The Moral Occult

Peter Brooks defines the moral occult as our values and desires that are from within which we keep hidden due to reality. What he means by reality is societal barriers which prevent a person from fulfilling his or her own personal needs and wants that are not fit for society. In All That Heaven Allows Cary is so worried about being accepted by her social group that in the middle of everything she forgets the most important thing, which is the love that both Cary and Ron share for each other. She does what her children expect of her having her desires to be with Ron desperately be masked up inside. Everything becomes dark and dull the scenes in the movie look depressing. This conflict between having to choose between love or the happiness of her children is an example of what Brooks describes as Melodrama. Towards the end of the movie all the emotions that Cary kept hidden are out and her and Ron are seen together and at the end a deer appears near the window and this is symbolic. It represents the beginning of something new.

In the film All That Heaven Allows society is portrayed as a barrier in making ones own personal decision. This movie depicts the problems many people may have in reality, and society is almost always a problem. In the movie Cary wanted the approval and acceptance from the little town she resides in. When her own kids disapproved of her choice, she began to take in everyone's negative energy. Society gave off a negative vibe due to it's people. There are rules and regulations that one must fulfill in order to be respected by the people in Cary's town. If Ron was an old and rich widow like Cary, it would have somehow seemed like a more "suitable" match. When it comes to love people in Cary's town did not understand the strong bond that her and Ron had. The people Cary knew from her town were quick to judge just by knowing half the story. We later see that Cary is no longer the talk of town anymore and her kids quickly move on with their lives. The movie shows how things eventually evolve. Everything around Cary changes drastically, but she is stuck wondering what would have happened if she decided to married Ron. The event in which her kids tell her to choose between Ron or the kids is one where the viewers wonder will Cary let everyone else get to her, or will she change and decide not to care about everyone else except her and Ron. This is a source of melodrama, watching the characters evolve by their decisions etc. (Bordwell 72). This movie teaches us that life will give you difficult situations and the decisions we make in those situations should be ones that our hearts are truly content with and have no regrets left. Nothing or no one should be allowed to become a barrier to a person's decision.