Passionate woman and merciless man.
This is probably the most common setting pattern in love tragedies. No matter ancient or modern, at home and abroad, I don’t know how many women in works of art have experienced this kind of tragedy. But as long as we look back and think about it, although it seems that men in this type of model are not things, why do amorous women particularly prefer thin lovers?
The same is true of this love tragedy in "Letter from a Strange Woman". From the moment Lisa first saw Stephen Brand, the pianist who lived next door, when she was fourteen, she fell in love with the man who changed her life. Whether it’s Girls’ Generation moving away with her remarried mother, or having a relationship with Stephen and being “forgotten” by the other party, or even marrying an aristocrat with an illegitimate child and living comfortably for 15 years, she will still meet again and again, Willingly run to that ruthless lover. It was not until her son died of typhoid fever and she lost her love for the world because of despair that she wrote a long letter to the pianist who never remembered her.
The film is adapted from the novel of the same name by the famous Austrian writer Stephen Zweig. The storyline is basically the same, but there are several changes. For example, the writer in the novel becomes a pianist; in the novel, Lisa has to become a courtesan in order to raise children, and in the movie, she is married to a nobleman; the writer in the novel does not remember Lisa until the end, and the movie The pianist remembered her with deep regret. Comparing the text of the novel with the text of the film, it can be said that the original book better reflects the misery of Lisa's life and the root cause of it.
In the movie, Lisa falls in love with Stephen for a simpler reason. A handsome and talented young musician who moved in next door is an almost fatal temptation for a young girl. Going back to the question mentioned in the previous article - why do amorous women particularly prefer thin lovers? Because most of the poor lovers can speak sweet words, at least Stephen's love words in the film are absolutely master-level. How many women in love use "heart" instead of "ears"? How many of them can tell whether it is a love story or a true story? Amorous women instinctively fall in love with their ears, and instinctively only listen to love words and reject the truth, so they are finally deceived by the fickle lovers, who is to blame?
In other words, love itself is a product of rationality and irrationality. Wang Luobin left a sympathetic lyric in "In That Far Away": "I would like to be a lamb and sit beside her. I would like her to hold a thin leather whip and keep lightening it. Hit me lightly." Since one is willing to hit and the other is willing to suffer, what else can others say.
In the novel, Zweig is more focused on looking at Lisa from the perspective of a woman's upbringing. Lisa lost her father when she was a child, and her mother lived in a recluse and had almost no communication and contact with others. Under this premise, Lisa can't see the adult world and has no way of understanding the normal relationship between the sexes. And the appearance of the writer Stephen seems to be like an adult world forcibly dragging her into the abyss. As a result, Lisa has always been entangled between growth and refusal to grow, and has always practiced "I love you, it has nothing to do with you", not seeking material rewards, not seeking physical greed, even knowing that Stephen is a prodigal son in love. Unshakable, she just wanted the other party to recognize her.
This can be seen from Chang Xin's first sentence, "You, you have never known me."
Lisa's tragedy lies precisely in the need to define herself through others, and suffer from being unable to relate to others. I love you very much, but I don't know how to approach you, so I think it's okay to leave, it's no different. It turned out to be like this anyway, it doesn't matter if it's good or bad, what matters is that I used to be infatuated with you. With this kind of consciousness, Lisa finally chose death, but it was hard to say victory even though she used death to redeem. It is also unrequited love. Compared with the characters in Jin Yong’s novels, Lisa is neither like Li Mochou, who is arrogant and fighting against the tide, nor like Li Wenxiu, who is sad, lonely and at a loss, but more like a lifelong pursuit of “Zeng Ah” Ox" Yin Li of the shadow.
Lisa may not be in love with Stephen in her life, but the young writer she saw when she was fourteen, who surprised her, just like the stubborn Zeng Aniu who beat her and bit her in Yin Xin’s heart forever. It wasn't Zhang Wuji who cared so much about her years later. Jin Yong and Zweig fictionalized "Yin Li" and "Lisa", but they reflected the real psychological state in the love world. To fall in love with an illusion is as beautiful as it is sad. The moment she fell in love at first sight was the beginning of her catastrophe.
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