[spoilers] Ruth

[A Cousin]

(14-10-2010 06:58 PM)Tea Lady Wrote:  

(14-10-2010 01:40 PM)HellsBells Wrote:  I thought that the question about having children made Ruth think about the life she is missing out on. If she had have said yes to Harry then perhaps children of her own would be possible.

This is so sad. You just get the impression that Harry would do anything to make Ruth happy. So if she did want children, he would do everything possible to make that happen. Ruth just won't take that step though. Maybe it's also the age old problem of choosing between career or family. I wouldn't have thought she could do her job part-time.

I think that is part of it but not all of it. I don't think she is going through all of this just because her biological clock is ticking. I think it is much deeper than that. It casts a wider net. Having children is a part of having the simple and elegant "normal" life chock full of the status quo - symbolically speaking. Ruth is struggling to balance her ideas of the "normal" life and grid life and still being true to herself. She is trying to balance the objective truths (facts, stats, analysis, strategies, targets) in her life with her own individual (frankly quite tragic) subjective life experience that have shaped who she is. And if this sounds like an existential crisis, I think it is.

Harry would do anything for her but the only one that can make Ruth happy is Ruth. Just like Harry had to come to terms with his existential crisis on his own, so does she. All he can do for her is to get in her face and let her know that he is there. Just like she did for him.

A man who as a physical being is always turned toward the outside, thinking that his happiness lies outside him, finally turns inward and discovers that the source is within him.

Face the facts of being what you are, for that is what changes what you are.

You guessed it - Kierkegaard!

I will try to control myself - I really dig existentialism!