Jack Dawson As An Allegory Of Christ
Why there was never any room on that door…
Ah, ‘Titanic’!
James Cameron’s 1997 visual masterpiece. A beautiful, artistic, flower-child boy-man meets a high-spirited, intellectually curious, privileged, but trapped young woman.
The romance the couple embarks upon changes them both forever. Rose overthrows the shackles of the oppressive class system that has stifled her self-actualisation and corralled her into an abusive relationship—and goes on to live the emancipated, empowered life she has always dreamt of.
Things don’t go quite so well for Jack…
Spoiler alert.
The boat sinks. He dies.
But not before saving Rose by ensuring her body is out of the water on top of a large piece of driftwood, a door that has become unsecured from its original position on board the ship.
Almost as soon as the movie was released, fans lamented Jack’s demise and wondered: “Was there enough room on the door for the both of them?”
(This still might not have saved him, by the way. The North Atlantic in April and at night is still pretty cold even out of water.)
