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How Could MacNeil marry Christie when he's already married?


I've not seen the television show, just the initial film and the three ones after the show ended. I learned that the show depicted a wife named Margaret of Neil's. How did they marry in the final movie? Did Margaret die or were they divorced?

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I am almost sure that she dies. She was very sick at one point in the show, but they never say. I am about to read the book, maybe it says it in there. I will get back to you.

Tango with me Alan

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If you watch the movies, during a storm, David and Dr. Ferrand, find shelter in a cave. They talk about their first meetings with Christy and Alice. Dr. Ferrand said he met Alice at a hospital, she was reading the scriptures to patients who were victims of Turbuculous. Then he said that it claimed her own daughter. So, it was going by the series, not the book, in which she died in child birth. So, either way, Margaret is dead. So there is nothing stopping Neil and Christy from marrying.

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In the book she dies. In the t.v series they think she's dead, but she just ran off, then she comes back and he goes back to being with her until she leaves him.

~It is very rare that a person is taken for what they truly are.~

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Spoilers below...










In the book, Margaret never comes back, she really died. The TV series doesn't follow the book in this respect; she was thought to be dead but it turns out she just faked it, and comes back. The series ends in a cliffhanger, Neil still married to Margaret, who wants to come back to him. The Pax movies follow the book version, not the TV version: Margaret was dead, never came back.

Anyway, that's to the best of my recollection. I haven't seen the movies in a while, I like the TV series much better (except for the Margaret-still-alive fact) :D

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the book is so good until the end. it leaves you hangin' with no sequel whatsoever! Don't rely on it for information. :-(

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In the book Margaret is not ever mentioned, she's not Miss Alice's daughter in the book.

Also, in the actual story, there was never a Dr. Macneil. What Catherine Marshall did was she took several people and wove them into one character, then named that character someone from her mom's memory there. There was never a Dr. Macneil. She married the preacher, and they lived there for about 7 more years.

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She is mentioned, and was indeed married to Dr. MacNeil (in the book). The very end of Chapter 33 "Thee must know, Christy. My daughter Margaret Seebohn Henderson-became Dr. MacNeil's wife."

Well, we can't all come and go by bubble.

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Well, it has been years since I read the book. She certainly was not a character as important as she was in the series, but she did make things interesting. In reality, she did not exist. The book is very much fictionalized in parts. The doctor is one of those parts. The character of Bird's Eye is actually several people that Leonora met while teaching there.

If you would like to know more of what actually happened, you need to travel to Del Rio, Tennessee where this all actually happened. Fairlight's grandson still lives there, and loves to have people visit.

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although there is not a sequel to the orginal book. I personally think that catherine marshall made it quite clear who Christy was ment for. In the final chapter she did write that someone "loved her like that" and that person was Neil MacNeil...

Gotta Love
Dr. MacNeil..

Also watch the miniseries.. I loved it...

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Actually in the new like Anniversary Edition of the book, it is said that the Story of Christy is based off of the story of Catherine Marshall's parents. (In the back...) It also states that Christy (Catherine's Mother) married the preacher. (I know, I hate it too...seriously...) I do think that Catherine when she wrote the book she liked Neil more than David so she left the end opened for personal opinion.

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I think it is pretty obvious that Christy marries Neil in the book
If you remember when she was asleep at the end and talked about the children and their joy and laughter being all she wanted and something or someone pulling her back (Neil)and his prayer to God begging for Christy' life
The very last line states that "The joy of the children was in his voice" - I think that clearly states they end up together.

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I've read the book several times so I know what you're referring to. LOL, I think it's clear as mud if you ask me. ;) I am just going by what the Collector's Edition of Christy stated. It was an interview with Catherine Marshall...so if you have any qualms with what was said, take it up with her.

I'm not a bleeder, I'm a Hot Toddy.

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Ha! Bonus points, for correcting something with a reference straight from the book, and having a "Wicked" reference in your signature!

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The series ended just after Margaret returned to Neil. The movies did not pick up after the series. However, in the movie, when Dr. Ferrand is explaining to David about how he fell in love with Miss Alice he says that she was reading to children with TB, an illness that would claim her own daughter. So Margaret died of TB.

