Have you ever wondered why a heroine makes the romantic choice she does because you would have chosen someone else? It has happened to me often over the years, but never more adamantly than in the first Pirates of the Caribbean. Seated in the theater, my hands in a popcorn bucket and eyeballs glued to the screen, if I had been lucky enough to be in Elizabeth Swan’s shoes, I would have picked not the romantic Will Turner, but the sarcastic James Norrington.
While he amuses me with his dry humor and looks great in a uniform, if you asked me why, I would say he’s faithful, honorable, and intelligent. I continued to hold this opinion through the sequels even when he went “rogue” in the second film, and his ultimate end broke my heart. He went out a hero saving the woman he loved and redeeming himself and atoning for his mistakes.
Love triangles are common in entertainment, which also loves to make the heroine’s fiancé awful, so it justifies her emotional or physical infidelity (a perfect example of this is Titanic). Pirates actively subverts this trope because Norrington is a decent man. Once he realizes her true feelings for Will, he releases Elizabeth from their engagement—and allows Jack Sparrow a “head start” to escape the noose. He loses only because Elizabeth doesn’t love him. It was a bold choice from the studio and I liked it, because even though I would have chosen him myself, it makes for a far richer story to have the “loser” in the love triangle be a decent and likable human being with feelings.
Elizabeth has a spirited and passionate nature, so it’s not unusual she would pick the more emotional and reactive Will Turner over the stoic and logical Norrington. He is far more reckless (like her) than the more careful Norrington, who does not trust Jack Sparrow and prefers to go in with a plan. Norrington represents the British empire, with his mantra of “keep calm and carry on.” Even when his losses turn him into an angry, bitter drunkard determined to resume his former status, he’s still a likable character. I felt he deserved better than the franchise gave him.
Since the theme of the franchise is piracy, and using underhanded tactics to get what you want, Elizabeth is not your usual heroine. She can be manipulative, calculating, opportunistic, and cruel—such as when she promises to marry Norrington if he will help her save Will Turner. She uses him, much as she uses Jack Sparrow.
Over decades of watching love triangles unfold, I feel sorry for the men who do not get the girl just because they are “dull” and she wants an intense romantic experience. While physical attraction is important, a relationship has to stand on commitment and fidelity just as much as fun and sex. You can tell what Jane Austen thought of turning down the honorable choice in Sense & Sensibility, where the dashing philanderer poet leads Marianne astray from the faithful Charles Brandon until he breaks her heart. Brandon picks up the pieces and proves himself honorable. The story ends with Marianne married to a man the reader knows will never forsake her, a much quieter and longer lasting form of love.
I cannot resent Elizabeth too much because she would not be happy with Norrington. He needs a calmer, more settled wife who does not dream of adventures on the high seas. Elizabeth and Will make a fine match since he’s also an honorable man. But I cannot help wishing, as I usually do with a fine man left on the sidelines, that James Norrington could have his own happy ending.
Wow!!! You made some REALLY good points! I’d never really thought of Norrington as a… serious rival? to Will, but now, I’m totally rethinking that!!! I still prefer Will, but it is SO SWEET how Norrington tries so hard to make Elizabeth happy!
Well. Elizabeth had Will in her heart from the first, so it’s not likely she could change her mind — but I am firmly in the camp of “James deserved better” haha.
I’m a Norrington woman, but not for pragmatic reasons, he is just waaaay more my type. I hate his end, but I’m not sure it was the worst plotline. I think it tied up his story well.
I didn’t think about the love triangle aspect, I forget about this one when thinking of love triangles, but know that you mentioned it, this is how a love triangle should be done. Not using plot manipulation to make one bad (Gale) or boring and therefore a non-choice, but simply making it the heroine’s choice.
Your type as in — his personality appeals to you, or your type as in — he is “my type” (his looks appeal to me)?
I feel like he needed a happy ending, and some hope for his future. Or at least to move on from Elizabeth, because it feels like every man in the series HAD to be in love with her — and she’s okay, but not THAT fabulous. ❤
Don't get me started on The Hunger Games. 😛 Gale deserved better, and in the end, Katniss didn't even not choose him — Gale chose to remove himself from the equation, and she wound up with Peeta by default. I hated that. Give her some autonomy!
I haven’t watched any of the movies fully either but I do feel sorry for Norrington and think he is a good character for all I know about him. I understand why Elizabeth didn’t choose him though.
She’s too wild and passionate and unorthodox for the stable relationship like Norrinngton would provide her, yeah.
Yes but also it seemed to me she had a special bond with Will from the beginning.
Yeah. She had her heart set on him all the time.
I do often find myself wondering why a character chose a certain romantic partner when I can’t see anything in them. It’s hard for me to realize that characters have feelings that are different from my own, especially since my natural lens for viewing a story is to ask myself “what I would do in this situation.” *glares at the idiot love interest* OBVIOUSLY NOT HIM
In the case of Pirates of the Caribbean, I haven’t watched it because I’m not sure any of the characters (Jack, Elizabeth, Will, or Norrington) would appeal to me. It is a story about pirates, after all, and I’m not usually into pirates.
Most of the time, it’s the sexual instinct. You and I as sp/so’s think in terms of long-term stability; the heroine wants fire, passion, ardor, adventure, etc.
For me, it’s less this person has feelings independent from me, and more the conviction that I am right, and what’s right for me ought to be something she also sees as right. 😉 But yes, there is some amount of self-insertion happening as well.
I adore the first movie SO MUCH. It is one of the best things Disney ever did. Hilarious, adventurous, sexy, romantic, etc. Still one of my favorite movies.
Well, and the heroine ultimately needs (and wants) someone she will be compatible with. So she has to look for a hero with the qualities that will suit her. Loyalty is a great quality for anyone to have, but you can be loyal to someone you’re not compatible with, and then you’ll both just be unhappy.
It does seem like a great movie, and produced a pretty banging soundtrack 😉
Gosh, yes, that soundtrack is great.