Monday April 23rd 2012

The Seventh Seal Movie Questions

1. During the early parts of the film, the knight asks several questions that
are of great concern to him. These questions relate to God and his/her/its
existence, as well as life and death. The knight asks questions such as: why
cant we conceive God with our senses? Why does it seems like he is hiding
and we have to just believe instead of actually being able to see him and
actually KNOW that he exists? These questions show his confusion and on
the edge of the fence belief in God, where he wants to have the knowledge
of whether or not God really exists instead of just having faith. His confusion
and uncertainty represents the position a lot of people are in, who find it
hard to have a strong faith in God or a god. In the end none of his questions
get answered, no matter how hard he tried to find the answer, and this
represents that maybe these questions may never get answered for anyone,
and is useless to try. I too have asked myself these questions, recently and I
have been going through the same difficulties as the knight. Even though I
have been raised a Christian, the more I think about it, the harder it is to
believe that a God exists, and ultimately what is needed is knowledge, not
faith but knowledge, just like what the knight was seeking for. If we had the
knowledge of whether there is a god or not, there would be no need of faith
since it would be only fact and theory, thus eliminating this whole

uncertainty of Gods existence. Although the knight did not find out the
answers to his questions, I believe in the future one day humans will find the
answer, but until then we are just bound to come to our own conclusion of
this mind-boggling, making-every-scientist-go-crazy question.
2. The knight and squire can be seen as very different characters. The knight
is really concerned about God, and the Squire sort of just accepts things and
seems to feel like one should just live life and see what happens. The squire
definitely does not ask as many questions as the knight does, showing he is
not as confused as the knight is, possibly implying that the squire does not
care, or has a strong faith towards God. I believe that because the squire
doesnt question God as much, he represents the existentialist view. At the
end of the movie, he says that one should be happy to just be alive, shows
that he is the type of person that just lives life, accepting things as they go
along which can be seen as an existentialist view. The knight on the other
hand, represents Christianity. He can represent Christianity because even
though he has had his doubts, in the end he believed in God. Having faith
means believing in something, even without evidence, which is clearly shown
at the end of the movie where the knight is asking for mercy and forgiveness
from God, implying that he has faith in God thus representing Christianity.
3. One of the themes in the Seventh Seal is illusion versus reality. This is a
major theme because it can be seen throughout the whole movie, and is
portrayed through several characters. Firstly, we can see this with the actor,

who would claim to see such things such as the Virgin Mary in the forest,
which his wife would not believe. It can be debated whether or not what he
saw was just an illusion, or what he saw was true. I think what he saw was
just an illusion, because he just woke up and was not able to prove that he
was correct. Another instance where this theme popped up was when the
knight was confessing to whom he believed to be a priest, but was actually
death. First of all death gave the illusion that he was a priest, but in reality
was death, and secondly the knight asks questions about Gods existence,
asking... is reality: The universe where a god exits, or doesnt? Is he living in
an illusion believing in God, or is it reality? At the end of the movie he
confirms that he does believe in God, which may ultimately mean that he
believes that it is reality to believe in God. One more time where this theme
appeared was when the smith found his wife with another man. His wife
made it seem like she loved the smith, but it must of been just an illusion
because she went off with the actor. Even though she went back to the
smith, who is to say that her new love isnt just another illusion? Also, the
actor pretending to kill himself was just an illusion, and trying to make
everyone else believe it was reality that he died. In the end because one can
see this theme many times in this movie portrayed through events that have
large meanings and impacts to the plot, show that illusion versus reality is
definitely one of the major themes of the movie.