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What's the significance of her crocheting?


She is working on that lace coverlet all through the movie. What's the significance of it?

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A few topics down from this one (re: Full Moon), a post by Linda-Hardwick offers a great explanation.

***Spoiler****

"Regarding the crocheting, my theory is that it symoblizes the web of lies she has been weaving (or crocheting) over time. At the beginning of the film the piece of lace, which would have been from the time before the murder, is rather small. By the time she gets out of prison, and after her amazing depiction of her attempted rape, the lies about the letter, and the attempt to buy it with her husbands life savings, the piece of lace has become enormous...at the end we see her leave the party and go in to the bedroom, where she attempts to crochet -- something she has been doing as long as we've known her. However, this time she realizes that she can't do it (anymore?), and she throws the lace down. A moment later, she attempts to lie to her husband, telling him she loves him...I think the throwing down of the lace is a metaphor for her throwing down her life of deceit."

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Excellent analysis.

"I don't use a pen: I write with a goose quill dipped in venom!"---W. Lydecker

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[deleted]

That's a great analysis.

Thanks!

X

www.X-Evolutionist.com
Reasons why I believe in God

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The lace is symbolic of the web of lies she weaves throughout the movie. As you may remember, in one of the last scenes of the film, during the party to celebrate her acquittal, she retreats into a bedroom to do more crocheting. However, her emotions well up and she casts the lace aside, never to be picked up again. To me this is a foreshadowing of the next scene, when her husband asks if she loves him. She tries to lie, but finally confesses that, "with all my heart, I still love the man I killed!" She can't crochet anymore, and she can't lie anymore, either.

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Thank you!

X

www.X-Evolutionist.com
Reasons why I believe in God

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Sir Walter Scott said, "What a tangled web we weave when first we practice to deceive." She is literally "weaving a web" of lies that grows and grows.

Don't miss the lace she wears over her head when she visits the wife of her lover. The wife orders her to remove it.

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[deleted]

[deleted]

According to Wiki, the actress wanted the wife to be more considerate regarding her lack of love for her hubby. Unfortunately, the library DVD malfunctioned during that scene, but I read about it. Bette did want to face the actor during that scene.

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It alwo becomes her death shroud.



Swing away, Merrill....Merrill, swing away...

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Ahem - she's just pretending to crochet. But she does a good job of turning it into a nervous gesture! Tip: always watch Bette's hands. Remember the scene where she's lying on the couch in the prison hospital. We see her from the back and can only see one extended arm.

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My wife says whatever she was doing, it wasn't crocheting.

E pluribus unum

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It's hard to tell what kind of needlework she is doing in The Letter. However, just for conversation sake, I searched and found an image of Bette Davis doing needlework. I had to zoom in really close, but it looks like she is knitting to me. She might have known how to crochet and tat, also. So, who knows.

http://media.gettyimages.com/photos/between-appearances-ann-sheridan-left-and-bette-davis-industriously-picture-id514912542

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I just found this image of Bette Davis crocheting, so she was multi-talented in needlework. I can't find a video of any of those scenes in The Letter to tell for sure what she was doing in that particular movie:

https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/564x/0c/8f/49/0c8f49ef573bd320e67adb30189f66a6.jpg

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