The Tragedy of Davy Jones
“Those who are heartless, once cared too much.” Nico di Angelo
I recently just listened to the theme song of Davy Jones after years of not listening to it. The music itself told us a story of a tragic character who descends to madness after his devotion to his love, only to be cheated in the end.
Even though the setting takes place in the 1600s (with a work of fiction obviously), even in the world of pirates, it seems that no one can escape their possibilities to descent to madness.
Davy Jones is one of them, there is something that we can all relate to and learn from him. Just by listening to his theme song, composed by the legendary Hans Zimmer, the tune hit me hard and it made me stop whatever I was doing yesterday as the emotion poured into the music is overwhelming.
“All it takes is one bad day to reduce the sanest man alive to lunacy” — Alan Moore , Batman: The Killing Joke
Davy Jones accepted a task given by his lover, Calypso, to sail the lost souls of sailors who died at sea to the afterlife. But doing so, he cannot set foot on land for ten years. It’s a torturous thing to do, but out of love, he accepted the task. In return, they would be together after ten years.
However, after ten years of devoting his work to her, she wasn’t there to meet him. Abandoning the promise they kept together. Out of anger, hatred, and pain, he told his other fellow pirates how to seal the goddess Calypso herself. But by doing so, it tortured him to trap the woman he had come to love, and the worst part is, his love for her was unconditional.
Unconditional love is something sweet and dangerous at the same time. Study said that it can lead us to imagine a fantasy that we can never reach, and because we are drawn to love, it can blind us to keep hoping about it. To release this, we are suggested to move on and find a more logical way to gain what we desire.
However, Davy Jones did not go to this route. Instead, he was still in love with the woman who betrayed her. And with Calypso gone, not monitoring his actions, he roamed free and abandoned his duty, corrupting himself to the point he earned a monstrous appearance. He attacked wayward and unprotected ships, killing crews in the most vicious ways. Thus, he was feared by everyone, losing himself completely by madness.
As you can see here, one betrayal was enough to turn the most devoted man into a whole different person. As the saying goes….
“Don’t be afraid of losing people. Be afraid of losing yourself by trying to please everyone around you.” — Lewis Howes.
For Jones, no one was there for him again when he was dreading. Not even his high status as the sea devil or captain can soothe his pain away. He turned to play organs but he played the exact same tune of his music box, expressing his deepest pain and loneliness. When he felt emotion, he made it that it is a sign of weakness, which was why he got angry when he felt that as he was playing his tune.
However, feeling insecure is not a weakness. Letting it all out is the best way to relieve all the negativity in one’s head, to release everything that we kept bottled up. In fact, studies showed that crying is a helpful way to calm oneself down and reduce stress.
So when you feel like you want to cry, and everything was too overwhelming, let it all out. Don’t keep it to yourself, otherwise, it will only make things worst. There is nothing wrong to cry, it is a human thing.
Davy Jones did that, and as the result, he has gone mad and insane. Thus, the birth of the ruthless sea devil, Davy Jones. In a way, it was Calypso who created the monster in him even if she thinks that it wasn’t her. But to Jones, it was her.
The take
Although Joker gave a better example of one’s creating their own demons, Pirates of the Caribbeans showed us the aftereffect of misunderstanding someone. Of what love can do to someone when treated wrongly.
As to what Davy Jones said,
“Love. A dreadful bond. And yet so easily severed.”
Basically, be nice. If you can’t keep a promise, don’t give the other false hopes. It will only torment the other, some may recover quickly, but others may not even recover at all.
Then again, like what he said, “life is cruel”. There will always be people mistreating us, whether they realize it or not.
If Davy Jones had learned to let go of the woman he used to love, maybe he wouldn’t have been so tormented. Then again, love can be a dangerous thing. But this is also on Calypso for giving him false hope.
So it’s best for all of us to be honest with one another rather than hiding something that may not work. If she had been honest with him since the beginning, the pain and torture Davy Jones went through could’ve been avoided. When dealing with love it’s a very sensitive thing to handle.
As for Jones’s case, letting go of the past is hard to do. But that doesn’t mean that he’s supposed to bottle up his emotions and play it to the organ. Sometimes it’s better to talk to someone. For him, it’s like drinking his sorrows away for something that can never be his. Thus, he was tormented for his whole life.
In our world, that’s why divorce is always held in courts. It’s not something where you love someone and take advantage of them. There is always a price to pay for our actions, especially when we bound ourselves to another.
And as Jones always say,
“You have a debt to pay.”
