[spoilers] Harry and Ruth. The Wonder Years.

[binkie]

Anyone who recognises me from the thread-which-must-not-be-named-because-Kirayuki-has-had-just-about-enough-quite-frankly will know that I have an apparently all-consuming inability to abandon the detail in anything. So, at the risk of outstaying my very generous welcome in this hospitable thread...

(28-11-2010 12:13 PM)DogSoSmall Wrote:  I'm really struggling to understand why so many people would find a satisfactory, romantic ending for Harry and Ruth such a stretch of credibility.

I don’t know that it’s necessarily the case that anyone finds the prospect of such a conclusion a stretch of credibility exactly. I just wonder why it is that this is such a popular possible conclusion. I don’t deny that Harry and Ruth are, individually, well-drawn and well-played characters. I don’t deny that Harry and Ruth love one another. I question (but do not object to) the romantic conclusion on two fronts:

1. Is it something we want simply because we have been trained to want it over the course of the narrative as far as it relates to these two characters? Does the narrative tell us that romance is their destiny, so it must happen because there is no real alternative for them? I wonder whether Spooks has embraced the relative immediacy of the familiarity of romance because it has allowed itself no space in its narrative structure for an alternative in which Harry and Ruth could endure as lifelong companions without falling into one another’s arms
2. Is the reality of the relationship between Harry and Ruth to be found more in terms of emotional distance than it is in terms of their undeniable intellectual compatibility and the thread of their shared experiences? Is Ruth right about difficult dinner parties and the moral consequences of love in the singular environment in which the two of them operate on a professional level?

You suggest:

(28-11-2010 12:13 PM)DogSoSmall Wrote:  For me, the only reason that Ruth is backing off is that in spite of her adoration of Harry, she has so little sense of her own worth that she can't believe that if they were together that Harry would not be hugely disappointed in her, start to think as little of her as she does of herself... To me this is all about Ruth believing that she is worthy of Harry, and once she can accept that, I can see absolutely no reason on earth why they should not both be together and be ecstatically happy together.

This is a well-considered evaluation. However – and please remember, I am occupying something of the role of devil’s advocate here – why should we suppose that Harry’s future happiness should be predicated on the outcome of a relationship in which he is required constantly to prop up the fragile ego of the object of his affection? Should we not want for Harry to be in a relationship of equals? Or do you think that, in her way, Ruth is a fillip for Harry’s ego also as she reminds him he has the capacity to be human (this seems to be the quality he believes to be most at risk from his job)? Is this the nature of their equality?

I think this is a really urgent point that could have been easily missed:

(28-11-2010 04:55 PM)A Cousin Wrote:  Ruth has acknowledged that Harry loves her. There is no doubt about that now. The only thing missing is Ruth's acknowledgment of her feelings for him... she will always be Harry's Achilles Heel. And he, hers. I think she is trying to protect Harry. And herself. And the thousands of people it is their duty to protect.

It was one of the major criticisms made of the movie of The English Patient (less so the book) that the moral foundation of its quality as a tragic Romance (capital R intentional) only worked if the viewer accepted that love is a legitimate excuse for every moral concession, including betrayal and treason. I like your interpretation of Ruth’s unwillingness to be the pivot of moral compromise in cases of national security.


I hope this thread will have me back, but I am returning now to my natural home, where I will write something about tattoos