Despair is like a suspended sentence

Ignatius 2022-03-24 09:03:02

Karen inherited her mother's mental illness, and her father was a writer. Under his arrangement, Karen went to a small island for recuperation with her boyfriend, father, and younger brother. They rehearse Shakespeare's play, which makes Karen very happy. Karen accidentally peeks at her father's diary one day and discovers that she is just using it as an observational sample for writing. Karen's condition worsened and she had hallucinations.
The father and boyfriend left the island in a boat to find an ambulance. The boyfriend pointed out that the father did not love Karen, and the father told the boyfriend that he had committed suicide in Switzerland. Karen describes to her brother that she sees God seeing another world exist. When her father and her boyfriend came back, the ambulance arrived quickly. Karen was dressed up alone in her room to talk to her about her hallucinations. A gust of wind blew. Karen thought it was God, and was quickly horrified to find that a helicopter had come to take her to the hospital.
The dialogue between the father and the younger brother at the end is particularly meaningful: suddenly the vanity disappears, and despair breaks into life like a suspended sentence.

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Extended Reading

Through a Glass Darkly quotes

  • [last lines]

    Fredrik: Papa spoke to me.

  • Martin: You're hunting for themes. Your own daughter's mental illness. What a great bloody idea!