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Elizabeth Swann
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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This film-related article or section describes an aspect of the film in a primarily in-universe style. Please rewrite this article to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. |
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This article does not cite any references or sources. (April 2007) Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unverifiable material may be challenged and removed. |
| Pirates of the Caribbean character | |
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| Elizabeth Swann | |
| Type | Protagonist |
| Gender | Female |
| Profession | Pirate Captain of the Empress Pirate King Pirate Lord of the South China Sea |
| Weaponry | A Cutlass and Jian Pistol Musket grenades |
| Bounty | Wanted for abetting the pirate, Jack Sparrow |
| Family | Will Turner (husband) Will (son) Weatherby Swann (father) Bootstrap Bill (father-in-law) |
| Appearance(s) | The Curse of the Black Pearl Dead Man's Chest At World's End |
| Portrayer | Keira Knightley (Adult), Lucinda Dryzek (Adolescent) |
Elizabeth Turner (née Swann) is a fictional character in the Walt Disney Pictures' Pirates of the Caribbean film franchise. She appears in Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl (2003) and in its two sequels, Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) and Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End (2007). She is portrayed by Keira Knightley and in a flashback by Lucinda Dryzek. She is known to use the alias of Elizabeth Turner, but this later becomes her official name when she marries the character Will Turner.
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Unlike most young women in her time, Elizabeth is independent and spirited. Throughout the films, she transforms from a graceful, mild-mannered lady to a true and courageous pirate. Elizabeth has always been fascinated by pirates, but she is often revolted by their aggressive and wild nature, especially when she initially met Captain Jack Sparrow, and he ensured his escape from Port Royal at her expense. Even after becoming a pirate, she retains her sense of propriety, as well as her loyalty and compassion for loved ones (namely William Turner, and Jack Sparrow).
Elizabeth adapted well to pirate life, although it is unknown what her status was after the events of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. She had previously learned how to handle a sword from her (at the time) fiancee, Will Turner. She is able to defend herself against multiple opponents and can fight using two swords. Elizabeth has natural leadership abilities, quickly learned seamanship, and displays a talent for battle strategy, devising many defensive and offensive maneuvers against her opponents. It should be noted that she is the only character in the film to use a chinese Jian as her weapon of choice, which is ironic considering the setting it was used in; the Jian, known as the most civilized and elegant of all chinese weapons, ended up being a pirate's weapon.
Portrayed as a civilized, slightly bored and rebellious young woman in the first installment in the trilogy, Elizabeth had long, dark-blonde wavy hair and beautiful features that did not match her true nature. While often dressed in expensive antique lace-trimmed silk gowns worn over painfully tight corsets, she felt much more comfortable wearing the aparell of a mariner, which allow her to move freely. She is seen wearing a long white nightgown under a cream patterned robe at the time of her capture by Barbossa and the crew of the Black Pearl, but was later pressed into wearing a maroon sateen dress, which she threw back to Barbossa before walking the plank.
In Dead Man's Chest, Elizabeth is first seen wearing a gold gown with a matching veil as she kneels in the rain at the chapel of Port Royal, waiting for Will to turn up. She later changes into a sailor's outfit and passed off as a cabin boy for the rest of the film.
In the third film, she is seen wearing a shapeless robe and a straw hat while paddling a small boat around Singapore. It is revealed later that she hid severel weapons (swords, pistols and grenades) in her cloak, and is forced to change into a short, navy silk robe in Sao Feng's bathhouse. While at Sao-Feng's mercy aboard the Empress, she wears a pink silk robe and a studded blue headress, an outfit she maintains throughout the seige of the Empress and her imprisonment in the brig of the Flying Dutchman. She later changes into traditional Chinese armour for the Brethren Court, which she wears during the parlay with Beckett and the climatic maelstrom battle. During her One Day with Will, she wears a dark tunic, and in the Easter Egg set ten years later she wears a sleeveless overdress over a white puffy shirt.
