The Seventh Seal

The Seventh Seal

I believe that Death represents God in the movie "the Seventh Seal". The first reason I get the impression Death is God is because Jof and the knight are the only ones who are able to see Death. The knight can see Death because his time is up but Jof can see Death because he is a visionist and sees other holy visions through out the film. First he sees the Virgin Mary walking with the baby Jesus, and at the end of the film he sees all the others doing the dance off in the distance. Death, then, must be another holy thing Jof has been gifted to see. Another reason I have the impression that Death represents God is because when the knight asked Death what he knows, he replies "nothing". I believe Death appears as an enigmatic emissary of the unknown, bringing us into the unknowable. The unknown being God and the unknowable being the after life where God is. This suggests Death is representing God. The part where the actor runs off with the smith's wife and has his way with her would be a sin. Afterwards, Death kills him by cutting down the tree where he is hiding. I see this as God punishing the man for sex, because that sort of happening would not be allowed and the man was punished by losing his life. God is the one who decides to end the man's life, so once again, Death is represented by God. I also believe Death represented God because God is the one who created and controls the world. It seemed as if Death controlled the chess game and the events that took place in the chess game seemed to correspond to the events in the movie. One example was when Death won the game, the knight had to die. Another way the chess match was related to the sequence of events in the movie was when the knight knocked over all the pieces, it distracted Death for a bit longer, allowing the others the opportunity to escape death. The final symbol that gave me the impression that Death represents God was when the knight went to the confession booth and confessed; in side the booth was actually Death. It just seemed ironic that Death was in the house of God and in the confession booth where you tell your confessions so God will forgive you.

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