How would this story turn out today?

If this had happened in the past few years, I wonder how things would have turned out. Obviously we still have obsessive stalkers out there--maybe Burt's friends wouldn't have just let his behavior go. Maybe they would have tried to warn Linda. Maybe they could have pushed Burt - or Burt could have decided himself - to get therapy to deal with his loss of Linda.

On Linda's part, I think she would have been creeped out from the moment she met the guy and realized he had sent her a bunch of flowers before she got back to her apartment. Maybe that was romantic in the 50s but today it just screams "stalker." And Burt's temper tantrums would have been bigger red flags that this guy was an abuser.

If it had gone as far as the lye attack, would Linda have seen no other option but to go back to Burt? She probably could have become an advocate for abused women or started a nonprofit for the blind and met another man (a blind man?) through those efforts. She's so resilient--she probably could have found some kind of employment if given the opportunity. But it seems like she was expected to get married and have a man support her, blind or not.

I feel like the society she lived in gave her very few choices and, in a way, helped push her back into Burt's arms.