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Gilligan's Id
Willie Gilligan

Being the titular character of the TV series, it only figures that Gilligan is the one who is both the repository of the island inhabitors' suppressed desires and the one who occasionally lashes out at those who continually place him in a subordinate position. Some examples:

* Gilligan endlessly allows himself to be a pawn in Ginger's plans. In only the second episode, Ginger discovers how easily (and chastely) Gilligan can be seduced; after that, Ginger's seductions of Gilligan (usually ending with his knocking himself unconscious) are one of the series' most memorable motifs. (Ironically, in Episode 76, it is Gilligan, out of all of the male castaways, who causes Ginger's dress to fall off--albeit due to his overbleaching her dress while washing the laundry.)

* Travestitism assumes a major role in Gilligan's subconscious; none of the other castaways get into drag as often as Gilligan. As early as Episodes 1 and 3, Gilligan ends up in palm-fronds skirts. In Episode 10, Gilligan dresses as a witch doctor to "cure" a deluded Skipper. His most pronounced episode of cross-dressing is the series' final one (#98), where he presents himself as a "princess" to be sacrificed to a volcano.

* Even with Ginger and Mary Ann sharing the same hut, latent homosexuality on the island assumes its more dire form with Gilligan and the Skipper. The two men share the same hut (with one man's hammock laid over the other!). When any situation occurs in which the men are in danger, Gilligan and the Skipper inevitably run around in a panic, followed by Gilligan climbing onto the Skipper's back.

A less overt example: In Episode 20, when the women temporarily move to the other side of the island, Gilligan assumes the role of "homemaker," cooking a fish stew for the men (minus the fish).

Also, for all of the shared, displayed affections, Gilligan might have some hostility towards the female castaways who reject him. In Episode 83, when Gilligan is the island's lawman, Ginger and Mary Ann are the first ones he arrests and imprisons on false charges.

*Despite Gilligan's less-than-stunning physicality, he seems to be native women's ideal. In Episodes 37 and 94, he is regarded as a potential groom for native brides.

* Gilligan seems willing to return Mary Ann's occasional attentions, but uncomfortably so. In Episode 25, when Mrs. Howell attempts to "match" Mary Ann and Gilligan, Gilligan undoes his collar in his uncomfortability over Mary Ann. In Episode 54, Gilligan (and the other male, single castaways) pitch woo at Mary Ann only in various guises.

* Gilligan's only advance toward Mrs. Howell is in Episode 69 when, believing himself to have been bitten by a vampire bat, Gilligan sleepwalks and bites Mrs. Howell on the neck. The dream sequence that occurs later in the episode offers the same scenario. Maybe it's powerless Gilligan's subconscious revenge against mogul Howell?

Go to the page for:

Ginger Grant
Mr. Howell
Mrs. Howell
Mary Ann
The Professor
The Skipper
The Female Castaways
Gratuitous Dream Sequences
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