I recently saw this movie on video. Why did Mary Steenburgen's character leave her husband at the end?
shareI saw the play in Baltimore a few weeks ago. I don't remember her actually leaving him, but I know the reason of their argument: he refused to admit that he was racist against Coalhouse - he never considered the authorities who drove him to insanity responsible. I know that's why his brother-in-law left.
shareYes. She leaves him for Mandy Patinkin's character, Tateh/Baron Ashknonazi.
shareThey should have kept the original ending of the book Father dies on the Lusitania and Mother marries Tateh, which is more accurate given the time period, because you divorce was difficult.
sharefuzzout987 wrote: <<They should have kept the original ending of the book Father dies on the Lusitania and Mother marries Tateh, which is more accurate given the time period, because you divorce was difficult. >>
It's been a long time since I read the book, but doesn't Mother leave Father for Tateh BEFORE Father dies on the Lusitania? If you know, let me know. Thanks.
I just got the book down from the shelf, Mother never leaves or divorces Father. Divorce didn't happen back then, it states that Mother and Father rarely spoke to each other and spent much time apart. Basically it was a marriage in name only. Actually the book states, "Mother and Father were now on the most correct and abbreviated speaking terms." But it never mentions a divorce. Fahter dies on the Lusitania and Mother "wore black for a year." Then she marries Tateh.
shareThank you, fuzzout987!
shareWe have to remember that the play and the movie are two totally different interpretations of the book.
Father is racially prejudiced from the very beginning, evidenced when he doesn't want the "brown" baby taken into the house. Mother doesn't leave him because he's a racist. She would have known this from the first day they were together. She leaves him (in the movie at least), because he fails to see her as a woman, an equal: someone with ideas and thoughts of their own instead of what their spouses want them to be. Tateh shows Mother that men can adore women for all they are: beautiful, passionate, and intelligent free thinkers.
Younger Brother doesn't leave the family to join Coalhouse's band of marauders because Father is racist. He joins because he sees the frustration that Coalhouse has become burdened with in a "white" society, where blacks were looked upon disdainfully except within their own neighborhoods. He feels empathy for the man and his desire to get "White Man's" justice. One is easily fooled into believing in today's modern society that blacks were only disenfranchised in the American South, but in reality they were looked upon to be "lesser" humans in ALL of America. This is more apparent in the novel, but you can see it in other works and literature about the time period.
Divorce happened back then, but not the modern version of divorce--after all Elizabeth divorces Harry in the film. Divorce only happened when adultery by a spouse (typically the wife) could be proven--which is the entire point of the lawyers finding Elizabeth naked with younger brother.
Red Wolf #4
He was too uptight....Patankins character must of done it for her
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