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.