Saturday, August 30, 2008
Jack's letter
Jack wrote Roseanne a remarkable letter in which he confessed that they had all been a little in love with her. What did you make of that statement as an "explanation" of the way they behaved toward her? And how did you process the knowledge that his mother had her own scandal? Did you read Jack's letter as a genuine gesture of caring about Roseanne and what she had endured or did you see it mainly as a way for an old man to clear his conscience before dying?
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3 comments:
That's a great question. I took Jack's letter as sincere, but also too little too late. The guy did nothing to help her while it mattered. He sat by while she was shunned, deprived of her child and then committed to a mental institution for the rest of her life. He's sorry 50 years later? That's nice.
I honestly didn't understand the bit about them all being in love with her. How does it follow that they would treat her so cruelly?
I'm guessing that because the mother had her own scandal, her behavior toward Roseanne was triggered by self-hatred or lingering shame over her own past. Still, it's not the response you would expect.
Yeah, too little too late was my reaction exactly, but I suppose it was somewhat better than nothing.
I tought of Oscar Wilde's paradox: We always kill the thing we love.
But I have to mull that some more.
Oh, excellent quote.
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