My mom and I saw this together and she was sure April suffered from depression or some kind of mental disorder. I don't think so. I think she was just someone that was living a life she didn't want and wasn't mean to be a wife or mother. Thoughts?
share[deleted]
I'm sure a lot of 1950s housewives suffered from what we would now call depression. A lot of colleges and jobs were disqualified to women based solely on their sex. Look at the first link for a list.* And then the tedium of cooking, cleaning, raising kids, serving a husband who's likely never given you an orgasm and is probably cheating on you, while society expects you to look the part perfectly without showing any cracks and never speaking out of turn (see second link**)...it sounds exhausting.
*http://offbeat.topix.com/slideshow/15483/
**http://www.villagevoice.com/news/heres-the-1950s-quiz-that-proves-you-are-a-terrible-wife-6668156
There's something I know when I'm with you that I forget when I'm away
It was the ennui that Betty Friedan wrote about in the Feminine Mystique.
shareDon't forget that this was a relatively small segment of the population - upper middle class women whose husbands had good jobs, who had all of the modern conveniences of the time, so they had a lot of extra time on their hands but were too conformist to risk doing something constructive. Middle and lower class women were still working whatever jobs they could get while taking care of their homes and families, and wealthy women were doing the same-old same-old (ie., whatever they wanted).
For some reason, this small group just gets all of the press.
[deleted]
Why are people depressed to begin with? I don't think it's a random disease, she was depressed because her life was unfulfilling.
shareTo answer the OP--I suspect a bit of both. It did seem to me that April may have suffered from clinical depression or perhaps a mood disorder, but her clearly unfulfilling life sure wasn't helping.
shareI think it*s both. She suffered from huge depression and was not meant to be the typical houswife from that time.
I don*t think she ever wanted to have kids. But it would have been strange if they didn*t got any.
So she was captured in this mother role she never fitted in.
Modernly, there are women who get abortions to keep a burden out of their life, and women who try everything and spend thousands of dollars to be able to conceive a child. (The father is usually part of either decision, but definitely the second one.)
There are families with one only child, or two children. And there are families where the parents want and welcome 3, 4, 5, or 6 kids.
Humans can be different.
April was a schizotypal type. She had big ideas but lacked the insight to see they were unachievable. When finally faced with failure and having to accept the truth, she blames Frank then cooks up the runaway France scheme.
I wouldn’t put too much in store on what the crazy real estate lady’s son said. He recognized his own type of crazy in April. He couldn’t face his own truth either, so lauded April.