You may have noticed that Ed wears Stede’s black necktie/cravat from the episode 4 clothing swap throughout the rest of the series, even after he becomes the Kraken. He threw away everything of Stede’s, he even threw away the silk his own mother gave him. He shed all material things with any residue of sentimentality on him, except for the cravat. Why? This has been interpreted in a lot of different ways, some have said it’s like a noose he wears carries around his neck, foreshadowing the death of Edward for the Kraken. Others have called it a collar, representing the chokehold that Stede has on him. Personally, I think it’s an albatross.
Quick spark notes time for anyone who didn’t have to read this in high school: The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is a late 18th century epic poem by Samuel Taylor Cooleridge. It’s thought to signal a shift towards modern literature, similar to the artworks referenced in Mary’s paintings which I did a deep dive into here. The significance of transitional periods and 1717 generally being a time of extreme political, philosophical and artistic change is something I might explore in another post.
Anyways,The Rime of the Ancient Mariner tells the story of a sailor returned from sea. He was part of a crew trapped in the ice flows of Antarctica, when an albatross (a giant seabird with a 10ft wingspan) appears in the sky. The bird leads the ship to safer waters and is hailed as a good omen. But the sailor shoots it out of the sky, bringing a curse and misfortune to the crew. As punishment, they make the sailor wear the dead albatross around his neck so that he must carry the heavy burden of his sins. After a time, Death appears to claim the lives of his crew mates, while a ghostly woman named Life-in-Death claims the sailor, who gives him “a fate worse than death.” Time passes, and the sailor observes slimy sea creatures swimming around in the water. He begins to appreciate their beauty, which lifts the curse. He’s returned home, and is commanded to wander the earth to tell others his tale.
There is strong evidence that this poem was on the minds of the OFMD writers. A seabird is killed in the show, and for this crime Calico Jack is ostracized and cursed to die. But more to my point, the albatross has become a common metaphor in popular culture for a heavy burden that one must carry. Ed found something to lead him out of the life his was trapped in, and he thinks he’s shot it out of the sky by showing his true self and scaring it away. He wears this cravat, a gift from Stede, something that once belonged to him, as a burden of guilt for the crimes he’s done that caused Stede to reject him, as penance for becoming the monster he thinks he truly is, and as a reminder to never let someone close to him again.
The poem is also famous for the popular quote, “Water water everywhere, but not a drop to drink.” When Ed returns to the ship, despite his heart break, he is surrounded by support and love. The crew literally surround him and listen to him sing about his feelings, they cheer him on for more. Lucius offers him the possibility of life after death. But Izzy tells him that for this he’s suffered “a fate worse than death,” just like the ghost who damns the sailor. Water, like love, is everywhere, but Ed won’t accept any of it. Not now. He will need to realize on his own that there is beauty in heartbreak and learning to love again. Maybe then he can lift the curse, and return home to himself.
Woolf is considered one of the most important modernist writers of the 20th century and one of the most famous members of the Bloomsbury group.
She and her husband had much more liberal ideas about sexuality than general society did at that time. They were not monogamous, nor were Virginia Woolf’s lovers all men. Many of her novels, including Mrs. Dalloway and Orlando: A Biography have bi characters, with Orlando telling the story of a man who magically becomes a woman at 30. He lives for more than 300 years without ageing and engages in relationships with both genders. Considered a feminist classic, the book has been written about extensively by scholars of women’s writing and gender and transgender studies.
Wilde was an Irish poet and playwright, his most beloved works being The Picture of Dorian GrayandThe Importance of Being Earnest. At the height of his fame and success, Wilde prosecuted the Marquess of Queensberry for criminal libel. The Marquess was the father of Wilde’s lover, Lord Alfred Douglas. The libel trial unearthed evidence that caused Wilde to drop his charges and led to his own arrest and trial for gross indecency with men. After two more trials he was convicted and sentenced to two years’ hard labour. Not long after his release, he died at age 46 from meningitis. Whilst imprisoned, he still wrote voraciously, stating in one letter,
“To regret one’s own experiences is to arrest one’s own development. To deny one’s own experiences is to put a lie into the lips of one’s own life. It is no less than a denial of the soul.”
In 2017, over 100 years after his death, Wilde was among an estimated 50,000 men who were pardoned for homosexual acts that were no longer considered offences under the Policing and Crime Act 2017 (homosexuality was decriminalised in England and Wales in 1967).
