they killed the widow because she caused the young guy to kill himself?? thats so shameful and ridiculous. the people there have no morals and are just plain sick if they are gonna do that to a person.
so the madame died from what?? a mysterious illness?
what was zorba trying to do with the trees and the wood at the end when the crowd gathered?? i never quite got his plans...
they killed the widow because she caused the young guy to kill himself?? thats so shameful and ridiculous. the people there have no morals and are just plain sick if they are gonna do that to a person.
what was zorba trying to do with the trees and the wood at the end when the crowd gathered?? i never quite got his plans...
I think that the old woman died of pneumonia or something like that from being out in the rain. They were trying to get the timber down the mountain on the wires to use them in the mine. I'm also confused about why they killed the widow.
shareThat makes sense with the logs now, I was a bit confused on that one too. They killed the widow because the blonde man's son killed himself seeing her with another man and in their rage, both for this and in the fact that they ALL wanted her and couldn't have her (as Zorba said earlier), they pointed the blame towards her and basically couldn't stand having her around anymore.
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The killing of the widow played by Irene Pappas is an honor killing, but done in a way to show how the honor system is often abused in societies where it exists, becoming a way to simply off people (especially vulnerable women) because of personal grudges and sexism.
Being a mediterranean rural society, there would logically be a tabu against an unattached woman being sexually active, especially with a foreigner. She can then be blamed for the death of the young local man she had rejected. Being a widow she is already carrying around the stigma of having survived her husband, plus every man in the town seems to desire her but she has turned them all away. Then you add the jealousy of the other women in the town, and she easily becomes a sacrificial victim on the "altar" of the town's honor.
And yes, Alan Bates is supposed to look wimpy for not defending her and not suffering very much at her loss. It shows how he does not fit in there, never will, and every attempt he makes ends in disaster.
The point of the trees and wood was that Zorba is utterly useless in accomplishing a practical task. He is supposed to work the mine to make some money and, since the mine is in bad shape and he needs to buttress it with more wood, which is only found up the mountain, he hits upon the scheme of bringing it down the mountain, then spends the rest of the film trying to accomplish that task. When his plan proves a failure, then his work on the mine has been for nothing. Evidently it takes all of this to break through the Englishman's reserve and get him to actually laugh and enjoy himself the Greek way - look at total disaster in the face and laugh then dance it off.
shareThey wanted the young guy to kill himself to have an excuse for murdering her.
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