In „It’s a Wonderful Life“ gibt es kein Mary-Problem: Georges Vision von seiner Frau ohne ihn ist für den Film von wesentlicher Bedeutung, aber Kritiker verkennen weiterhin seine wahre – und tiefgreifende – Bedeutung.
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/there-is-no-mary-problem-in-its-a-wonderful-life
6 Kommentare
Every year someone dredges up the “Mary Problem” argument—that It’s a Wonderful Life treats Mary’s alternate reality as this sexist punishment fantasy. This piece makes a really compelling counterpoint: the librarian scene isn’t saying Mary *couldn’t* find someone else. It’s saying she *wouldn’t*. Mary is the one who chooses George from childhood onward. She sees something in him he can’t even see in himself, and without him there is simply no man in Bedford Falls equal to who she is.
It reframes the scene not as “spinster = tragedy,” but as “Mary without George loses the life she consciously, fiercely chose.”
So she becomes an ugly spinster with myopia?
Also Mary is an enormously talented witch who chose her victim at age 8, then upon reaching maturity cursed him to never leave Bedford falls with a single thrown stone, and then she managed every aspect of his life from that day until the day he dies. With George never having existed Mary just never found another person worthy of her attention. Why do people always leave that part out?
That was a lovely article. Thank you.
Shit like this is when the internet sucks
The most profound thing both Mary and George have in common is that from childhood Mary proclaimed in George’s def ear she’d love him until the day she died while George proclaimed his dreams. Both of them were unable to truly enjoy their current lives because of their initial beliefs of what their future should look like. Those beliefs bound them to unfair outcomes. Mary always had faith, George however had to get faith from the Angel.