Post on After the Wedding, by LM

After the Wedding Discussion February 4, 2009

A. Living Honorably
1. What are the rules that people in this film seem to live by? What do they consider is good and worth saving? What motivates their behavior?
Jorgen
Jacob
Helene
Anna
2. Is there a distinction between the moral code of the young and the moral code of those who are middle-aged? Do people’s ideals change in regard to total honesty, openness, secrecy, and duty?
3. Consider the Ten Commandments and the Seven Deadly Sins (pride, avarice [insatiable greed for riches; inordinate, miserly desire to gain and hoard wealth], lust, anger, gluttony, envy, and sloth. [1] How could following these commandments and avoiding these sins have made a difference in the lives of these characters?
4. In Matthew 19:16-21, Jesus tells the rich young man who asks him how he can obtain eternal life that he must recognize God as the supreme Good, and keep the commandments, which in turn demonstrate love for his neighbor. Ultimately, one must love one’s neighbor as oneself.
--How do you think that loving one’s neighbor as one’s self emerges as a good in the lives of these characters and in the film itself?
--Jesus also tells the questioner, “If you would be perfect, go, sell what you possess and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.”
Jacob does embrace poverty and serve the poor. Does that make him a good person?
(Consider Jorgen’s question to Jacob: “Do I have to live on the other side of the world to get your help?”)
5. In what ways are these characters honorable?

B. Making choices
1. Is it sometimes better to hide the truth? (consider not only the lie about Anna’s biological father, but Jorgen’s desire to hide from his family the truth of his terminal illness)
2. Jorgen wants to protect his family. Is his program for Jacob altogether a bad one? Explain. How is his plan morally deficient?
3. Do you think that Jacob has used his social mission to avoid living his own life?
4. What prompts Jacob to “sell” himself to Jorgen and to fit himself into Jorgen’s role as a benefactor and father/husband? Does he do the right thing?
5. In what ways are people compelled to choose between working for the good of society as a whole and attending to the responsibilities incurred by having families?
C. How are family relationships characterized in this film?
1. Mother-daughter
2. Father-daughter/son
3. How are children depicted in this film, and how do adults relate to them?
4. Jorgen may be considered both a good father and husband and a bad father and husband. Discuss.
5. What do you think the new family configuration will be like?
D. Roles
1. How are women portrayed in this film?
2. What male role models do we see in this film? Consider Jorgen’s hunting and fishing trip with sons (“so they won’t be gay”) and his hoard of deer heads mounted on the walls of his study.
3. Examine the ways that Jorgen exerts power of Jacob (through money, rhetoric, and physical force). In what ways does Jacob counteract his efforts to control him? How do these men arbitrate power in their encounters?
E. Wealth and Poverty
1. How do wealth and status compromise and even harm the people in this film?
2. What kinds of problems do the wealthy face in life in their search for happiness and the desire to act justly?
3. Is Jacob justified in his hatred of the rich?
[1] There is no foundation in the Bible for this classification, but the above list has been found in the works of several spiritual writers and theologians, including Saint Thomas Aquinas, a leading Roman Catholic theologian during the 13th century. Aquinas slightly modified the earlier lists of Saint John Climacus and Saint Gregory the Great. These seven sins are not singled out because they are all grievous sins or because of their severity, but because they are the inevitable source of other sins.