Yes, she was disturbed. She was probably a textbook case sociopath.
In the novel, it is heavily implied that she killed her family in order to be the sole heir. Her hatred toward Rachel and the baby was instant, it didn't just develop after the trauma of miscarriage. She also arranged for Pemberton to die.
I am being redundant because I have posted this elsewhere, but for some reason when they brought this book to film, it seems like they wanted to portray Serena as someone who could have been good, but because of losing her family she was damaged to the point that she couldn't share Pemberton with anyone. When he betrayed her (gave money to the destitute mother of his equally destitute son), she lost her grip, and became vengeful.
In the book, she was always that way, and for that matter so was Pemberton. He actually murdered Rachel's father in an early scene. The old man was going to force Pemberton to marry the girl. He did have a gun on Pemberton, but the latter easily overpowered him and ending up unnecessarily killing an old, broken down man. Pemberton did step in at the end and try to save the child, but it was nothing like the film. It was his sole redeeming quality, he was only slightly better than his wife.
It has been a long time since I read it, but one or both of them also had the sheriff murdered and tortured. They really marginalized the sheriff here, he in fact, was the reason Rachel was saved; and there was no stupid action sequence on a train.
Pemberton and Serena both got and deserved violent deaths (although different than the movie).
I have no idea why they watered this story down so much. Usually when a book is poorly adapted for screen it is because Hollywood tries to use too much melodrama. In this case, they drained the energy and drive right out of the narrative.
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ARH
10 years ago
In the book, Rachel's father planned on killing Pemberton and he had a knife not a gun.
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SnappinTurtle
10 years ago
It has been years since I read it, but I thought the father had a gun, Pemberton overpowered him and then stabbed then stabbed the old man. It has been a long time, I could very well have it backward.
You could argue it was self defense, the father came looking for Pemberton, not the other way around, but Pemberton successfully defended himself, and committed the murder anyway, and left with no sense of consideration for what that meant for the girl or his infant son.
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ARH
10 years ago
Neither had a gun. The father had a bowie knife. The same knife Jacob later used to kill Serena.
From the first page:
"When Pemberton returned to the North Carolina mountains after three months in Boston settling his father's estate, among those waiting on the train platform was a young woman pregnant with Pemberton's child. She was accompanied by her father, who carried beneath his shabby frock coat a bowie knife sharpened with great attentiveness earlier that morning so it would plunge as deep as possible into Pemberton's heart."
Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=97773328
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wyldeone2
9 years ago
Thanks for the book explanation. I rented and watched this movie last night and went away with .... huh? Why such a sketchy story that often seemed to be missing some pieces. The jacket cover says Pemberton's trouble begins when he marries Serena. Afterwards I thought, no, his trouble began when he got the girl on the train platform pregnant, and who obviously had an angry father with a shotgun wedding face with her. As for Serena being disturbed the movie never even hinted at it and led me to believe her miscarriage was the beginning of her depression and jealousy of the son. I agree that based on just the book information you and snappin turtle provided that this movie could have been way better. The near end when Pemberton jumped on the train was really hokey.
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Just try to stay alive and see what the next minute brings.
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EmmaPopell
9 years ago
Your reply just made me buy the book. THANKS! I did not know there was a book!
With our thoughts, we make our World.
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