The key to a happy marriage: Accept husband's love child w/mistress?

Haha! Troy was served, yet still too clueless to understand.

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Rose was done with her marriage though.

If she were done with her marriage, she would have left. She didn't.

Rose's willingness to take whatever crap Troy dished out, even that ultimate outrage and betrayal, was disturbing. It also alienated me from her character and the story.

The most offense aspect of the revelation scene was Troy's appalling self-absorption and insensitivity. All he did was talk about his needs, and how wonderful his mistress made him feel, without a hint of contrition for the agony he wrought on his wife. Any spouse willing to stay with such a lout is not worth pitying.

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"Okay, Troy...you're right. I'll take care of your baby for you...cause...like you say...she's innocent...and you can't visit the sins of the father upon the child. A motherless child has got a hard time. From right now...this child got a mother. But you a womanless man."

That was my favorite part too. The best was Davis's delivery. You're thinking, "Man, how understanding can this woman be and how much shit can she take?!?". Then, she throws out that very last line as she's walking away which really changes the tone of what she had just said.

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What was she supposed to do? Troy owned the house and was the breadwinner. She seemingly stayed home and was a homemaker or was out of work. She probably could have found a job doing laundry or washing dishes, but that would have taken some time for a black women and where would she have lived? Divorce was a lot different back in those days. Infidelity on the husband's part was not usually grounds for a divorce, and don't forget when I say this, that years ago most states didn't even grant a divorce without fault. Some states these days don't even allow divorce with fault or two party consent. Without adultery, she would have to prove some kind of abuse, abandonment, or imprisonment.

And even if she could be granted a divorce, most poor families are afraid of it because of how expensive it is (and this is a problem these days still).

So her response made sense in the context. They were still a family, and had a business arrangement. And after a while she would even grow to care for him and see him as family again, but the romantic part of the relationship was over. Yes, if this was a modern middle class or higher relationship, she would have divorced him and left him, but consider the times and the patriarchy.

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I agree with you. In real life, we would call Rose a battered wife (emotional abuse) and condemn her for putting up with a tyrant husband like that. But in the movies/plays...

I don't necessarily agree that we would condemn a woman for tolerating abuse (that's victim blaming and and generally not in fashion anymore), but I'm surprised there's not more focus on how much of an abuser Troy was. There's no discussion about it all pretty much anywhere. I have to wonder if it was different if the movie had all white characters, because then it would be easier to talk about difficult subjects like that.

It could be that now people are more careful about focusing on that aspect of Troy because people don't want to be seen as racially insensitive etc. I could be wrong though, maybe people just don't care about abuse as much as I thought. And I'm talking about both physical (toward the son, perhaps even against the wife at times) and emotional abuse.

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