Death on the streets of Venice: John’s struggles.

Don’t Look Now is a short story, written by Daphne du Maurier. It was published in England in 1971, as a part of a series of short stories. The story is about a couple who travel to Venice, to try and get reacquainted with each other after the loss of their daughter, Christine. Two years later, the story was adapted into a movie and directed by Nicholas Roeg. The movie is based on the story by Du Maurier, but there are some significant changes. The focus of this essay shall be to compare the book and the movie, and see what effect the changes have upon the characters.

            The central theme in the story is the supernatural, specifically psychic abilities. In the story, the blind sister and John are both said to have psychic abilities. John and Laura first encounter the identical twins in a restaurant in Torcello. As a part of their usual holiday game, Laura decides to follow one of them when they go to the bathroom. When Laura returns, she tells John all about the amazing news that the active sister just gave her. Her blind twin sister has had a vision of Christine, sitting at the table with her parents in her blue and white birthday-dress with puff sleeves, laughing and being happy. This message soothes Laura’s grief, and she is able to process her loss. John, on the other hand, dismisses the whole vision, thinking it to be irrational and wishes it hadn’t happened. [1] Later that same day, John and Laura run into the old sisters again, and again the blind sister has received a message from Christine. Christine is very worried about her parents, especially her father. She said their lives were in danger if they were to stay in Venice, and should leave immediately. The blind sister also believes John to have psychic abilities, as Christine is trying to talk to him directly.[2] Later, Laura asks him why he hasn’t yet said anything about the message the sisters have passed on to them. John answers: “Because you are perfectly right. I don’t believe it. Quite frankly, I judge your old sisters as being a couple of freaks, if nothing else. They’re obviously unbalanced, and I’m sorry if this hurts you, but the fact is they’ve found a sucker in you”.[3] John absolutely dismisses even the possibility of a person with the gift of clairvoyance. The scientists could not account for it, no one could, so it could not possible exist. [4] The blind sisters hail from Scotland, the active sister is apparently a retired doctor, and the blind sister has studied the occult her whole life. She has only been blind a few years, which is when it became clear to her that she did indeed poses the gift of clairvoyance.[5] She has accepted her gift, and because of this acceptance she is able to pass on a message that helps Laura deal with her grief. She is able to help some people by moving on from their loss, moving forward in their lives. John on the other hand, refuses to accept the message, even the possibility that this message is indeed genuine and from Christine. John’s reliance on logic and rationality is, in the end what leads to his demise. His struggle with his grief over Christine, the dismissal of the possibility of psychic powers all indicate a metaphor for John’s struggle with the feminine side of his character. [6] The story was written in the 1970’s, but the society described in this novel feels much older. It is clear that Du Maurier used her experiences from her formative period to create this society. It is a society with its still rigid class and gender differences. [7] Psychic abilities, especially clairvoyance, involve a kind of sensitivity, of vulnerability. One has to be open to receive the messages that the dead wish to pass on. This kind of sensitivity is mostly attributed to women, especially in earlier societies with strict gender differences. Women were sensitive and gentle, while the men needed to rely on ratio and logic to protect them and guide them. This is very much the case in the story, especially when John and Laura get lost in the back streets of Venice. Even before they take the wrong turn, Laura objects, stating that it feels wrong. John dismisses this as nonsense, as he has an instinct for these things.[8] John’s constant insistence on logic and ratio eventually lead him deeper into a web of wrong choices, concluding with the loss of his life. This repression of John’s feminine side possibly stems from Du Maurier’s personal struggle with her identity as a woman writer. Daphne du Maurier was the second daughter of George and Muriel du Maurier. Her father had always wished for a son, but had three daughters instead. Daphne was the middle child, and the only one with an interest in literature. She was George’s favourite child, possibly partly because he saw in her a continuation of his father’s literary talents. Because of her close connection to her father, and a lack of a good relationship with her mother, du Maurier grew up wishing to be a boy.[9] Her struggle with identity stayed with her throughout her life and always found its way into her stories. Her authorship is what allowed her to explore other ‘identities’.[10]

