MovieChat Forums > The Wings of the Dove (1998) Discussion > what did u think of the ending...(spoile...

what did u think of the ending...(spoiler)

posted 19 years ago by Jayb04
16 replies | jump to latest

im sorry im not good with names especially when i haven't seen this in a very long time but...

do you truely believe that he loved that other girl?
i mean like he said he wanted to marry her or was that a lie? he seemed like he still loved her but was it just that he loved the other girl more? idk...i was so upset, after all that crap they went through, and to think he was with her for a while, which would of drove me insane. thats a big sacrafice and everything just went to waste. i wouldn't of even ask that kind of question if he missed her. to me,to ask that, i think the truth would hurt, so i wouldn't of asked that. but i guess later on the future if they did get married then it wouldn't of worked out when he would be thinking about her alot.

but id like to know other opinions...

Let me show you the world in my eyes -David Gahan

[–] NuYorkie 19 years ago

It's possible to love two people at the same time and each one differently. Once a third person enters an intimate relationship he/she disrupts the connection between the two people and Kate is very well aware that a very important part of Merton was lost forever so she tries to desperately retain his love. Yet their love is no longer pure, it's corrupt and tainted with memories of Milly's goodness and her unselfish love.

What we saw in the last scene was the destruction of carnal love through contact with spiritual purity, the fight between sacred and profane love and the moral of the story. The title of the book/movie is taken from Psalm 55: "O that I had wings like a dove! For then would I flee away" from "the enemy...minded to do me some mischief." The enemy is Kate, the woman Merton loves, and the "mischief" she does him is to continuously remind him of the disgraceful scheme they concocted for Milly.

[–] JacquesDemy 18 years ago

I haven't read the novel, which must be a great book, maybe much greater than the movie, I guess. From my understanding, the last scene implies the break-up between Merton and Kate. Kate can not afford losing both Milly's money and Merton's love, so she askes for his word of honor that he does not love Milly in his memory, which is unacceptable to Merton, just like giving up the money is unacceptable to Kate. So at the end, we see Merton comes back to Venice alone and goes back to live in the memory of Milly.

I am not very clear if my understanding is right, but I really don't think(or like) that Merton and Kate will comprmise to each other and get into marriage, which will be a tragic marriage whether he keeps the money or gives his word of honor, because Milly has changed his love forever.

About the "enemy" you mentioned, it may have many explanations, I guess. For Merton, I guess it is the pain of losing Milly and having no chance to give her more love and relieve his feeling of guilty.

[–] NuYorkie 18 years ago

From my understanding, the last scene implies the break-up between Merton and Kate.

Yes. Essentially, Kate agreed to marry Merton without Millie's money provided he's not in love with her memory. Since Millie will never be out of his memory their damaged relationship cannot survive.

[–] JacquesDemy 18 years ago

I read the last chapter of Henry James's novel yesterday, Merton offered Kate the money if she chose to refuse his love("You lose me? ... Well, you lose nothing else. I make over to you every penny."). He also agreed Kate's condition of forgetting Milly, actually he even tried to marry her at once. But the novle is ended with Kate's headshaking. So I guess Kate finally made the choice to get the money and lose Merton's love. This is pretty similar with "the Portrait of a Lady": the most self-sacrificing one(Ralph/Milly) died by illness, the most selfish one, the conspirator(Gilbert/Kate) got the money, the one who realized his/her true love lost the love and gave up the chance to punish the conspirator.

The ending of the movie is pretty touching, though I didn't find their having sex scene in the book, either did I find the scene that Merton said "so sorry" to Milly in there last meeting, which I think is the most touching moment in the movie.

[–] sisilovesu 17 years ago

I personally think that everything nyccoolgirl said was....well...quite frankly....amazing. I have even shared it with other people as far as her look on tainted love and such. I appreicate it and it's really helped me understand more and take a deeper look into what this story is about. It's not just this situation but cheating even unwillingly can do this to a person, to a relationship. Wow. Nothing much more to say then I think this is one of the best love stories of all time. "Titanic"....don't make me laugh...

[–] 17 years ago

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[–] NuYorkie 18 years ago

I think she fell in love with Millie as a person, a friend and with her goodness.

[–] missyamerica18 18 years ago

I think that they both loved Millie. In a sense, Millie brought out both the best and worst in Kate and Merton. She retains a pure heart even though she knows that she is dying. Millie makes every moment count. These are the attributes that I believe the couple fall in love with.

The bedroom scene is also very powerful. I think it was a positive change on the original ending. There is so much raw emotion in this scene that the sex act becomes unerotic. Kate and Merton are very mechanical. A private moment that should be so sensual turns into something quiet the opposite. It turns into a requiem for Millie.

