MovieChat Forums > Wives and Daughters (2002) Discussion > Does it bother anyone else that...

Does it bother anyone else that...

posted 9 years ago by Bronte_Sista
1 reply | jump to latest

Molly's interests don't matter, only Rogers. I don't know if this makes sense, but it feels a bit like that good friend who falls in love with race cars because that's what the guy she's dating is into. I felt that way throughout the entire film--that Roger never, not even at the end, made any efforts to get to know about Molly's interests. She simply waited around for him until he changed his mind. And then, like a good girl, she drops everything and runs off to Africa. Doesn't she have any interests or prospects of her own for the two years that he's gone? I hope the book fills in a bit more.

[–] jora_dyn 9 years ago

Did your manage to find the answer to this by reading the book?

I just read it and it's more clear that Roger introduces her to his hobbies as a means to comfort her and take her mind away from the distress she has over her father's decision to remarry. In the book its mentioned that he wants to help her, and being only a man of twenty and one, did it in the manner he knew best, which was to share with her his own interests. Molly being very young and impressionable at the time, she's only about 16 when fist sent to Hamley Hall, and also in want of distraction, takes to these things he introduces to her.

Their relationship is one of a mentor/pupil to Roger and Molly looks up to him, which eventually develops into feelings on her end. But I don't think it is meant ti come across that she only likes the natural sciences because he does. He introducing her to it at an early age that helps her develop an appreciation and interest herself in the same sort of thing. Which eventually leads to her being the perfect woman for him, or as they so fancifully love to phrase it. "The only woman in the world who could make him happy."