Did Cheryl actually love Mark ? Or did she just come across sth unique, making her feel emotional ? Did Mark love her ? Or was it merely a beautiful input from a good woman ? I'm actually very confused in this part .. Especially that Cheryl and her husband passed this off as if it was worth nothing ..
Thanks for any insight or input :)
I thought it showed how easily one can love a person one is intimate with. Only in this case both of them fell in love. Usually it's just the woman who feels emotionally attached and the man keeps an emotional distance and sees it as a physical release only. This was unusual in showing both genuine tenderness developing, and the need to be logical and put an end to it. I believe she really did feel something she'd never felt in her marriage and yet she knew she had to go back to the marriage. Logic told her she could not continue as it did not fit in her well ordered life. This is why despite being a little film and very understated, it is powerfully moving. It's the eternal dilemma: go with the one that thrills you, or stay in a safe and non-fulfilling marriage. Not that hard for them to solve because he was paralyzed and in an iron lung. Otherwise, I am sure they would have run off together.
Her husband threw out the poem and she went and retrieved it from the trash. It was that important to her. Yes, they fell in love. For me, the way she gave him up was a renunciation of her needs and wishes versus the demands of society.
Compare the two husbands, one was able-bodied yet seems like a real bum whilst the other was disabled but was able to show her more compassion and satisfaction (by his kind words and the way they bonded) than her husband. and women want that shiz, the full works. A man who is not just a man and good in bed but can also woo her and romance her