Deacon Dan Giblin, CRS
Depending on your age, the TV show Gilligan’s Island may be nothing but a quaint throw-back to the innocent days of television that you stumble across on TV LAND while channel surfing.
If however you are of a certain age, this show may have been a stable of your limited TV viewing in the earlier days of television programming.
Most people consider it a trite, silly product of a by-gone area full of stereotypes, bad jokes and limited creativity.
However Gilligan’s Island turns out to be a deeply symbolic story of the limitations we take upon ourselves when we fall victim to human frailties and sin.
The creator of Gilligan’s Island, Sherwood Schwartz, reportedly created the show with each character representing one of the 7 deadly sins!
The great lesson in the series is that one who is controlled by these sins remains stranded, abandoned, and incapable of achieving release until the sin (character personality) is overcome.
Unfortunately for our crew they were never able to leave the island, Many years later during a remake of the series, the cast was eventually freed and returned home. America won’t settle for anything less than a happy ending!
A brief review of the characters illustrates what kept them stranded.
Gilligan = Sloth
He was a lazy but likable incompetent, who was the initiator of most unfortunate situations.
The Skipper = Wrath
The skipper had a hair trigger temper, mostly aimed against Gilligan. His anger normally saw him take off his hat and stomp on it. A possible insight into how we mostly hurt ourselves in our displays of anger.
The Professor = Pride
Who knows what the professor’s name was, without Googling it? The lesson is he did not have a name, only a title. After years of isolation with his fellow castaways they only knew him by a title. They never knew the man. He only disclosed his accomplishments and title, but nothing deeper. He could build a radio, a boat, and many other contraptions, but could not get them off the island. For full disclosure, and in case you actually Google this, in a pre-pilot version of the show there was one mention of his name, but it never carried over to the actual show.
Ginger = Lust
She did not experience lust herself but it was her only way of establishing relationships and having her needs met.
Mary Ann = Envy
Equally attractive as Ginger, but more modest and appropriate in her relationships, she always was envious of Ginger’s abilities to manipulate men.
Mr. Howell = Greed
This wealthy entitled gent used his money to define himself and exert his power, in a place where money actually had no value.
Mrs. Howell = Gluttonny
She had more suitcases on the boat, for a three hour tour, than one would have for a year long vacation! More was never enough.
One other interesting observation made by viewers was that Gilligan always wore the same thing, a red shirt. Some theorize that Gilligan, dressed in red, was symbolic also of evil, the devil, and was the cause of their constant sabotaging and inability to leave the island.
It provides an interesting twist on our traditional view of the devil. We normally view him as an aggressive. cunning, diabolical creature who is clearly out for our spiritual demise. Gilligan as the devil presents himself as a likable, affable, goofy, poor soul, who is accepted in spite of his consistent ability to highjack any plan to achieve freedom and get off of the island.
One verse from the show’s theme song sums up their experience:
Now this is the tale of our castaways,
They’re here for a long, long time,
They’ll have to make the best of things,
It’s an uphill climb.