MovieChat Forums > The Paper Chase (1973) Discussion > What do you think Hart's final action me...

What do you think Hart's final action meant?


My take -- despite being obsessed with mastering the law (especially Contract Law) all year, by the end, he was no longer concerned with his technical grade.

The reason for this? Probably because he realized by then that he had in fact mastered his first year courses, and understood all the subject matter very well. Making his technical grades irrelevant. He knew he had learned, and learned well, and took pride in that regardless of external validation (or lack thereof).

The fact we see he earned an A on the exam lends support/justification for his confidence in his achievement. (We knew it was validated, even though he didn't see it.)

Part of the reason he no longer cared about the external validation is because Kingsfield pretended(?) not to know him at all in the elevator. Despite the fact they had had several noteworthy interactions. And this is probably why Kingsfield pretended not to know him. He wanted Hart to focus on his actual learning of the material, and what that meant. Not their relationship.

So - it's not that Hart no longer cared about the law, or the achievement that mastering the subject matter represented. It's just that he realized he had learned the material so well he could take pride in that for its own sake, and not worry about how anyone else rated it.

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Yeah, that's a nice idea, but it in no way reflects the reality studying law. In Law School your grades are what get you a job, they are essentially part of the job application process, be it for articling or otherwise. How you feel about your understanding of the law means absolutely nothing. They even say this at the start of the movie.

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