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In real life Lenora Whitakers (Christy) married John A. Wood (David Grantland), I never understood why they strayed from this point in the series. If she had not married him we would not have had the book that Catherine Marshall based her parents life on.

http://hometown.aol.com/atsissie2/page2/index.

"It isn't what faith you practice, but how you practice your faith." - A.C.Y.

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While I have not watched all of the movies and miniseries, I have read the book multiple times, and the book differs from the movie(s) in many ways. I think one of the main ways is Margaret McNeil. (Spoilers from the book below)

In the book Neil and Margaret get married when they were both young and selfish. Their marriage got off to a rocky start after the honeymoon phase but was improving. Then Margaret became pregnant and but sadly died shortly after giving birth to the child, who also died. She never left the doctor and returned, and when the doctor met Christy he was a widower.
Also, and I've said this before, Christy is based on Catherine Marshall's (the author) mother, Leonora. However I believe Leonora, who married the preacher, inspired Christy, but wasn't necessarily Christy. Christy is a fictional girl who (at least I believe) marries a fictional doctor. The very real Leonora married the preacher. They don't have to BE each other.

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You hit it right on the head, jewelz. Christy is a fictional character "based" on Catherine Marshall's mother's experiences. Being fictional it can be anything it wants to be. The story of the young girl coming to the back woods and maturing there is the main storyline....since it isn't a documentary.

Mary

"Believe in the magic of your dreams"

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To answer the original posters question: in the TV series of Christy, Margaret had faked her own death, leaving Dr MacNeil devastated by her death, only to return years later. When she returned, it was discovered that she had Tuberculosis I believe. She was sent away for treatment, got better, and then returned in the final episode of the series to win back her husband. We are never told what happens from that point. One can speculate that perhaps she was not as well as believed, had a relapse and died later. It could also be that had the series been given another season then she may have remained as Neil's wife only to die in the outbreak that kills Fairlight, leaving the door open for Christy and Neil. Also, divorce was an option in those days, Extremely rare but one can argue that her abandonment of the marriage easily gave Neil grounds to pursue this option should they decide to go this way.

In the movies I believe that they follow more closely to the book and therefore Margaret had indeed died, in childbirth I believe.

As for who Christy chose, in the TV series, no clue. In the movies, Neil obviously. In the book, the interpretation is that she chose Neil. There is no actual sentence stating, "And then Christy and Neil hooked up. The End", however the way the last paragraph is written certainly gives the reader the impression that Christy and Neil will pursue a courtship that will most likely result in their marriage.

In real life, yes, the woman that Christy is based on married the preacher. Why Catherine decided to have her fictional version hook up with the doctor I do not know but one can surmise that she simply liked the character. It could be that fictional preacher and fictional Christy were actually nothing like their real life counterparts in terms of personality and therefore fictional Christy and fictional Neil made more sense. It is simply the events in the book that are based on real life experiences.

Keeper of Josef's sarcastic wit, tar pits, suits & "It is so On!"

Wanted: Job as Josef's suit

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Oh for God's sake. Has no one read the book? Margaret was already dead when Christy came to Cutter Gap. She and her unborn baby died of typhoid fever.

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I own (and therefore have read) the book, along with the two TV/movie trilogy series on DVD; both of which I have viewed many times. Therefore I'm very familiar with the storylines presented within each; and how some of the interconnected elements differ.

The point is, the OP is not discussing the book, but rather the TV series and movies *alone* as they presented the plot arc involving Margaret. The book and the movies are not complementary to one another on this point. So it's not just a matter of the movies leaving out or "skipping over" extra detail contained in the book (that would normally be explanatory); but rather contradicting it outright.

The mainstream producers of the TV series obviously wished to modernize the story and heighten the drama/conflict present in the original; so they decided to bring Margaret (complete with all her spiritual/moral rebelliousness and other personality quirks) back from the "dead" by having faked her own death. While I understand that part of it from a stylistic or technical standpoint, in doing so it seems that (being Hollywood, most likely) they did not adequately take into consideration the morés and motivations operating within a dedicated conservative Christian missionary community during the early twentieth century; and how this made some of the characters behave/react in conflicting (and sometimes confusing) ways.

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