Why doesn't Karen forgive Mrs. Tilford? Tilford realizes her error and the damage she has caused to Karen and Martha's reputations. She is heartbroken and penitent and sincerely desires to publicly make amends. Why so hard-hearted Karen?
shareBecause money cannot repay the psychological and emotional damages that was caused from the lie.
shareKaren states herself why she isn't forgiving Mrs. Tilford in the scene. When Mrs. Tilford arrives and admits to what Mary has done and how she has wrongly accused the women, Karen says something to the effect of "come to clear your conscience, have you?".
Karen refused to allow Tilford's conscience to be cleared by her forgiveness, as she was essentially one of the ringleaders of the chaos that ensued.
Mary and Mrs. Tilford destroyed the lives of Karen and Martha over something that had no real substantial evidence of ever having happened.
Karen and Martha had been all over the press, would probably never work in the teaching profession again (let us not forget, homosexuality was considered a sin, and was illegal in the era the film is set) so they have essentially wasted half of their lives building a career that they are no longer elible for.
Karen's relationship was a shambles - Joe doubted her. She had given him her trust, she had given him her heart, soul and promise to marry, and he doubted her sexuality in a moment of weakness. Her relationship with Joe, effectively destroyed, as was her relationship with Martha. After Martha's revelation, Karen would no longer be able to remain as close to the woman for fear of breaking her heart, fear of unfairly leading her on and destroying the fragile soul within.
Was Karen hard-hearted? No. I believe she was perceptive and strong. She saw through Tilford, and saw the woman didn't even really know why she should be sorry, or what she was really apologising for.
Karen became like a Catholic priest in confessional and Mrs. Tilford was like an Aetheist hoping to be absolved of a sin (i.e. wrong to be there asking for forgiveness as she isn't a practicing Catholic and therefore didn't believe in her sin nor understand why it was a sin at all). Mrs. Tilford wasn't sorry, she only understood that an apology was owed (possibly drilled into her from good breeding) and that it would rest her conscience after she has ruined lives with her accusations.
I was glad Karen didn't offer forgiveness, it would have made her weak, it would have been out of character.
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We're a race of peeping toms.
In the original play, she does forgive Mrs. Tilford...and it leaves the play without an effective ending. After all, think about it: the woman bankrupted Karen, caused her friend's death and broke up her relationship with her fiance...and she forgives her? Doesn't make any sense, at all.
I saw the new staging of the play in London this spring, with Keira Knightley (Karen) and Slisabeth (Mad Men) Moss as Martha. It truly lacks credibility at the end.
Hellman herself questioned the original ending of the play--not Martha's suicide, just the forgiveness aspect.
Ah, the joys of self righteousness and condemning others to suffer. It's stupid to criticize someone for wanting to clear their conscience--when people genuinely want to clear their conscience it's because they realize they've done something wrong and want to make amends! It was cruel to refuse the broken, humbled old woman's request for forgiveness.
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I disagree that the Mrs. Tilford wasn't suffering. Indeed, she was suffering a great deal, she even fell to the floor when confronted with her evil granddaughter. She was lied to by her evil granddaughter and was very skeptical at first.
I do think that angelexposed makes a great point that at the end, though, their lives had already been ruined and they were beyond the end of their rope. However, Mrs. Tilford not only wanted to pay them the money from the libel suit, but more if they needed it and she wanted to clear them publicly. I think she went more than out of her way to be fair to them and in the end was as much a victim of her evil granddaughter as the two women. Well not as much as but also certainly a victim of Mary.
The context of the time is the only way we can judge the ramification of Martha's confession of love. Today, there could be the potential for a happy ending if Karen was a lesbian too and they did indeed go away together having been vindicated and with money in tow. Back then, however, maybe the emotional turmoil of her confession was just too much for Martha. Yet I still think Karen should have allowed Mrs. Tilford to make amends, if only for the money, which they deserved.
At least there will be plenty implied.
Tilford was a mean-spirited self-righteous patrician old society biddy who was so sure of her place in the world that she could not countenance that she could be wrong, could not accept the fact that all her riches could not undo her willful blindness.
She deserves what she got. Actions have consequences and she deserved hers, light as they were compared to the lives her arrogance ruined.
Because Karen feels that Mrs. Tilford doesn't deserve it. Mrs. Tilford can say sorry, offer a public apology, and give them money -- their lives are still ruined. Just as they will always suffer from the lie, Mrs. Tilford has to suffer from the lie via a stinging conscience (according to Karen)
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