Elizabeth Swann is portrayed as a character who often fantasizes about pirates and life at sea. Her fantasy may have been fueled somewhat by her association with Will Turner, who Elizabeth, then twelve, met when she and her father, Governor Weatherby Swann were en route to Port Royal eight years before. Will, also about twelve, was rescued clinging to floating wreckage, the victim of a pirate attack. Will secretly loves Elizabeth, although as a common blacksmith, he has little hope of marrying a well-born lady. It appears that Elizabeth has feelings for Will, but her father wishes her to marry Commodore James Norrington, a Royal Navy officer who Elizabeth cares for but does not love. His marriage proposal at his promotion ceremony is interrupted when Elizabeth faints and falls off a rampart and into the bay. Her unlikely rescuer is the notorious pirate, Captain Jack Sparrow, who has just arrived in Port Royal to commandeer a ship. Despite Sparrow's gallant actions, he is promptly jailed for piracy. That night, the Black Pearl raids Port Royal. Elizabeth is kidnapped because she possesses a cursed gold medallion—the same medallion she took from Will when he was rescued because she feared he would be arrested as a pirate. Invoking parley, Elizabeth negotiates with Captain Barbossa to leave Port Royal in exchange for the coin. He agrees but keeps her captive after she identifies herself as Elizabeth "Turner". Barbossa believes she can break an ancient Aztec curse the pirates are under. Their true forms—immortal skeletons — can only be seen in moonlight.
Will frees Sparrow in exchange for his help to rescue Elizabeth, unaware he is the Black Pearl's former captain; ten years ago, Sparrow's crew mutineed and marooned him. Sparrow and Will hijack a navy ship and recruit a crew in Tortuga. Along the way, Sparrow tells Will that his father is William "Bootstrap Bill" Turner, the only Pearl crew member who opposed the mutiny. When Bootstrap sent a piece of the cursed treasure to Will so the pirates would remained cursed, Barbossa ordered him tied to a cannon and thrown overboard. Now, Turner blood and the coin are needed to break the curse.
On Isla de Muerta, Barbossa discovers Elizabeth is unable to break the curse just as Will and Sparrow secretly arrive. They rescue Elizabeth, but distrusting Sparrow, Will knocks him out and tells first mate, Gibbs, that Jack fell behind. Barbossa pursues them in the Pearl and, after a fierce battle, Sparrow's ship is sunk and the crew, including Jack, are captured. Despite Jack's attempts to warn him off, Will reveals his identity; unless the crew is released, he will shoot himself while falling overboard, rendering him useless for breaking the curse. Barbossa complies, but employing a loophole in their agreement, he maroons Sparrow and Elizabeth on the deserted island that they marooned Jack on last time, and throw Will and the crew in the brig.
Elizabeth takes action for their rescue by burning a cache of smugglers' rum (much to Jack's distress) to create a huge smoke signal that is spotted by Commodore Norrington aboard Dauntless. To save Will, Elizabeth convinces Norrington to attack Isla de Muerta by impulsively accepting his previous marriage proposal, although the commodore doubts her sincerity. She says nothing about the curse. Later, the Commodore forces Jack to give them bearings to Isla de Muerta. Unknown to Elizabeth, Jack was already formulating plans to use everything that had happened (despite almost all of it being bad) to his advantage.
At Isla de Muerta, Elizabeth sneaks aboard the Pearl and frees Jack's crew while Jack and Will are inside the treasure cave and battling Barbossa and the Black Pearl's crew. They refuse to help her, and commandeer the ship as a disgusted Elizabeth rows to the island alone. Sparrow tricks Barbossa into forming an alliance while secretly cursing himself by swiping a coin from the Aztec chest. As the other pirates battle the navy, Sparrow attacks Barbossa. Elizabeth, aided by Will, fights the remaining pirates. Sparrow and Will break the curse just after Sparrow fatally shoots Barbossa. He reverts to mortal form and falls dead. The surviving now-mortal pirates surrender. Will, Elizabeth, and Sparrow are rescued, although Sparrow is later condemned to hang, as Will and Elizabeth have no choice but to deliver themselves, and therefore him, to their only methods of transport back to safety - the Dauntless.
