TRAGIC HEROINES

Videos I’ve been watching on Youtube: Edith Wharton’s House of Mirth and Henry James’ Washington Square. Really you have to admire Wharton’s Lily Bart for not marrying a man she doesn’t love just to have a meal ticket and not ruining the man she loves or his former mistress to redeem herself socially. Even though she does end up a junkie.

Seeing Jennifer Jason Leigh as James’ Catherine Sloper is a far cry from Fast Times at Ridgemont High. Ben Chaplin is hot, but doesn’t come across as the fortune-hunter he’s supposed to be. At the end, even though Catherine has sent him away, she tells her dying father she can’t promise she won’t marry him. Been there, done that.

The only one missing is Marjorie Morningstar, who thinks of defying cultural and religious traditions to pursue a career in the arts. In the movie version she ends up with a failed career and no husband. You’d think if her career failed she would at least end up with a hot guy, although Martin Milner, who plays Wally Wronkin, is kind of cute.

Maybe we could add La Traviata, the courtesan whose “nightly revels” result in her death. When I was in high school Mom and I were watching it on TV. Towards the end Mom said “it’s gonna take half an hour for her to kick off. I’m going to bed.”