Allegory & Symbolism

[Clya Brown]

Anyone who visits Wikipedia and reads through the entry on CS will (assuming that nobody's modified it in the intervening period) find the following observation about halfway through the article discussing the symbolism of the series:

Guyanese actor Cy Grant, who voiced Lieutenant Green and saw the series as having positive multicultural value, has also noted the allegorical nature of Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons. Christian symbolism is heavily implied, with Colonel White as God, Captain Black as the Devil, Captain Scarlet as Jesus Christ, Cloudbase as Heaven, and characters codenamed "the Angels".

It pains me to admit that this allegory had never occurred to me before - because now that I do think about it, the parallels are obvious. Scarlet rises from the dead to save humanity, assisted by a beautiful heavenly choir who have names to match, and who fly through the air clad in shining white. With a small band of mortal comrades who frequently place their personal destinies in his hands, they find arrayed against them the forces of darkness in the forms of Captain Black* and his legions of the dead. Have I missed anything?

One other little allegory that did strike me quite forcibly (but only when the new CGI series began) was the symbolism of the game of roulette. Scarlet and Black are the two colours of which a roulette wheel is composed, and in the first episode we see the pair of them venturing into a new world the like of which they've never encountered before, like gawping tourists during their first trip to Las Vegas. Hapless punters dazzled by the incomprehensible majesty of the Mysteron consciousness, and in blind ignorance of their own powerlessness in the face of the odds against them, they dare to challenge it. Inevitably they fail, and both pay the price... but one final and completely unexpected spin of the wheel enables one of them to break free. Which will win and which will lose is a matter that is decided by pure chance - it could have been either of them, but in the event red wins, and black is the loser. Whether or not the same symbolism was intended to be apparent in the original series only the scriptwriters could say, but the episode "Special Assignment", which sees Scarlet apparently succumbing to a gambling addiction in a casino in Arizona suggests perhaps that it might have been at the back of somebody's mind.

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Captain_Sc ... _Mysterons

[* Captain Black could be seen as not merely the Devil but Death itself, as was noted once before in a discussion of "Attack on Cloudbase" elsewhere on this forum, in which Captain Black appears as Doctor Fawn's assistant. Announcing to Captain Blue that Scarlet will never rise again, he symbolises the impending triumph of evil over good in Symphony's fevered imagination.]

[Skybase Girl]

Blimey, Doc!

I read Cy Grant's allegorical theories while perusing his website in the wake of his sad demise. I must admit I thought they were the only jarring notes in an otherwise admirable philosophy about life and the world.

It did seem to me that he was reading rather too much into the creation and reasoning behind Capt Scarlet. But you have put forward a persuasive argument to back him up, so who knows?

It definitely makes a certain type of sense, but I do wonder if the creators actually gave it that much thought at the time; sometimes allegorical or hidden meanings occur purely by accident as a result of long held, subconcious beliefs regarding good, evil and the folklore that surrounds them.

[Mary]

And let's not forget that the tragic story of Captain Black mirrors that of Lucifer, one of the Archangels who fell from grace and then personified evil to its fullest degree....

[Clya Brown]

Hi Mary - yes, you're right - I missed that one! Just to continue that thought about the Fallen Angel for a moment, I took another quick browse through Wikipedia to familiarise myself firstly with the story of Lucifer, and then a second time to read up on another fallen angel from Hebrew mythology, Azazel - where I found something rather interesting. (I'll say at once that I know far less about mythology generally than I'd like to, so my apologies to anyone who is more familiar with this than I am if I've misrepresented or misunderstood anything here.)

The name "Azazel" apparently refers to the rugged and rough mountain cliff from which the scapegoat (this is the "original" scapegoat from which the modern interpretation of the concept takes its name) was cast down in ancient times on the Day of Atonement. That ritual took the form of the procurement of two similar goats, each of which had a label placed on it: one label was inscribed "for the Lord", and the other "for Azazel". A scarlet woolen thread would then be tied to the head of the goat labelled for Azazel, and the goat would then be led to the precipice and pushed over it, carrying the sins of the people with it. The other goat would then be chased off into the wilderness.

Now I'll be the first to admit that this could very easily be a case of finding coincidences simply as a consequence of looking hard enough for them, but we do actually have a rugged rough mountain cliff overlooking the Mysteron complex on Mars (or alternatively and perhaps more appropriately, the ledge over which the vehicle containing Captains Scarlet and Brown crashes), two similar men, the one identified by a scarlet tunic being sacrified for the good of the people, while the other is released into perpetual exile.

[One last point to ponder: the scarlet thread would be divided into two immediately prior to the goat's sacrifice, and one half tied to the rock above the precipice. Could that have been reinterpreted as the creation of two Scarlets from one in the car crash - one saved, the other destroyed?]

What do you think - is it a credible analogy?

Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Azazel