I only saw this movie once and that was a couple of years ago and I thought it was a great movie. I really enjoyed reading the other messages and it has me thinking I need to see this movie again. When Booth's character keeps calling for her little dog, I kept thinking that the dog was dead, not that it was lost or that it had ran away.
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Over thinking it folks....! Yes, Sheba existed. If not, it becomes a different story that William Inge didn't fulfill in the rest of it. Sheba was a cute little dog that no doubt ran away, and is probably dead. Surely you've experienced something similar with a pet? Yes, Sheba represents the emptiness in their lives and the happiness they've lost.... but she existed, this is William Inge's Come Back, Little Sheba... not Albee's Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.
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No, No, No! Sheba was Lola's little dog. Doc secretly had to put her to sleep, but told Lola that it had run away. This, to spare Lola's feelings and to give her hope that someday Sheba would return home.
shareTo David-Anderson-4: I don't see where there's any indication that Doc had Sheba put to sleep...ther's no dialog suggesting this, but it is strongly hinted that the dog "ran away"...was just wondering where you got this idea...
"I'm using the chicken to measure it!"
When they are lying in bed Doc does tell Lola something like "its sad Sheeba had to get old, somethings should never grow old".
shareRight, so therefore, Little Sheeba represents the threesome of Lola and Doc's marriage, their daughter who didn't survive infancy, and the little doggie who ran away, whose name actually is Little Sheeba.
Little Sheeba, therefore, becomes the personification of lost happiness, lost baby, and poor little lost doggie.
She's in Metaphorland, you buffoon! Do you honestly not see the parallel between Lola's longing for her lost dog and her yearning for her lost youth when she was pretty & attractive to men, and life was full of promise? Did you sleep through your English classes (that's another device, a rhetorical question)?
share"She's in Metaphorland, you buffoon!"
No, she's in Symbol City. Sheba is a symbol, not a metaphor.
It's straight to Remedial English for you!
Technically, a symbol implies a metaphorical relationship, so you're both right. ;)
As I understand it, symbols are generally used when you have ample time to explain a relationship between two unlike things (i.e. a play). Metaphors are more often found when you need to draw a direct parallel between two unlike things in a quicker fashion.
There are, of course, exceptions: (see the winking smile SYMBOLIZING a joke or gentle tease, but that's a universal symbol)
scully_girl
Why would a lost dog be a symbol of a woman's lost youth?
Get me a bromide! And put some gin in it!
I think that Sheba represented the baby (a daughter?) that died. (The reason Doc and Lola had to marry)
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I love this movie, albeit its cliches, because it just touches my heart. I think Sheba was a pet they had that was lost, but the loss wasn't recent.
How ironic that Lola, the celebrated high school beauty, got pregnant by Doc, the medical student, who had to marry her and give up his dream of becoming a doctor. He turns to booze and she loses interest in their home, herself, and looking at her, one wonders how beautiful must she have been - to be the slattern we see on the screen.
I think that Doc's drinking was because he felt guilty about his blaming of her - not out loud to her - but implied definitely to her.
She really has no friends, and while she loves him, she too lost much when they had to marry, because the impression I get is that her father has disowned her. So when Doc goes on a bender, she has nowhere to run.
And yet, he sometimes still sees his beautiful Lola as she was. The pathos is so much there that you can almost touch it.
And she knows his habits well, and in a way, she is living vicariously through their young tenant, who could also be symbolic of their miscarried child, because I think their child would have been about 20-ish or so.
The characters of Lola and Doc look older than they are supposed to be, I think - Lancaster almost looks too young in this movie because I think they're 40-ish.
Lola makes little attempts to please Doc, and it is after his last bender, that he realizes what she means to him. In a way he had a crush on their tenant but I think that he saw Lola in that young girl.
His explosion when he lashed out and actually said that everything was Lola's fault seemed to take the fight out of him. I think that when he came back from the hospital and saw what she had done to the kitchen, and how she looked nicer and more composed and neater, and he realized that they did love each other.
The dog is the key to them. Lola's sad dream is in reality a symbol or nudge to her that life still must go on, and that we incur loss along our way, but we have to move forward.
I think that when Lola tells Doc that she realizes Little Sheba isn't coming back, and he agrees with her, they are both able now to move forward. I think the ending is a hopeful one - because they both now are facing reality.
English/History MA: Symbolism rules. "Loyaulte me lie...Richard III