An entry to respond to comments...
Apr. 26th, 2012 12:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
chaniThis is super annoying...LJ is misbehaving again, so I can't leave comments on my own entries to respond to comments that my friends left! The "send" button is frozen, just like it was months ago when they changed the LJ look.
Anyways, abput the mysterious womenfragrantwoods said "I think the subterfuge you speak of with Jack,Mary and Josianne is as close to making sense as I could ever get. (I wrote about that very thing last year). I think Mary was an old friend who was content to marry as a beard for Jack and had mentally built up expectations for that."
Except that it seems the other way around when you listen to what the Countess replies to Claudia. Mary actually seems to be, the secret in Jack's life, not the beard, yet the actors weren't fooled and recognized "his connection to the one who left". Also, Josiane becomes "her replacement in the theater" according to Claudia. Apparently it makes no sense at all, if Mary was a secret...she wasn't in the troupe! The whole thing is so coded and cryptic that it simply HAS to be meta.
Now about Alma being the mother, kick_galvanic said that Alma doesn't represent motherhood and fragrantwoods said "I need to think about this more, but I'm not sure that Alma fits into an archetypal "mother" roll. Martha does more nurturing things with Sofia, showing he how to bake, and Jane and Charlie sing her to sleep, Ellsworth does so much parenting...and Alma runs the bank, negotiates with Hearst, steps outside society's mores to have an affair and to use narcotics (I think her later drug use via Leon was a step beyond accepted lady's laudanum). Her interaction with Sofia tends to be these big discussions that puts Sofia in the position of being Alma's own Indian head.She's more of a prop, a possession, maybe a beloved niece, that a real child to Alma. "
Whatfragrantwoods says about Alma is true, espcially how Sofia is her very own Indian head (now I picture Al brushing the chief's hair during one of his diatribes!). Mrs Garret wasn't the embodiement of motherhood, it was obvious that she didn't have nurturing qualities and other potential mothers for Sofia seemed a better fit in the early days: Jane and Trixie. But because of their lifestyles they couldn't be Sofia's mother (and Jane failed at protecting Sofia against Al). I totally agree with both of you.
I think Alma isn't a "natural mother", and yet her role in Deadwood, her mere function ended being precisely that. She was no longer a spouse, no longer a lover, and with Hearst's victory she lost the basis that made her the "bank lady". Sometimes it isn't much about what people truly are but about the role they play in the big theatre that is life, and they become that role eventually. Especially women in the old West. Trixie learnt that lesson, she thought that her role was to be the whore, period; she was used to it, and she was reluctant to be a lover...but she seemed to be a kind of missus to Sol Star eventually. When they shared that last embrace in tears, or walked the street as a couple under Seth's gaze, it looked like Trixie had finally accepted her new role and quit pretending to be a whore. Same with Jane who thinks that her role is to be a miserable drunk and mourn Wild Bill.
I think that from season 1 Alma has struggled against her "destiny", the role society had cast her into, ie to be a wife and a mother; she even voiced it when she was about to marry Ellsworth because of her pregnancy (that wonderful monologue in the thouroughfare when she said "I am afraid. I am so afraid that my life is living me and that it will soon be over and that not a moment of it will be my own"), and yet when she had to choose between eloping with the man she loved and her ward, she decided to stay, and when she had to choose between leaving to keep her mine and Sofia's wish to "see Mr Ellsworth", she decided not to leave again, she accepted to lose something, sold her property to Hearst and stay...for Sofia.
When Alma went into panick mode after seeing Ellsworth's body, all that she was repeating was "I want my child". I don't think the season 1 Alma would have said those words.
Alma made mother's choices and, despite her flaws, I think that she really became Sofia's mother eventually, even though she isn't necessarily an ideal mother.
I have so many thoughts in my head about the show (and the finale) that want out, but I have to work at the library today.
If you want us to discuss this more, let's do it on your own journals, gals, or here on dreamwidth!
Fuck LJ! I'm having a Jewel moment, as Al would say...every post an adventure!
Anyways, abput the mysterious women
fragrantwoods said "I think the subterfuge you speak of with Jack,Mary and Josianne is as close to making sense as I could ever get. (I wrote about that very thing last year). I think Mary was an old friend who was content to marry as a beard for Jack and had mentally built up expectations for that."Except that it seems the other way around when you listen to what the Countess replies to Claudia. Mary actually seems to be, the secret in Jack's life, not the beard, yet the actors weren't fooled and recognized "his connection to the one who left". Also, Josiane becomes "her replacement in the theater" according to Claudia. Apparently it makes no sense at all, if Mary was a secret...she wasn't in the troupe! The whole thing is so coded and cryptic that it simply HAS to be meta.
Now about Alma being the mother, kick_galvanic said that Alma doesn't represent motherhood and fragrantwoods said "I need to think about this more, but I'm not sure that Alma fits into an archetypal "mother" roll. Martha does more nurturing things with Sofia, showing he how to bake, and Jane and Charlie sing her to sleep, Ellsworth does so much parenting...and Alma runs the bank, negotiates with Hearst, steps outside society's mores to have an affair and to use narcotics (I think her later drug use via Leon was a step beyond accepted lady's laudanum). Her interaction with Sofia tends to be these big discussions that puts Sofia in the position of being Alma's own Indian head.She's more of a prop, a possession, maybe a beloved niece, that a real child to Alma. "
What
fragrantwoods says about Alma is true, espcially how Sofia is her very own Indian head (now I picture Al brushing the chief's hair during one of his diatribes!). Mrs Garret wasn't the embodiement of motherhood, it was obvious that she didn't have nurturing qualities and other potential mothers for Sofia seemed a better fit in the early days: Jane and Trixie. But because of their lifestyles they couldn't be Sofia's mother (and Jane failed at protecting Sofia against Al). I totally agree with both of you.I think Alma isn't a "natural mother", and yet her role in Deadwood, her mere function ended being precisely that. She was no longer a spouse, no longer a lover, and with Hearst's victory she lost the basis that made her the "bank lady". Sometimes it isn't much about what people truly are but about the role they play in the big theatre that is life, and they become that role eventually. Especially women in the old West. Trixie learnt that lesson, she thought that her role was to be the whore, period; she was used to it, and she was reluctant to be a lover...but she seemed to be a kind of missus to Sol Star eventually. When they shared that last embrace in tears, or walked the street as a couple under Seth's gaze, it looked like Trixie had finally accepted her new role and quit pretending to be a whore. Same with Jane who thinks that her role is to be a miserable drunk and mourn Wild Bill.
I think that from season 1 Alma has struggled against her "destiny", the role society had cast her into, ie to be a wife and a mother; she even voiced it when she was about to marry Ellsworth because of her pregnancy (that wonderful monologue in the thouroughfare when she said "I am afraid. I am so afraid that my life is living me and that it will soon be over and that not a moment of it will be my own"), and yet when she had to choose between eloping with the man she loved and her ward, she decided to stay, and when she had to choose between leaving to keep her mine and Sofia's wish to "see Mr Ellsworth", she decided not to leave again, she accepted to lose something, sold her property to Hearst and stay...for Sofia.
When Alma went into panick mode after seeing Ellsworth's body, all that she was repeating was "I want my child". I don't think the season 1 Alma would have said those words.
Alma made mother's choices and, despite her flaws, I think that she really became Sofia's mother eventually, even though she isn't necessarily an ideal mother.
I have so many thoughts in my head about the show (and the finale) that want out, but I have to work at the library today.
If you want us to discuss this more, let's do it on your own journals, gals, or here on dreamwidth!
Fuck LJ! I'm having a Jewel moment, as Al would say...every post an adventure!