kill himself in the end?
i understand he sacrificed himself which is an unselfish act from the conversation he had with cutshaw before? but how does it count as helping cutshaw? is it because his suicide convinced cutshaw and helped him restore his faith in the goodness of people?
any help would be appreciated:D
i understand he sacrificed himself which is an unselfish act from the conversation he had with cutshaw before? but how does it count as helping cutshaw? is it because his suicide convinced cutshaw and helped him restore his faith in the goodness of people?
It seemed to me the "Doctor" side of Kane's personality was a bit of a Christ metaphor. Perhaps Kane's suicide was meant to parallel Christ's self sacrifice for others on the cross. The final shot of the bloody hand seems to suggest some sort of blood sacrifice, doesn't it?
shareI'd say more than "a bit." Doesn't the movie poster make him look like he's wearing a crown of thorns?
sharerecall the scene where he's reading a book in psychiatry, and underlines the words "shock therapy - potentially curative"
When I first saw this I assumed we was referring to electro-shock therapy, which seemed sort of an about face for the character since he previously seemed so adamant about the staff not harming the inmates.
First, we should understand that Kane's act is intended to demonstrate self-sacrifice to the skeptical Cutshaw (and others). While believing himself to be a non-violent psychiatrist, Kane had tried and failed to give such an example, and he acquiesced that an apparently heroic suicidal act could be less than this - an act of despair, or perhaps an unconsidered reflex. Kane's desire is that his suicide will be something different, nothing but a deliberate and selfless giving of his life. The essence is: what is the reason, the thinking? But then, complications. Kane's suicide is committed by someone who has been painfully reminded that he is a man with much blood on his hands, and he has subsequently killed again this very night, despite himself, or despite part of himself. Therefore we cannot be sure that there are not mixed motives at work, such that his action stems partly from despair that he has failed to separate himself from 'Killer Kane' other than temporarily. So it is not wholly clear that Kane's act does constitute the desired example, and presumably Blatty chose to write the script as he did well aware of all this. How much confidence Kane had that his example would hold up can only be conjectured. ("I don't know... no other way now...") Having said which, evidently Cutshaw was convinced, so at least in one important way the ambiguity doesn't matter.
By the way, does anyone hear more clearly than I do the very last words of Kane? "Oh God, I [indistinct]" Or perhaps someone knows from the screenplay?
perhaps it was simply that he hated the violence that he had perpetrated in the past, and then, having succumbed to further acts of violence following the provocation of the bar room scene, he hated himself too much to live.
shareperhaps it was simply that he hated the violence that he had perpetrated in the past, and then, having succumbed to further acts of violence following the provocation of the bar room scene, he hated himself too much to live.
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