Moral Occult

Tayler Dooley                                                                                                                                 2/12/15

Moral Occult 

            When one begins to analyze the melodramatic genre, staple characteristics begin to emerge.  It seems at the heart of every Melodrama lies a power struggle between right and wrong, and/or good and evil. The protagonist is often thrust into an emotionally charged conflict that can only be resolved with a sound moral compass and wholesome values.  It is this underlying sense of morality that characterizes something called “the moral occult.” As defined by Peter Brooks, the moral occult is, “The domain of operative spiritual values which is both indicated within and masked by surface of reality” (Brooks, 5). The moral occult is comparable to one’s conscience; the devil and the angel sitting on their shoulder helping them determine what’s right and wrong. What is interesting about the moral occult is how it further enhances the melodramatic mode of expression.  A key feature of the melodrama involves characters putting everything out in the open regarding emotions and feelings. Because of this, the audience is well aware of each character’s sense of morality and what they view as right and wrong. So the moral occult essentially enhances the melodrama by enabling the characters to display their inner morality by utilizing expressive emotional mode.

            The film All That Heaven Allows is full of great scenes that demonstrate melodrama as a mode of emotional expression through moral occult. In one of the pivotal scenes of the movie, Cary and her son Ned are having a heated discussion about Cary’s recent engagement to Ron. Ned has made it very clear that he does not approve of the engagement. He feels that Ron is below Cary’s class status and is an awful way of preserving his late father’s memory. Ned has a moral obligation to family and honor. Cary on the other hand loves Ron, the two of them are very happy together. As much as she to values her late husbands memory, she is at a point in her life where she is ready to move on. The two of them clearly have conflicting moral obligations. The entire scene is packed with emotion, as Cary and Ned making their feelings clear to one another.

Reflections on All That Heaven Allows

Reflections on All That Heaven Allows

Tayler Dooley

Earlier in the week I had the pleasure of watching a classic melodrama, All That Heaven Allows. The Film is about a widowed mother named Cary who falls in love with a younger man that is viewed by her friends and children as below her class level. She is now forced to choose between her lonely high society life and the new life her and her lover Ron desire to start together.

What I found most interesting about this movie was the symbolism displayed throughout. Symbols of class differences, and life style variances were presented many times over the course of the film, which helped enhance the plot. Early on in the film, the viewer gets a since that Cary and her family are one of privilege. Her children are well educated; Cary essentially lives in a sizable home by herself, and in the first scene of the film they are going to a country club event. Ron on the other hand evidently does not lead a privileged lifestyle. He owns his own tree farm out in the country and does gardening on the side for the town’s elite, including Cary. In fact, that’s how the two met in the first place Ron was trimming her trees. Ron’s home is nothing special, he basically lives in a greenhouse with an old mill that he is renovating.

Cary and Ron live very different lives from one another. Ron’s life is on lacking of material possessions; he enjoys open space and freedom, which is evident by the location and decor of his house. Cary on the other hand lives a life full of status and material possessions. Her house is right in the center of town and it is full of clutter and furniture. She also feels that she has a responsibility to her deceased husband and children to keep up appearances with other members of the town.

Despite their drastically different life styles and social strata, Ron and Cary are able to work through these issues and come together at the end of the movie. The message here is that if you truly love someone, you may need to disregard your previous afflictions. It doesn’t matter what others think or say, personal happiness is all that matters.