Metaphorical Characteristics:
Beside Antonius, there are a lot of supporting characters in this film that are carefully crafted to highlight different aspects of humanity in troubling times.
Jöns is a questionably alright and hard-to-love character. As a physical embodiment of Antonius’ doubt and disbelief, Jöns is a pessimistic atheist that is doing just fine living a normal faithless and rather sinful life. On one hand, he is indeed noble and compassionate by saving Jof, an acrobat from danger when he was humiliated and abused at the pub, a girl from the potential sexual offence, and failed attempt to save the young witch from the burning cause she was already on her deathbed. He is also uncomfortably forceful on the other hand, forcing his atheist beliefs on Antonius, or telling the girl he saved “I should’ve raped you, but I don’t want that kind of relationships.”, or “I need a housekeeper, so you have to follow me because I saved your life.”, which was disrespectful and ironic, but might be unfortunately appropriate considering the historic context during the times where women were still more an object than a human being.
His persona is aggressive and tough beside the only fragile moment in his conversation with a painter who was painting about death’s dance and the plague. That was Jöns’s first acknowledgement of the plague and through his fearful expression, he was visibly speechlessly disturbed whilst the painter described the terrible details of black death as if he was mocking a fairy tale. It is interesting to see how Jöns stopped being fearful later on and adapted the painter’s nonchalant attitude like he has given up, this man accepted that there is only emptiness after death and is okay with it.
Death is frightening yet playful in the context of The Seventh Seal. He accepts challenges from a dying man, Antonius, and respectfully kept their promise as he loses at least three times throughout the movie. One of the comedic moments of this film was the death of Jonas Skat, another acrobat that was touring with Jof and Mia. As you would think death must be a powerful figure with some sort of superpower to bring people to death, he physically cut down the tree Skat was on to kill him. When skat said his time is not up yet because of his performance, death simply smiled and replied “Cancelled. Because of death.”. Pretty cool guy indeed.
Jof, Mia and their baby Mikael are the embodiment of hope or beauty in life. This acrobat couple tours around and sings in clown makeup, although they’re barely making any fortune, their aim is to bring entertainment and happiness to people, how cute. One of the defining moment for Antonius is when Jof and Mia generously shared wild strawberries and fresh milk with him, Jön and the girl in their first encounter. This act truly showcases the purity and wholesomeness of the family dynamic and this moment of joy became the meaning Antonius was searching for before he is ready to die.
Jof sees visions all the time that hints crucial element throughout the movie, meaning of them are in open interpretation, but it’s like his character is created as a visual narrator. The first vision he saw was mother Mary holding hands of her baby child teaching him to walk, I could be hinting a sense of salvation or future, but it’s such a vague vision it could be meaningless. He then sees death playing chess with Antonius, and the family fled out of fear which luckily prevented them from dying like everybody else. His last vision was the ghost dance, hinting that everyone has officially died, or some critics described as everybody eventually accepted death.
Raval is the only true villain of the movie, a very forgettable character due to limited screen time and having no redeeming qualities. He incited the crusades that Antonius, Jöns and their master fought for, steals from the dead, attempted to sexually assault the girl and abused Jof in the pub. Therefore, even when he was screaming in pain begging for help before his death, no one besides the girl empathized for his suffering.
The girl saved by Jöns doesn’t even have a name and has never spoken. It was never revealed if she is religious or not, but being the only one that attempted to help Raval in his cry for help although he previously attempted to assault her, or almost refuses to leave the witch when she was being burnt alive, her actions showcase kindness and mercy like a faithful sheep as a silent follower of the group. When death arrives after their last supper, she was in tears as the only seemingly delighted person of the group to meet death. It is the moment when she first and last spoke, "It is finished."
There is also the Blacksmith Plog, his wife Lisa and another acrobat Jonas Skats, which I think are mainly serving for purposes of expressing chaos and dark humour in the movie, which balances out the dreadfulness of struggling faith and death.
I have created a graph displaying standpoints of important characters throughout the movie. Although some characters are on extreme ends of the axis, none are particularly villainized or heroized, the peaceful contrasts in between showcases different aspects of faith and humanity on a grey area.
