Hypersmurf said:
Huh. I didn't get that at all; I got that the Dutchman was a duty, not a curse; the 'curse' (all that fishiness etc) only came on if the captain eschewed that duty.
The faithfulness of the lover had nothing to do with the curse directly; it was merely that Calypso's unfaithfulness led to Jones skipping out on his job. It was Jones' rebellion that led to the curse; Calypso was merely a contributing factor.
-Hyp.
I've heard the thing about being released from the duty if one's lover remains faithful elsewhere. People are discussing that at Rotten Tomatoes. And it makes a certain amount of sense.
Calypso was Davey Jones' lover....but being goddess of the sea, she was capricious and fickle. Consequently, she wasn't worthy of his trust, and when he came back for her after 10-years, she wasn't there....he felt betrayed, and abandoned his duty, instead of being released, and consequently became a monster. Their story is a tragedy.
Will and Elizabeth truly loved one another, and were both honourable, keeping to their oaths. He did his duty for 10 years, and she remained faithful. Consequently, Will was eventually released from the curse.
If this is what the writers intended, then it's an interesting comparison, and I think makes the Will/Elizabeth ending a lot more palatable. Though Jack Sparrow was very amusing, at his heart, he was scum.....likeable scum, but scum nonetheless.
Someone over at Rotten Tomatoes found an exerpt of the original Flying Dutchman story, which seems to give further credence to the idea that Will was released after 10 years, *because* Elizabeth stayed faithful..
"The Flying Dutchman Opera from 1843 indicates: "swore he would sail for all eternity if necessary to reach his destination. Be as careful in what you swear as you should be in what you wish for: in a Faustian turn, Satan condemns the Dutchman to sail the seas forever, with his only hope for redemption the unconditional love of a woman. The Dutchman is allowed to go ashore once every seven years to seek the woman whose love will save him from his tortured purgatory.""
Banshee