After All These Years / This Time
Today’s For Better or For Worse strip really threw me. The book ended lines of “After all these years / this time” lead into a “we are finally together” meaning, which is the hallmark of many romance books. Perhaps Lynn Johnston really thinks of Anthony and Elizabeth like a Heathcliff and Catherine from Wuthering Heights where class and racial differences keep them apart and cause them to marry and torture other people. The obvious problem with this idea is that there are no racial or class differences between Elizabeth and Anthony, and Elizabeth’s parents at least, enthusiastically endorse the couple.
They are more like Same Time Next Year, where the couple having an affair get to get together once a year for 25 years, marrying and loving other people at the same time, until finally one year they both are unattached at the same time. The obvious problem with this idea is that after all those years; Anthony and Elizabeth are still unable to make a verbal commitment to each other.
Oddly enough, Anthony tells Elizabeth he wished he had asked her to marry him in university, but he’s willing to wait now, which sounds like a reversal. That’s a pretty big statement and can be interpreted in many different ways. Maybe Anthony realizes that Elizabeth is unable to make a commitment to anyone, and he doesn’t want to waste time asking her a question to which she will answer, “Maybe” or “Perhaps” or something other than “Yes” or “No.” Maybe Anthony has grown up enough to realize that quite a bit of the reason his prior marriage failed was his own fault, and he doesn’t want to rush into another marriage until he has dealt with what caused his first marriage to fail. More likely Anthony realizes that wooing Elizabeth Patterson into marriage is a complex and difficult task, and it would be wise of him not to make the same mistakes Paul and Warren did, by openly declaring their love to her.
I remember back in my single days, a girl I dated, who was so easily offended by things people said, I felt as though I was constantly walking on eggshells around her. I had to be sure to word everything precisely, or I would have to deal with a huge argument and a lot of hurt feelings. She was very pretty, but ultimately I decided it was not worth it. I couldn't see a lifetime of eggshell-walking. When I see Elizabeth Patterson, I am reminded of her.
This strip:
http://www.fborfw.com/strip_fix/archives/001663.php epitomizes for me, Elizabeth’s perspective on her own love life.
They are more like Same Time Next Year, where the couple having an affair get to get together once a year for 25 years, marrying and loving other people at the same time, until finally one year they both are unattached at the same time. The obvious problem with this idea is that after all those years; Anthony and Elizabeth are still unable to make a verbal commitment to each other.
Oddly enough, Anthony tells Elizabeth he wished he had asked her to marry him in university, but he’s willing to wait now, which sounds like a reversal. That’s a pretty big statement and can be interpreted in many different ways. Maybe Anthony realizes that Elizabeth is unable to make a commitment to anyone, and he doesn’t want to waste time asking her a question to which she will answer, “Maybe” or “Perhaps” or something other than “Yes” or “No.” Maybe Anthony has grown up enough to realize that quite a bit of the reason his prior marriage failed was his own fault, and he doesn’t want to rush into another marriage until he has dealt with what caused his first marriage to fail. More likely Anthony realizes that wooing Elizabeth Patterson into marriage is a complex and difficult task, and it would be wise of him not to make the same mistakes Paul and Warren did, by openly declaring their love to her.
I remember back in my single days, a girl I dated, who was so easily offended by things people said, I felt as though I was constantly walking on eggshells around her. I had to be sure to word everything precisely, or I would have to deal with a huge argument and a lot of hurt feelings. She was very pretty, but ultimately I decided it was not worth it. I couldn't see a lifetime of eggshell-walking. When I see Elizabeth Patterson, I am reminded of her.
This strip:
http://www.fborfw.com/strip_fix/archives/001663.php epitomizes for me, Elizabeth’s perspective on her own love life.
posted by howard at 10:31 PM
6 Comments:
Ugh, that strip you linked was frustrating. First, she waits until Paul is gone to show her enthusiasm, and second, she frames the "love" issue with an "if" even when she's alone. But I think you're right--this strip speaks volumes about Liz and love.
I am so glad that even you were confused by today's strip! This entire resolution to the inevitable has seemed so inept--as though Lynn is going back and trying to justify all the previous mis-steps in the strip. Mistakes which have caused the majority of readers to really dislike the Anthony/Liz "romance".
Again, what HAS kept them apart? Could it be that the entire time Liz went to University, that she and Anthony didn't keep in touch? I always cringe at the "gee, we've just been so busy all summer" lines
that were continuously used throughout the years.
And again, Liz and Anthony are totally dispassionate about each other. Oh, sure. Let's wait a few more years. This has to be the most bland "romance" ever chronicled.
DebJyn
Sometimes I think Lynn Johnston works the Anthony / Elizabeth romance like it was one of those TV romances where the people lose interest in the story once the couple finally, after many obstacles, gets together. Certainly quite a few romance novels have their conclusion at the marriage ceremony or shortly thereafter. This could be the reason after they finally get together, they start dragging their feet.
Or it is also possible Lynn Johnston could be taking her cue from other strips, where the characters lose their ability to generate love stories, once the lead characters are married up. For example, Judge Parker all but disappeared from his strip, once he got married and strip had to focus on Sam Driver and his interminable romance. Likewise, the creators of Brenda Starr had to make her husband and child mysteriously disappear after they made the mistake of marrying her off; since much of Brenda’s appeal was the idea that guys who wanted to sleep with her, would do things for her, in order to move the plot along.
With Anthony and Elizabeth married, then Lynn Johnston would have no romance on which to focus. She has certainly made April and Gerald’s relationship tenuous, with a temporary 1-month break-up this year. However, she also turned up the heat in their romance with the drinking and almost doing something together sequence. Since she going hybrid though, it may be a case of “Too little, too late.”
What I really want to see with Anthony and Elizabeth is to have little Francie model the behaviour Lynn said that her son Aaron supposedly did with Rod Johnston, when Lynn and Rod first started dating. I would love to see Elizabeth have to deal with a child upset over her parental replacement, but Francie is too young. If she has had no contact with Thérèse since the divorce over a year ago, Francie may not remember her mother. Of course, who knows what the Francie, who is able to play on swings without dad and who talks like a 4-year-old will remember.
I remember when my dad married his second wife, she had 2 little girls, and every time they went to visit their father and he dropped them back off with my dad and his wife, the two girls were crying and screaming when they saw him go. I would love for Elizabeth to have just one moment like that with Francie. I would make a delay getting married to Anthony, worth the wait.
Nice to see you got published again in today's Coffee Talk! Good comments w/o too much brown nosing. Some mothers and daughters do have that relationship.
I was surprised that Coffee Talk would print a long, critical letter. In conclusion, the writer says:
"Even now, in the most favourable of settings, you're having to force idiotically contrived scenarios on Liz and Anthony in order for them to connect. I'm not sure what trauma of your own is keeping you from being honest with your own creation, but it's becoming massively painful to watch.
KM, Toronto"
Ouch!
Anonymous,
I was quite excited to be published again. And like you (assuming you are both Anonymouses), after the last several days of almost nothing but praise for Lynn in the Coffee Talk, I was surprised KM from Toronto was included.
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