[–] NuYorkie 18 years ago

Nice observations. I don't think Millie retains pure heart "even though" she's dying but "because" she's dying so young and because goodness and unselfishness is in her nature.

Kate and Merton seem detached in the bedroom because their minds are distracted by the imminent doom. It's a meeting of two lovers who are trying to restore intimacy that was lost along the way. Millie changed Merton and the power shift is evident. Before he was begging Kate to see him, marry him now he dictates the conditions. He's no longer desperately in love with her and has a distance to their relationship as he compares her with Millie. Even though Millie forgave Merton he cannot live with himself as long as he is with Kate. Even if they marry without Millie's money Kate will always bring memories of Millie and what he did to her. Therefore their relationship is mortally wounded.

[–] fanaticita 17 years ago

nycoolgirl, your analysis is spot on, as they say. I was a little confused at the ending, but somehow came to the same conclusion after I thought about it for awhile. It's good to see your thoughts and those of others. What a great film. So many layers and so deep with plenty of room for thought and consideration.

[–] guyheno-1 17 years ago

I pretty much agree with everything written above. Very insightful, indeed. Still, it seems like a huge waste to me that Merton and Kate could not transcend their funk and find some form of "seasoned" happiness for themselves. I know it would make for a less dramatic ending... but after all, isn't it also what Milly would have wanted!?!? Merton is a bit too much of a purist, for me, and in love with his misery. (+ a bit afraid of women maybe?) And yes, Kate is constantly scheming but she seems to get spooked by her own schemes after a while. Thus she, too, is maturing, not just Merton. And her last request to Merton -- that he not be in love with the memory of Millie -- is quite realistic to me. (And, after all, Kate too lost a dear one, while Merton has a definite passive -agressive side to him.)
So anyway, in real life -- in 2007, not 1907? -- well, life happens, with all its surprises and we may as well make the best of them. Maybe Kate and Merton are too British, too Old World for me. They failed to let the spirit of Milly rub on them and live on through them -- individually and as a couple. (And at the end money is no longer an issue, except that THEY made it one.)
You get my drift, eh?... after a few months or years, they do reunite and can laugh at themselves for having taken it all so seriously!

[–] agera 16 years ago

Can't agree with you wanting them to just cast aside all that's happened and make a life together.

How could Merton ever get past knowing his lady love was so coldly calculating that she'd take advantage in the worst possible way of her dying friend? And how could Kate ever get past the fact that Merton has fallen in love, maybe not with Millie, but with his image of her, his memories of her?

If anything, the spirit of Millie would make them both turn to the memory of Millie, instead of to one another.

[–] springhill49635 16 years ago

Fabulous ending! In the final bedroom scene Carter’s whole body, stark naked in bed with Merton, reflects the despair of Kate’s plots gone wrong. Now Kate has what she wanted, Merton and the fortune, which Millie has left to him. But Millie has left something else as well...the enfolding wings of the dove smothering Kate’s and Merton’s love into extinction shown by the paralysis of their lovemaking. In the last lines of the novel: “…she turned to the door, and her headshake was now the end. ‘We shall never be again as we were!” And in the film Merton returns alone to Venice where he is closest to the memory of Mille with a poignancy not achieved in the novel.

[–] drarthurwells 13 years ago

Good post. You did mention the true ending, Merton's return to Venice, instead of thinking the sex scene was the ending (like others did). The sex scene only sets up this true ending.

And yes, you got the true ending right but left out some issues. See the thread I started on this.

[–] ShannonTriumphant 12 years ago

I can see why Henry James was such good friends with Edith Wharton. They both seemed to revel in endings like this: impossible, painful and really, nobody's fault unless you can blame the warped culture in which they live. If you try to imagine Kate and Merton ignoring what happened and running off with the money, you immediately see that they would have been miserable, since they DO have consciences, despite their natures. It's the same with Newland Archer and Ellen Olenska in Wharton's The Age of Innocence. If they fulfill their passion, then he is betraying his wife and Ellen is helping him, which will cause her to lose her love for him. The agonizing part is that they could have acted earlier and prevented this. Likewise, Kate could have accepted Merton without his money and chosen poverty with love. He could have refused the scheme with Millie but did not. They chose their fate. But Millie, like May, Newland's wife, are both to blame for seeing true love and scheming to steal it. Two rich, empty women used to getting what they want allow the corruption and eventual destruction of love, under the guise of morality and purity. They are the true villains.

She deserves her revenge, and we deserve to die.

[–] 17 years ago

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