I don't think a straight up interpretation of the first section makes any sense. How would he be quiting his job and packing up his things after all those years away? Do we have to take that section as one giant hallucination? Or is it a new job? ... but it didn't seem like a new job. It can't be some kind of patient release program. No matter how I turn it over. It doesn't make any sense.
shareDo we have to take that section as one giant hallucination?
I feel like the whole first act should be cut out.
shareIf you watch the first scene where he's leaving the publishing house and the scene, after he learns he's Peter Ward, where he's leaving the asylum (?), you'll see familiar faces: the black man pushing the cart, the young woman who seems to look at "Will" seductively, and cheery older woman who's sad to see him go. And then the part where he's going through the revolving door and an older woman says goodbye and gives him a hug looks an awful like Dr. Greeley. So basically that scene was a hallucination and we can assume that he was most likely hallucinating while he was being released from asylum.
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