Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon my Darlings!   Today’s special Spooky Season post is all about the similarities between Jack Skellington and Emily, the Corpse Bride.   Now, I know that most people like to compare Emily with Sally, due to each being the female lead of the Tim Burton film in which they appear.   However, I find that Jack and Emily actually have many more similarities between them than Sally and Emily ever did!

Jack is a very boisterous and outgoing leader of Halloween Town, the famed Pumpkin King.   Emily is the romantic and loving Dead Bride who is beloved in the afterlife, with many of her friends rooting for her.    At the beginning of The Nightmare Before Christmas, the audience learns that Jack Skellington is very disenchanted with his current life and with the fact that he is seen as just the scary Pumpkin King.    During her first appearance in Corpse Bride, the audience learns that Emily wants nothing more than to have a true companion in her afterlife.   So, right from the beginning, there is a sense of desire for more in both of the characters.

Jack’s first major call to action in his development is finding Christmas Town.    Emily’s first major call to action in her development is her belief that Victor actually meant to marry her.    Both of them are rather entranced and even slightly naive in their optimism to take their current situations at face value.    The next thing that Jack does is bring back his spoils of Christmas items to Halloween Town.    The next thing that Emily does is bring Victor into the Land of the Dead.   Both of them are able to go into different realms, Jack the different towns and Emily into the Land of the Living briefly before returning to the Land of the Dead.   I see this as each of them representing the ability to be a Psychopomp, especially given each is technically dead and able to go into the Land of the Living (since Jack does this too in his duties on Halloween, and when he tries to steal Christmas).    

There is a realization that occurs next for each character.    Jack realized that his comrades in Halloween Town would never understand Christmas, but after much research, he decided to take the new holiday as his own.    Emily realized that in order to keep Victor, she would have to venture into the Land of the Living to meet his family, as I personally believe that she felt he needed closure.    Both of these occurrences are interestingly linked with magick, as Sally had her vision of the failure of Jack’s Christmas, and Emily and Victor must use magick to return to the Land of the Living.    

Finally, there is the act of attempting to gain their desires.    Jack actually had Santa kidnapped and attempted his Christmas.   Emily and Victor began to plot a way to stay married once he believed that he had lost Victoria’s love.   Yet, this is followed by failure for both Jack and Emily!   Jack has to rescue Santa from Oogie Boogie after he is gunned down in the Human World.    Emily chose not to make Victor die in order to marry her, having realized that his true love was Victoria and that he deserved the long human life which she had been denied.    Instead, Emily took down the man who murdered her and would have done the same to Victoria.   This is the same point in his tale where Jack realizes that Sally is his next great adventure, not stealing another holiday!    Both Jack and Emily end their tales at peace but in different ways.   Jack is happily in love with Sally and firmly happy to have regained his love of his role as Pumpkin King.    Emily is finally able to find peace, not because she found true love, but because she helped another couple get their happily ever after!

At the end of the day, both Jack and Emily are driven by their desires and their experiences.    They both are incredibly optimistic and want to have others share their enjoyment of things.   Each is likely the most lively and outgoing character in their tales, even if they are both dead!    I know that Jack is most definitely an enneagram type 7, just like me, and that Emily is an ENFP on the MBTI type system, also just like me.   However, it is less clear if they would type the same on the same systems, but type 7 and ENFP have so many overlaps.    Either way, I believe that this post breaking down all of the similarities in the characters based on their respective tales shows just how much they have in common.   After all, each one even accidentally does horrible things with good intent, Jack tries to force the issue of creating his own Christmas and kidnaps Santa, and Emily kidnaps Victor and tries to force their love story to happen!

I hope that you have enjoyed this analysis of the similarities between Jack and Emily.   Do you agree with my opinions?   Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!

Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a lovely wallpaper of both characters.   I found the image on https://wallpapers.com/wallpapers/corpse-bride-and-jack-skellington-utim8is59l48340j.html.

Tarot Note: I have a page offering tarot and oracle readings for those interested in these services!    I am very happy to be offering these readings to my treasured readers at White Rose of Avalon!  Link to page: https://whiteroseofavalon.life/tarot-and-oracle-readings/

Further Watching

• The Nightmare Before Christmas (1993)
• Corpse Bride (2005)