MovieChat Forums > Det sjunde inseglet (1958) Discussion > What is the significance of the Death da...

What is the significance of the Death dance?

posted 11 years ago by bennettcaswell1
5 replies | jump to latest

What does the silhouetted dance with Death up the hill at the end signify and why is it important that Jof can see this image?

Any ideas?

[–] miffo 11 years ago

I don't know if there is several meanings to it, but the dance of death was a common motif among artists during the middle ages, specifically during the plague.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Danse_Macabre

I have no idea why Jof saw them dancing. Possibly to underline his creative side as an artist.

Some might find me morally challenged or morally ambiguous. I prefer morally creative.

[–] six-shooter-143-496521 10 years ago

Jof is always talking about his visions and no one believes him, and the audience gets to see at the end he was telling the truth. I think he's meant to be a psychic or something like that as his wife couldn't see it.

[–] TwistHer 11 years ago

Was it Death with the scythe in the danse macabre scene? To this day I've always thought it was, but why the scythe since was he even seen with one before this scene? (Or was he? It's been a long time I've seen this movie.)

[–] cesarat37 10 years ago

Obvious: "Death" can be happy once in a while and start dancing.

[–] thesnowleopard 8 years ago

When Death dances, you'd better run.

In post-Black Death medieval art, the Danse Macabre shows all walks of life and all ages dancing grotesquely with a skeletal, or half-rotted, figure. As with the contemporary story of The Three Living And The Three Dead, it's intended to show that whoever you are, however rich and mighty or poor and lowly, young or old, beautiful or ugly, you share the same grim and anonymous fate.

As for why Death is leading them in the last scene, it appears to be a bit shamanistic more than Christian in that he is a psychopomp leading them to the spirit world/Land of the Dead, which is usually in the west ("away from the sunrise"). The shambling "dance" is because their bodies are dead and their spirits are being led away from the world of the living.

Possibly, Bergman was referring to the "holy mountain" of Helgafjell, in which case, they are actually going to Heaven. Hel was a subterranean realm.

The Historical Meow http://thesnowleopard.net