From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Sun, 09 Jul 1995 18:23:00 -600

Carla, your comments on Mrs. Winterbottom's character got me thinking more about her. From the outside, she seems to have the "model life"

Cleaver was an apt comparison. And yet, to Sal, she is so obviously unhappy. She is also the antithesis of Sal's mother. Whereas, Mrs. Winterbottom is so "domestic" and frightened of the outside world, Sal's mother is/was full of life, loved the outdoors, etc. Their names reflect their opposite characters: Winterbottom vs. Chanhassen (Sugar Maple). Both women tried to take some sort of drastic action to establish an identity outside their roles as wife and mother. One thing that particularly stands out in a second reading is how closely Sal watches Mrs. Winterbottom for clues as to why her own mother was unhappy and left them. She can see things in Phoebe's mother that Phoebe herself can't see; perhaps she believes she missed clues about her own mother's unhappiness. She is trying to piece it altogether, even when she's deep in denial about her mother's death.

As for Mrs. Cadaver, I'll take a stab at it (pardon the pun!). There's the obvious irony of her name, since she's the only survivor of the accident -- of course, we don't know that till the end. I think on a deeper level, her name reflects Sal's unwillingness to deal with Mrs. Cadaver on any level -- she will barely acknowledge that the woman exists. Throughout we're led to believe that this is because she has some sort of romantic link with Sal's dad and that she was the reason for Sal's mother's unhappiness. But surely Sal knew all along that Mrs. Cadaver embodied all the evidence of her mother's death. She could have given her all the details early on -even tried to several times -- but Sal wouldn't listen.
Received on Sun 09 Jul 1995 07:23:00 PM CDT