MovieChat Forums > Meet Me in St. Louis Discussion > Seems the Mother leads the rebellion

Seems the Mother leads the rebellion

posted 12 years ago by gerrywos
5 replies | jump to latest

Just watching it now and the scene where the father tells them they have to move to New York is on.from reading a few threads on this board people seem to think the old man gave into the youngest kid.But the two youngest originally seem to be ok with the idea,it is the mother that scolds them for being so accepting of the idea
The mother gets a bit hysterical and riles up the rest into opposition of the fathers plan.
Now I doubt this would have happened in those days,A wife had to do what her husband told her (quite rightly).

[–] kaskait 12 years ago

Yes, I noticed that it was the mother that started the ball rolling and getting everyone else involved in a mass nervous breakdown. It was all very passive aggressive. Since the father was so controlling as something as little as what time the family had dinner, I'm not surprised she ruined his chances for a big promotion. There were other problems we weren't privy too, obviously.

[–] dmnemaine 8 years ago

She didn't ruin anything. She agreed to go to NY. Mr. Smith changed his mind all on his own. It was pretty clear that he really didn't want to leave St. Louis any more than anyone else did. He just needed a pretext to decide to stay. That pretext was Tootie's outburst.

[–] kaskait 8 years ago

Yeah, she agreed to go after getting the whole family on the nervous breakdown bus. Which culminated in the youngest flipping her wig and creating a scene on the family front lawn.

He wanted to leave St. Louis. He was excited about it? Who wouldn't want a promotion and be sent to the head office in the biggest city of the age? In reality, he did take the promotion and the family moved.

[–] Forlorn_Rage 7 years ago

It wasn't just Mrs. Smith. Rose and Esther were very upset as well. As spoiled as they all are (especially Tootie), it would've been very difficult to start all over in a new city after spending your entire life in one city and being on the verge of graduating.

Tootie and Agnes would've been fine since they're young enough to start over and still make many friends and social connections in New York well into their teenage years.

[–] dmnemaine 8 years ago

Why do you think it's "right" that a wife has to do what her husband tells her? Husband and wife are both adult humans. They're both capable of making adult decisions. There's absolutely no reason why decision-making should not be based on mutual consent. There is no reason why either marriage partner should by fiat have to do what the other says. That's sexist nonsense.