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Lisa Houseman changed her political opinions because she fell in love with Robbie Gould. Lisa abandoned her mother's liberal opinions and adopted Robbie's libertarian opinions. Lisa abandoned her mother's belief that our government should be empowered to raise taxes in order to pay for generous support programs for disadvantaged people. Instead, Lisa adopted Robbie's belief that our government should minimize meddling in the economy so that innovative entrepreneurs could develop the entire society's prosperity.
This is the political rebellion of Lisa that I am discussing in this series of articles.
I know that Lisa adopted Robbie's political opinions because:
1) She read his favorite political book The Fountainhead.Lisa's decision "to go all the way" was the proof that she read Robbie's book, fell in love with him, adopted his politics and decided that he was "Mr. Right". The entire sequence of events -- in particular, her political change -- can be deduced from her ultimate decision "to go all the way".
2) Because she read the book, she fell in love with him and adopted his politics.
3) Therefore she decided that he was "Mr. Right" -- her future husband.
4) Therefore she decided "to go all the way" with him sexually.
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However, Lisa's political rebellion was brief. Soon, Lisa found Robbie in bed with Vivian Pressman and realized that he was not Mr. Right after all. She fell out of love with him and abandoned the libertarianism that she had just begun to appreciate.
Baby never realized that her sister Lisa briefly fell in love with Robbie and his politics. Although Lisa confided in Baby that she had decided "to go all the way" with Robbie, Baby misinterpreted Lisa's confession. Baby responded:
No, no, not with someone like him. ....But Lisa did love Robbie!
It's just wrong this way. It should be with someone -- with someone that you sort of love.
Baby thought mistakenly that Lisa decided "to go all the way" merely because Lisa was sexually aroused so chronically that she wanted to have sex with any attractive man -- even with a "creep" like Robbie.
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In the July 1986 script, in the first scene, Lisa declares her sexual desires. The circumstances are that the Housemans are riding in their car. Jake is driving, Marjorie is reading a teenage-girl magazine, Baby is reading an economics textbook, and Lisa is primping her hair and makeup. Lisa also is doing dance moves in time to the the car's radio music. Lisa grabs Baby's hand to join in Lisa's dance moves, but Baby yanks her hand away.
Lisa whispers to Baby -- their parent are not supposed to hear -- that during the Cuban Missile Crisis in October 1962, Lisa had feared that a nuclear war might begin and so she might die without ever experiencing sexual intercourse. This fear had struck Lisa while she was shopping with her mother and while Baby and Jake were at home watching the news on television.
Lisa's remark about desiring sexual intercourse disgusts Baby. In response, Baby leans forward from the car's back seat and puts her arms affectionately around her father's neck.
Marjorie, sitting in the front passenger seat, remarks:
Maybe this is the right place our Lisa will find Mr. Right.We do not know whether Marjorie overheard Lisa's remark about desiring sexual intercourse.
(Click on the below images to enlarge them.)
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| Script Page 2 |
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| Script Page 3 |
Marjorie does understand that 19-year-old Lisa has been looking for Mr. Right -- is looking for a husband.
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In 1963, the median age of first marriage for American women was 20½ years old. Since the average engagement period is a year or so, 19-year-old Lisa was near the median engagement age but apparently did not even have a steady boyfriend.
Baby's perception about Lisa's situation was cynical. Baby perceived that Lisa's primary desire was to experience sexual intercourse and that finding a wonderful husband was secondary. That is why Baby's response to Lisa's sexual remark was to embrace her father, who was Baby's model for a wonderful husband.
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Baby mocks her mother for reading a teenage-girl magazine when she could be reading instead Madame Bovary. A moment after making this suggestion, Baby embraces her doctor father as her model of a wonderful husband.
That novel"s title character is a woman who marries a medical doctor and becomes bored and sexually unsatisfied with him. Therefore she gets into an extra-marital affair with another man. After four years of this affair, she wants to run away with her lover, who responds by dumping her.
After a while, this doctor's wife begins another sexual affair, with another man. When he obviously becomes bored with her, she buys herself lots of personal luxuries, thus accumulating huge debts for her doctor husband.
Eventually, Madame Bovary commits suicide. Afterwards, her doctor husband discovers her written correspondence with her two lovers. The doctor husband dies of a broken heart. The daughter of the doctor husband and his wife becomes an impoverished orphan, working in a cotton mill.
Obviously, Baby does not know anything about the novel Madame Bovary beyond its notoriety. Baby's suggestion that her mother, a doctor's wife, read Madame Bovary is inappropriate and stupid.
Fortunately, this dialogue was not included in the 1987 movie.
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The movie does mention another recommended novel -- The Fountainhead, written by Ayn Rand. In this case, the recommendation was addressed by Robbie Gould to Baby Houseman. She refused to even consider his recommendation to read the novel.
Robbie then recommended the novel to Lisa, who did read it. The novel significantly changed Lisa's political opinions and also motivated her "to go all the way" with Robbie sexually.
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Continued in Part 4
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