Reflections
on “The Ghost and Mrs Muir”
Directed
by Joseph L Mankiewicz
Screenplay
by Philip Dunne
(from
a novel by Josephine Leslie (as R A Dick))
Starring
Gene Tierney, Rex Harrison and George Sanders
“The Ghost and Mrs Muir”
is a film I watched and enjoyed in my youth and at that time I accepted it as a
charming, pleasant, romantic comedy. I viewed it again a few years ago,
somewhat half-heartedly and interrupted by a variety of events and other
distractions, but I enjoyed my nostalgic return to a happy memory from my youth
and jotted down the following somewhat romantic notes:
This is a film that
presents a feminist-minded homage to spiritual love that can reach across the
divide between physical and spiritual existence, across time and across social
divisions.
Daniel Gregg and Lucy
Muir appreciate and complement one another. She supplies pensive devotion and
affection while he, rather ironically, supplies life, dynamism and unguarded
humour. He treats her with respect but not with kid gloves or as a possession.
They form a team in which a meeting of minds and an appreciation of nature and
beauty is the essential trait rather than physical passion.
Although Lucy concedes to
physical and emotional temptation and has her heart broken, Gregg knows that
time is irrelevant and waits until she can join him in spiritual happiness,
unburdened by mere physicality.
However, recently and
quite by chance I came across an online article discussing the film and it
presented a quite different theory regarding the underlying themes of the film.
I have to say I found the conclusions of the article quite unconvincing but it
was enough to make me want to view the film again and possibly review my
thoughts about it, and I’m certainly glad I did as I found a further and this
time more attentive viewing most rewarding.
Lucy Muir is a
free-spirited, independent-minded young widow and mother who struggles with the
somewhat restrictive mores in vogue at the end of the 19th and
beginning of the 20th centuries. She rejects and defies the
perceptions and societal norms applied to women of the period, is determined to
maintain self-respect and aspires to a sense of fulfilment, i.e. not conceding
to others’ views, plans and wishes, but leading a life on one’s own terms.
Having married when young
and in a romantic daze, she is now a thoughtful and resolute widow with a
daughter. She is reasonably self-assertive and reveals a desire for
independence and self-reliance quite regularly in her dealings with others, but
she is equally frustrated in that, largely due to the fact she is a woman, she
now feels badgered to be conformist and goaded into pleasing others rather than
follow her instincts.
In search of a new home, she
views Gull Cottage, the former residence of the now deceased Captain Daniel
Gregg whose portrait dominates the main room and whose ghost is reported to
haunt the building. Lucy is quite taken with the house, the portrait and the
Captain’s “presence”, and is inspired to rent the property. She is also more
personally inspired by the Captain’s spirit as she engages in conversation with
his ghost and, as they find one another intriguing and perhaps admirable, they
come to a mutually acceptable agreement. She may live in the cottage and she
will write up the Captain’s memoirs under a pseudonym, an endeavour that will
lead to success and financial independence for Lucy.
In reality, I would say
that Captain Daniel Gregg is an alter ego who allows Lucy to live vicariously
and is a conduit or cipher who enables Lucy to express herself and, more
importantly, assert herself. She has adapted to the man’s world around her and
projects her innermost feelings and ambitions through the persona of Captain
Gregg.
In a sense, this is a
modified version of duality popular in the 19th and early 20th
centuries, but here, rather than being torn between good and evil, Lucy is
conflicted by acquiescence, as expected of her by society, and assertiveness as
she follows her natural instincts.
Fundamentally, Gregg’s
existence as a “ghost” is a tool in Lucy’s quest to gain respect from others
while at the same time achieving self-respect. Gregg offers a channel for
Lucy’s feistiness and she admires and profits by his spirit (no pun intended),
yet she also appreciates his willingness to reason with her and to compromise.
Beneath his bluster, Gregg listens to and respects Lucy, qualities he displays
with no-one else, while also offering her objective advice that reveals common
sense and affection. Essentially, Lucy projects on to Gregg the qualities and
traits she most admires in herself and which she aspires to see in and share
with society. She is effectively externalising inner thought as she reasons
with herself and uses Gregg as a sounding board and a means of expressing
herself.
Although she finds this
exercise in spiritual self-respect rewarding, she recognises her physical and
social needs, and the validation of being loved and valued by another, and so
she gently sets aside Gregg (who takes on the mantle of the pained lover who
sacrifices his spiritual love to physical and emotional need) in favour of
romance and reality.
Ultimately, however, she
is disillusioned and dissatisfied by romantic love and in the end she is
released from expectations, social restraints and conventions and once again
turns inward to Captain Gregg for self-respect and fulfilment, not dependent on
the views, actions and judgments of others.
I have no doubt that
holes will be found in my reading of the film but I suspect they will be found
in whichever interpretation you opt for – the literal one or the
psychologically figurative one.
I found this a touching,
thought-provoking and entertaining piece with highly engaging performances
which brings in to focus and questions socially accepted injustices and inequitable
attitudes toward women at the time, but does so playfully and with humour. It
also accentuates the importance of self-respect and integrity in one’s outlook
and self-perception.
It is also worth
mentioning that the author of the original novel published under a pseudonym
whose initials (R A) represented her sea captain father…
My thanks for taking the
time to read this article. I hope you found it of some value.
Stuart Fernie (stuartfernie@yahoo.co.uk)