In Port Royal, Jack is about to hang, and Will, believeing it unfair for Jack to hang after everything he'd done for them, Will proclaims his love to Elizabeth before attempting to save Sparrow from the gallows, but they are quickly captured. Both Norrington and Governor Swann are reluctant to arrest Will or resume Sparrow's execution. Elizabeth steps in to lend her support, after aiding in Will's rescue attempt after she came to the same conclusion about Sparrow's character, and declares her love for Will. Norrington releases Will and graciously concedes Elizabeth's hand to him. Sparrow , meanwhile, gives his version of a 'farewell' (to Elizabeth, he gave a 'It would never have worked out between us, darling. I'm so sorry.', which both Elizabeth and Will took as a joke) and falls off the rampart and into the bay just as the Black Pearl sails into view. He is hauled aboard, and his crew pronounce him captain once again. Apparently impressed by the wily pirate, Norrington allows the Black Pearl one day's head start before giving chase.
On their wedding day, Will is missing and Elizabeth is seen waiting alone at the altar. Lord Cutler Beckett and the British Navy arrive with Will shackled in irons. Beckett, a ruthless East India Trading Company agent, charges Elizabeth and Will with aiding Sparrow’s escape, and produces one for Jack himself; the punishment to all is death. Former Commodore James Norrington is also implicated, although he has resigned from the Navy and disappeared. Beckett offers clemency if Will agrees to search for Jack Sparrow and brings back his compass.
Will finds Jack and the Black Pearl crew on Pelegosto hiding from the Kraken, a voracious leviathan controlled by Davy Jones, the mythical captain of the Flying Dutchman and ruler of the seas. Jones is hunting Sparrow to collect a blood debt, while Jack has been searching for the Dead Man's Chest containing Jones' beating heart. Whoever possesses the heart, controls Davy Jones and the oceans. Unfortunately, Jack’s magic compass has failed him, as he cannot claim the heart as his own.
When Elizabeth escapes from jail, she learns that Beckett is only pardoning Sparrow. She confronts him at gunpoint and demands he validate a Letters of Marque—a document intended to recruit Jack Sparrow as a privateer but which she wants for Will. Beckett signs it but says he still wants Sparrow's compass. Disguised as a cabin boy, Elizabeth tricks a merchant crew into taking port in Tortuga. Searching for Will, she instead encounters Sparrow and Gibbs in a pub recruiting sailors to pay off Jack's debt to Davy Jones, who demands one hundred souls in exchange for Jack's. Another man applies—James Norrington, who is now a disgraced, drunken wretch. Blaming Sparrow for his ruin, Norrington attempts to shoot him and ignites a brawl, but Elizabeth knocks him out. At the pier, Jack says Will was pressganged into Davy Jones' crew, claiming he was blameless; Norrington is skeptical, however. Jack convinces Elizabeth she can save Will by finding the Dead Man's Chest. Trusting him, she uses his magical compass and gets a bearing.
As the Black Pearl heads for Isla Cruces, Jack becomes amorous towards Elizabeth, and even suggests marriage in a seemingly joking manner. Norrington observes her seemingly pleased reaction to Sparrow's attention, but she denies any romantic feelings. She becomes distressed, however, when the compass, which points to what the holder wants most in the world, begins pointing to Jack regularly. Elizabeth believes Jack is a good man and tells him he will one day do a courageous thing, but he brushes off her comments by commenting himself that 'I love those moments. I love to wave at them as they pass by.' Encouraged by her coyness, he attempts to kiss her, but the Black Spot, a mark that Jack's blood debt to Davy Jones is due, suddenly reappears on his hand, and he rushes off in a panic. Elizabeth mistakenly believes he is respecting her virtue, unaware the Kraken is hunting him again.
On Isla Cruces, Jack, Elizabeth, and Norrington find the Dead Man's Chest. When Will arrives with the key he stole from Davy Jones, a Elizabeth learns that Jack betrayed him. A conflict erupts: Will wants to stab the heart and kill Jones to free his father from Jones' servitude; Jack fears the Kraken will continue hunting him if Jones is dead; Norrington plots to bargain back his career. As a three-way duel erupts, Jones' crewmen arrive. Jack gets the key and opens the chest, but it is Norrington who ultimately escapes with the heart and the Letters of Marque.
