why?
Why did everyone hate Amy Foster and treat her so badly- I don't understand....
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Well, her mother hated her for ruining her life. Her father hated her ... I don't know, because her mother hated her? Because he knew she wasn't his?
The town hated her because she was "weird", and possibly a witch.
Yeah, this was a lame movie.
“I always tell the truth…even when I lie” - Scarface
I haven't read Joseph Conrad's story, but from the film adaptation, I would respond that the villagers hated Amy for being different. Amy did not conform to the village's expectations. She refused to interact with them, to the point of often refusing to speak to them. In a small, rural society like Amy's village, there is a very heavy price to pay for non-conformance--the shunning you saw in the film. This story is nearly as old as the hills.
shareHer parents hated her because she "ruined" their lives- the town knew she was conceived before they were married. The town folk disapproved of this, so gave the parents a hard time. The parents in turn resented Amy for that, so they treated her badly. There is a scene in the movie when Amy's mother says to Amy and a room full of others that she will protect her husband no more. She goes on to say that Amy's father was actually her husband's father- implying she had been raped while working for them. When Amy didn't cry over this the mother says she was conceived bad, and was born bad. Amy has a strong character- to not be broken by all the critisim and cruelty she just stops speaking to them. She says I eat with them, I work with them (something to that effect) but I don't live with them. Thats when she takes him to her cave, and tells him she lives there
shareNot only is Amy's father really her supposed father's father, as the mother says that the two had their fill of her, but when Amy's half-brother, who she thinks is her father, married her mother after his father (and Amy's) had gotten her mother pregnant with her, then the old Foster disinherited his son for marrying the servant girl. So poor innocent Amy is hated by her mother and half-brother through no fault of her own. The old man Foster who had fathered her could at least have left his son some money so that Amy, the old man Foster's daughter, could have a good life. Apparently, the old man Foster was too cruel and uncaring. That is one of the reasons why Amy was sent into servitude at the age of 12. She is blamed for the loss of her half-brother's/stepfather's inheritance. Her being different from the others is a direct result of her very unsavory parentage, as her own family rejects her and the rest of the villagers probably know why. And just think--the children that Foster (not really her father) and her mother have are her half-siblings via her mother and nephews and nieces as well via her half-brother, who is her mother's husband. What a catastrophic family.
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