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May be spoiler!! 7 Pounds

  • 25-01-2009 12:54pm
    #1
    KateF
    Closed Accounts Posts: 244 ✭✭


    Hi,
    So I'm wondering if anyone knows why 7 pounds is called 7 Pounds?? Is it because the weight of all the donated organs comes to 7 Pounds?


Comments

  • #2
    bnt
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,077 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    KateF wrote: »
    Hi,
    So I'm wondering if anyone knows why 7 pounds is called 7 Pounds?? Is it because the weight of all the donated organs comes to 7 Pounds?
    It's a Shakespeare reference: see The Merchant of Venice.

    You are the type of what the age is searching for, and what it is afraid it has found. I am so glad that you have never done anything, never carved a statue, or painted a picture, or produced anything outside of yourself! Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets.

    ―Oscar Wilde predicting Social Media, in The Picture of Dorian Gray



  • #3
    KateF
    Closed Accounts Posts: 244 ✭✭KateF


    I think thats actually a pound of flesh. But thank you anyway, because when I googled "7 pounds the merchant of venice" I got info saying it was a Biblical quote...


  • #4
    bnt
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 13,077 ✭✭✭✭bnt


    KateF wrote: »
    I think thats actually a pound of flesh. But thank you anyway, because when I googled "7 pounds the merchant of venice" I got info saying it was a Biblical quote...
    What Biblical reference was that, then? I just did the same search, and found only Shakespeare references, at least among the first 100 results. I'm not aware that the idea of "a pound of flesh" appears anywhere in the Bible.

    In the play, it's a literal "pound of flesh", but it's also a metaphor for repaying a debt with your life. The notion of self-sacrifice is Biblical, of course, so of course you can find connections there if you want to. But the "pound of flesh = debt" is Shakespeare all the way.

    As for the number seven... it is all over the Bible, if that's what you mean - but it's everywhere else, too. The Seven Dwarfs, Se7en (deadly sins), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers... :pac:

    You are the type of what the age is searching for, and what it is afraid it has found. I am so glad that you have never done anything, never carved a statue, or painted a picture, or produced anything outside of yourself! Life has been your art. You have set yourself to music. Your days are your sonnets.

    ―Oscar Wilde predicting Social Media, in The Picture of Dorian Gray



  • #5
    KateF
    Closed Accounts Posts: 244 ✭✭KateF


    bnt wrote: »
    What Biblical reference was that, then? I just did the same search, and found only Shakespeare references, at least among the first 100 results. I'm not aware that the idea of "a pound of flesh" appears anywhere in the Bible.

    In the play, it's a literal "pound of flesh", but it's also a metaphor for repaying a debt with your life. The notion of self-sacrifice is Biblical, of course, so of course you can find connections there if you want to. But the "pound of flesh = debt" is Shakespeare all the way.

    As for the number seven... it is all over the Bible, if that's what you mean - but it's everywhere else, too. The Seven Dwarfs, Se7en (deadly sins), Seven Brides for Seven Brothers... :pac:

    Right. Thanks. Googled exactly what i just told you so.....

    http://wiki.answers.com/Q/7_Pounds_of_Flesh_quote_from_the_Merchant_of_Venice

    There was another reference too but when I googled it today it wasn't there. Ah well.


  • #6
    T McFoo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭T McFoo


    Hi KateF,

    In my opinion, "Seven Pounds" comes from the title character's need to repay a debt for each life that was taken in the car crash.

    "Pounds" refers to the saying "a pound of flesh" as in something owed or a debt that must be repaid. Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice is generally credited as the origin of the saying. I am unaware of any biblical reference, sorry.

    As for "Seven", the number of people killed in the crash equals the number of people Tim (aka Ben) Thomas helps after the crash:
    1. Donates a lung to his brother (the real Ben Thomas)
    2. Donates part of liver to Holly (the social worker)
    3. Donates a kidney to George (the hockey coach)
    4. Gives his beach house to Connie (the battered woman)
    5. Donates bone marrow to Nicholas (the little boy in hospital)
    He commits suicide in order to
    6. Donate heart to Emily
    7. Donate eyes to Ezra

    Hope this helps :)


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  • #7
    Neamhshuntasach
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 2,171 ✭✭✭Neamhshuntasach


    No it's because he died with just 7 pounds in his pocket.


  • #8
    T McFoo
    Closed Accounts Posts: 2 ✭T McFoo


    ;)


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