Pursued by the Flying Dutchman, the Pearl outruns her. Undeterred, Jones summons the Kraken, but the crew temporarily fight it off. In a moment of sheer panic, Jack deserts the crew in the last longboat, but as Elizabeth predicted, he returns to save his crew, unable to leave them, or his beloved ship, behind. During the Kraken's brief retreat, he orders all hands to abandon ship. Realizing the Kraken only wants Jack, Elizabeth distracts him with a passionate kiss while handcuffing him to the mast, claiming she is not sorry. She tells the others Jack chose to remain behind, unaware Will witnessed the scene. The Kraken returns for its final assault; the Pearl and Jack are dragged to a watery grave. It is during this final battle that Jack and Elizabeth's contrasting, yet also similar, characters emerge: Jack shows heroism and loyalty by returning to the ship and saving his crew; by abandoning her duty and honor, Elizabeth becomes more pirate-like, using deception to sacrifice Jack to save herself and the crew.
Norrington arrives in Port Royal and presents the heart and the Letters of Marque to Cutler Beckett. Meanwhile, Will, Elizabeth, and the grieving crew make their way to Tia Dalma, the voodoo priestess who helped Jack find the Dead Man's Chest. As the crew drinks a somber toast to their fallen captain, Elizabeth silently agonizes over her betrayal of Jack, and her enormous guilt over plotting her friend's death. Believing Elizabeth loves Jack, Will comforts her, prompting Tia Dalma to ask if they would all be willing to sail to World's End to bring Jack and the Pearl back. When all say yes, Dalma says they will need a captain who knows those waters. Incredibly, a very alive Captain Barbossa descends the stairs.
Elizabeth joins Will, Barbossa, Tia Dalma, and the Black Pearl crew on a journey to Singapore to seek a navigational chart belonging to the Chinese pirate lord, Sao Feng. Elizabeth and Barbossa try to meet Sao Feng while the crew attempts to rescue Will.
Feng eventually agrees to hand over a chart that leads to World's End and Davy Jones's Locker where Jack Sparrow is eternally imprisoned aboard the Black Pearl. Jack, Barbossa, Sao Feng, and the other six pirate lords have been summoned to a Brethren Court at Shipwreck Cove to address Lord Beckett's assault on piracy. Jack, lacking a successor, must attend. Sao Feng is persuaded to provide a ship and the chart, although only after Will negotiates his own secret deal with him: Jack Sparrow in exchange for the Black Pearl. However, they are overheard by EITC agent, Mercer, whose men attack the bathhouse.
As the crew sails for World's End, Will and Elizabeth remain estranged; he believes she loves Sparrow, while she harbors her guilty secret of sacrificing Jack to the Kraken. After sailing over an enormous waterfall, they reach Davy Jones' Locker where they find Jack. He refuses to crew with them, however, exclaiming, "Why should I sail with any of you? Four of you have tried to kill me in the past. One of you succeeded." Only then does Will understand Elizabeth's despair and later confronts her for lacking faith in him. As Jack and Barbossa squabble over who is the Black Pearl's captain, the crew navigate their way back to the living world. Before escaping the Locker, Elizabeth sees her father's soul being ferried to the "next world," murdered by Cutler Beckett. Distraught that she is unable to retrieve him, Elizabeth vows to avenge his death.
Will's bargain with Sao Feng is exposed, although Feng has made another deal with Beckett, who double-crosses him. When Feng wants Elizabeth in exchange for the Pearl, Elizabeth agrees, angry at Will's deceit and to protect the crew. Jack throws Will into the brig. Soon after, Feng is fatally wounded when his ship, the "Empress", is attacked by the Dutchman. Trying to turn her into his concubine and believing that Elizabeth is the sea goddess, Calypso, bound in human form, Feng bequeaths her his ship, making her captain and Pirate Lord of the South China Sea. Elizabeth and her new crew are taken prisoner aboard the Flying Dutchman where she is reunited with Admiral James Norrington. She berates him for serving Beckett and wrongly believes he was involved in her father's death. Norrington later helps her and her crew to escape to the towed Empress, although he is killed by the delusional "Bootstrap" Bill Turner.
