She lived in a time when the traditional value was that a lady should receive a gentleman's proposal at the right time and start her own family life. Isabella, the heroine, is not comfortable with this fate, as if it does not make her different, as he said to his later husband: I have many plans every day. She actually doesn't know what she wants. She wants to live a wonderful life and doesn't want to miss this beautiful world because of marriage. And it was just an excuse she made for herself, she knew and loved the three men who were chasing her, and one reason she didn't cherish it was because she knew for sure that they were so obsessed with her that she wasn't afraid of losing or that she already had it safely these. They were not part of the so-called wonderful part of the world she was looking for. And her vitality is undoubtedly one of the important reasons to attract them. Another important reason is that she believes that if she accepts their love, she conforms to the tradition and thus fails to realize her own value. While blindly resisting the pressure of society and tradition, she unknowingly jumped into another obvious trap.
Then why is she fascinated by a middle-aged man who has no money or status and pretends to have a child after being thanked? First, it is precisely because of the above objective conditions of this man that Isabella's choice is unusual, and it shows that she has the right to make this choice, so that she can hypocritically declare to the outside world: he has no money and no status, but He had a gentle and kind heart, and obviously she didn't think so after seeing his daughter. She deceived herself into thinking that her choice was an absolute counterattack against the traditional concept of marriage in accordance with her heart. Perhaps this was the reason why she had not left him for a long time. Leaving meant the collapse of the values she had constructed. Second, have artistic taste. This is the garb of this big liar to disguise himself as a high-society. Third, the courtship gesture of detachment. It meant to Isabella that he belonged to that part of the world she didn't own, the good she didn't taste. These three points attracted Isabella step by step into the designed trap, and fell into the quagmire of the vulgar and closed life that she wanted to escape the most.
This is undoubtedly a failed uprising for women, a poignant rebellion. At the end of the film, Isabella returns to England with a renewed sense of self in her eyes, which is an improvement over Mel, who appears as a loser in rebellion. Perhaps this is what feminist directors want to tell us. Although the road to women's liberation is tortuous and dissatisfied, it is advancing and walking, and women will eventually find a path in tradition and rebellion.
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