of broadcast television is available. In this way, the creators have devised the most accurate working model of Nietzsche’s theory of eternal recurrence.

9

now in you’re opinions would you disagree with the concept that the “Three hour tour” was a symbol for the river Styx…with its boat man Charon leading the new shades into “Hell”

…Speaking of Hell, does anybody have an opinion on Dante’s Inferno

10

and seocndly idk

ginger had that hgourglass figure that mary-ann just lacked

11

I wholly disagree with the concept of the “three hour tour” symbolizing the river Styx. If you’ll remember, the reason they ended up on the island was because of a storm. The island was not their intended destination. And your so called boat man became trapped as well, unable to ferry any more passengers to ‘hell’ which contradicts the fable. You may see Gilligan’s island as an allegory of hell, but I still do not.

Ginger may have had that shapely figure, but she was too lanky for my tastes. Mary-anne had that whole girl next door innocence and charm about her looks. Plus she had great eyes.

12

deleted

13

planning our demise…

duhh

14

sounds like someone missed the film to the artwork 0_0 lol

15

How was Hollywood still booming during the Great Depression? The country was in deep economic trouble in the 1930’s but this was the Golden Age of Hollywood. So how did Hollywood keep booming when almost everything else fell apart?

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