The Black Pearl, and also the Empress, head to Shipwreck Island for the Brethren Court. Unable to agree on what action to take against Beckett's approaching armada, the lords attempt to elect a pirate king, but each lord only votes for themselves. Knowing Elizabeth wants to fight, Jack breaks the stalemate by voting for her, although he has an ulterior motive. Elizabeth declares war.
Will, who was tossed overboard by Jack and picked up by Beckett's ship, is reunited with Elizabeth during a parley session with Beckett and Jones in which Will is exchanged for Jack. Just prior to the climatic battle, Tia Dalma is revealed as the real Calypso, betrayed by Davy Jones who, believing she had scorned him, showed the first Brethren Court how to imprison her in human form. When the current pirate lords refuse to release her, Barbossa uses trickery to obtain their "pieces of eight" insignias to free her in a ritual. When Will tells Calypso her betrayer was Davy Jones, her fury unleashes a raging maelstrom.
During the battle, Will proposes to Elizabeth, and Captain Barbossa marries them amidst the fighting. As the Pearl and the Dutchman clash, she and Will board the flying Dutchman. As she arrives she is confronted by Davy Jones who had just recovered his sword after being disarmed by Jack Sparrow. As they engage in a sword fight she is overpowered and knocked unconcsious by Jones only to be saved as Will stabs him from behind. Jones kicks Will and nocks him down, then after being threatend by Jack who is holding Jones's heart stabs Will in the chest then turns the blade of the sword to do even more damage inside his body than what it has done already. As Will lies dying, Jack relinquishes his bid for immortality to save Will by helping him stab Jones' heart, killing Jones. The crew gathers around and starts to chant. "Part of the Ship, Part of the Crew". As Bootstrap Bill slams the knife into Will's body and cuts out the heart belonging to Will and places it in the Dead Man's Chest apparently the chant goes on the whole time. Jack and Elizabeth escape before the Dutchman is sucked into the huge whirlpool. It quickly resurfaces with Captain Will Turner at the helm. Will appears to be in no pain from the incident and was luckily uncouncious when that occurred. With the Flying Dutchman now on their side, the pirates destroy Cutler Beckett's ship, and the armada retreats. Although Will's life has been saved, he is bound for ten years to serve aboard the Dutchman as the ferryman for souls lost at sea, allowed to step on land for only one day. Will and Elizabeth spend this one day on an island and consummate their marriage. Will returns to the Dutchman at sunset, but before leaving gives Elizabeth the chest containing his beating heart for safekeeping saying "it always belonged to you".
Following the end credits, a short scene entitled "Ten Years Later..." shows Elizabeth and her son, (named "Young Will Turner" in the credits), standing on a cliff watching the sea. A green flash appears on the horizon, and the Flying Dutchman returns from the Netherworld with Will at the helm.
After the credits there is a scene in which Elizabeth and her son watch as a green flash of light fills the sky and the Flying Dutchman appears, in its restored form, with Will aboard the ship. Whether Will has been freed from the Dutchman is in dispute. The filmmakers have stated that Elizabeth's faithfulness has broken his ties to the Dutchman and he is free to spend a lifetime with his family. However, the official booklet released with the limited edition 2-disc DVD states that Will Turner is bound to the Dutchman for eternity, or until his heart is pierced and a new captain takes his place. This booklet, however, was not written by the writers or director of the film. In addition, several answers provided for other questions contradict what is explicitly stated in the film. Therefore, one can question the reliability of this statement.
Elizabeth Turner appears in the Pirates of the Caribbean world, Port Royal, of the Disney/Square Enix game Kingdom Hearts II, voiced by Eliza Schneider in the English version (like the other original actors, Keira Knightley was unavailable due to filming Dead Man's Chest) and by Saori Yumiba in the Japanese version. Schneider also performs the voice of Elizabeth Turner again in the video game Pirates of the Caribbean: The Legend of Jack Sparrow and in the video game adaptation of Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End. The character also appears in Pirates of the Caribbean Online.
Categories: Film articles that need to differentiate between fact and fiction | Articles lacking sources from April 2007 | All articles lacking sources | Pirates of the Caribbean characters | Kingdom Hearts characters | Fictional pirates | Fictional English people | Fictional escapees | Fictional captains | Fictional swordswomen | Fictional queens