MovieChat Forums > Holiday (1938) Discussion > Linda and the Engagement Party

Linda and the Engagement Party

posted 8 years ago by yunie1281
4 replies | jump to latest

I can understand why Linda was upset that Julia said she could throw her an engagement party and then changed her mind (but to be fair, Julia didn't seem to realize that Linda felt really strongly about it and it was more than just one of her apparently endless whims) but it's Julia's wedding. She's the one getting married and Linda kept insisting and practically forced Julia to agree to let her throw the party even though she knows her idea of a good time and Julia's are very different? Then she won't come down to her own sister's engagement party because she's pissy she didn't get to throw it? It's not about her. And it's not like the party was put together in one day anyway. She had time to get over it.

She was just so immature and badly behaved in this matter and it made her more unsympathetic than the romantic heroine should be, especially since the narrative seems to agree with her.

If it were Linda's engagement party and her family took her quiet little party and made it a social climbing shindig that would be different but it's not. It would be one thing if Julia had asked Linda to throw the party and then took it back but that didn't happen either. It's Julia's engagement party and she has a right to whatever kind of party she wants.

And her avoiding the party wasn't just being childish. She was actively spoiling the party for her sister, the one the party was about. But no, the movie thinks Linda is being warm and human and better by this petulance. Instead of talking Julia up to Johnny's parents, she should be at the freaking party!

[–] mojo2004 8 years ago

The couple with Johnny were his best friends not his parents. You say Linda was immature but it was Johnny's engagement party also and his fiancée did nothing to make his only guests at the party welcome. But Linda did. She asked her sister to promise her it would be her party for them both. The big party was nothing but the same stuck-up people that the entire time talked about Linda. Which she knew they were doing. No one missed her. No one had a kind word for her. then she finds out her own sister was not the person Linda thought she was. If anything Susan was the immature one.

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[–] yunie1281 8 years ago

Alright, maybe it was his friends not his parents. It doesn't really change my issue with how Linda behaved at the party.

It was also Johnny's party but Johnny didn't seem to care one way or the other about the party (only about the bigger issue of the job and future life. I'm not pretending Julia and Johnny were going to work as a couple without one of them being very unhappy) and either way it being Johnny's party doesn't make it any more Linda's party. His fiancé didn't leave all her guests to go hunt down the only two people he felt like inviting but I'm not really sure what she should have done. She was the hostess (and worrying about Linda just refusing to leave her room like a child) and she greeted his friends and couldn't stay at their side all night the way a non-host like Linda could have. The issue isn't Linda spending time with them, that was good. Just at the actual party, not hiding away in her old playroom.

Linda asked Julia to promise the party would be thrown by Linda and it would be the kind of thing Linda liked instead of what Julia liked. Which Julia did promise and then didn't really talk to Linda about changing it which she should have but I don't think Linda would have let it drop if Julia said she didn't want her to throw it but instead wanted the kind of stuck-up party she liked and that there's nothing wrong with her liking. She wasn't able to let it go weeks later to attend her sister's engagement party when she was so supportive of their relationship.

Lots of people missed her. Maybe not in a "oh we love you so much and want you to celebrate with us" way but it was scandalous she wasn't there. People were asking Julia about it and Julia had to take time out from her special day to fret about where Linda was. And even if no one but Julia noticed or cared that she didn't show up, it was her sister's party and it's not about whether anyone else knows that Linda refused to show up for Julia's party. It was Julia's party and Linda should have been there.

It's overstating a bit to say she found out her own sister wasn't who she thought she was. Julia never pretended to be anything other than what she was. She might have been snobby but she wasn't a bad person. Linda was the "love conquers all" kind of person and she was in love with Jonny herself so she doubly couldn't understand why Julia wasn't going to sacrifice everything to be with Johnny like she would have done. Julia wasn't very sentimental or romantic but that's not immaturity.

And it's not like the behavior of one sister means anything for the behavior of another. Whether Julia was being immature or not doesn't say anything about how Linda was behaving.

[–] novastar_6 8 years ago

Julia wasn't very sentimental or romantic but that's not immaturity.

No but 'if you want to marry me you better give up all your dreams and ambitions because even though my family has more money than Satan you are of no use to me unless you waste the best years of your life making more money' IS.

[–] yunie1281 8 years ago

Only if you want to make Johnny equally immature. There problem wasn't one of maturity. It was an issue of him wanting to live modestly and have his dream career and not being willing to compromise on that ultimately (he tried a few times but ultimately couldn't go through with it). She had her token "try it and if it doesn't work out do what you want" but she never intended for him to really take her up on that and fully expected he'd love the job once he gave it a chance. And she might have been right, we don't know, because he couldn't bring himself to even try.

That's just a fundamental incompatibility. He was clearly much better off with someone like Linda. But Julia caring about money and status and respectability instead of the things Johnny cared about isn't immaturity either.