#and it's like woolrich is literally telling the readers ''you can ignore this part if you want like seriously just chuck it in the bin | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

konstantya · 1 year

Text

Oh, shit.

Oh shit, oh shit, oh shit.

No, but I really think I’ve solved the mystery (that no one even knew was a mystery) of why the end of Cornell Woolrich’s 1948 novel I Married a Dead Man kind of falls apart, logistically, if you stop to think about it for too long.

Because it was never meant to end the way it does. The (spoiler alert) mom was truly meant to be the killer, it was actually meant to end happily, but women who get pregnant outside of marriage in 1940s’ America (like the main character) don’t get to have happy endings. (And to a lesser extent, kind elderly mothers don’t get to go all Mama Bear and just fucking gun a dude down without remorse.) Hence the last, short chapter that bizarrely destroys everything that came before it, hence the framing device that seems to be insisting, “NO, FOR REAL GUYS, THEY DIDN’T LIVE HAPPILY EVER AFTER, I SWEAR.” Remove those two elements and everything works perfectly, happy ending and all.

#it took reading the original novelette (novella?) for me to see the whole picture #but no it's fucking WILD when you stop to think about it #that last chapter is even arguably really meta in that you have a character telling the main couple #''you don't have to read this [letter] but if you do make sure you destroy it''#and it's like woolrich is literally telling the readers ''you can ignore this part if you want like seriously just chuck it in the bin #and even if you do read it know that you should STILL chuck it in the bin''#like holy shit guys this changes EVERYTHING #cornell woolrich #konstantya reads more old literature

5 notes · View notes