During the story, John hopes to be able to return to what he considers to be ‘normal’ with Laura. While playing their game at the restaurant, he notices that she’s humming, a sign to him that she is happy, that the ghost has been ‘temporarily laid’ to rest.[11] He does not seem to realise that ‘normal’ no longer exists, that it has died when Christine died. He refuses to accept his grief, refuses to let himself feel sad. This becomes clear towards the end of the story. John is left behind in Venice after Laura rushes back to be with Johnnie, and John is convinced he saw Laura in her scarlet coat on the ferry, heading back into Venice. He is alone in the hotel, where someone’s radio is blasting forth an old song. “I love you baby… I can’t get you out of my mind”.[12] The song, apparently, was one of Laura’s favourite songs, and seems to remind him of their daughter. He has ordered a drink, sloshes it back, and “in a few moments, the ever-nagging pain was eased, numbed”.[13] Hearing an old song, one Laura probably sang together with their daughter, brings to the surface this pain that he keeps under wraps at all time. John feels that he has to stay strong, be there for Laura, ensure that she is not going insane, that she too, remains rational. To John, the idea that Christine is still with them is a fearful idea, as it refuses him the comfortable idea that the grave is something which is final, conclusive.[14] John’s struggle with his grief, with this softer side of his personality is very important in the story, as it shapes the actions and the logic behind these actions. In the end, ratio and the notion of needing to protect this strange child that reminds him of his daughter, is what leads him to his death.

The central theme of the movie is, of course, also present in the movie. However, there have been several changes to the movie that also influence the central theme of the movie. Firstly, John and Laura have been given more of an identity. They are John and Laura Baxter, and they haven’t travelled to Venice on a holiday, but for work. John has been hired to restore a church, and was doing preparatory work in the beginning of the movie. He was studying several dia slides with pictures of the church he was going to restore. In one of the slides, a figure with a red hood is visible inside the church. The beginning of the movie takes place in the family home of the Baxter’s, where Christine and Johnnie are playing outside, while their parents work inside. Christine’s ball falls into the water, and while she wants to retrieve it, she falls into the pond and drowns. At the same time, we see her father spill a drink on the slide with the red figure, after which the red starts ‘bleeding’ all through the image. This image, of the red bleeding over the slide, is featured throughout the film.[15] After this image, John suddenly looks up, and rushes outside for no apparent reason. Even though he rushed to save his daughter, he was too late, and was unable to resuscitate her.[16] During their time in Venice, they are trying to come to terms with their loss. John, like in the story, refuses to talk about it. He focusses entirely on his work restoring the church, and living a life as normally as possible, while Laura is trying her best to hold on to Christine. Yet, there are more instances in the movie where John remembers Christine, especially when he is simply looking at the water when he’s alone. During the film, there are a few shots, zooming in on the water which then lead to a short flashback to either Christine or the moments after her death, of the sadness he saw in Laura. This is one of the main indicators setting the movie carefully in the context of the early seventies.[17] Even though John does remember Christine every once in a while, it is clear that he struggles with this grief. He failed in his role to protect his family, he failed to save his daughter, and he has no way of saving his wife from her grief.[18] After Laura’s conversation with the old sisters, she loses consciousness and is taken to the hospital. Once there, she’s playing with the children in the room next to hers, one of whom has a ball very similar to the one Christine was playing with when she died. When Laura tells John about the message the sisters have given her, he does not dismiss it as irrational. His smile disappears from his face, and he states very simply: “Christine is dead, Laura. Christine is dead”.[19] He does not seem to have a problem with the acclaimed psychic abilities from one of the sisters, he does however, have a problem with the fact that they claim that Christine is still with hem. Seeing as he feels terribly guilty about Christine’s death, this makes sense. The idea of the ghost of someone you failed to save still lingering around would be unsettling to everyone. He wants to continue his life as normally as possible, and mention Christine very sparsely. Laura on the other hand, does not want to let go of her daughter, she is holding on to her in every way that she can. She has the ball that Christine was playing with when she died in her suitcase at the hotel, a token of her lost daughter.[20] Later in the movie, while John is working, Laura meets the sisters again. This time they invite her to have tea with them at their hotel, but John refuses to let her get swept up by their magic mumbo jumbo. This is when a new aspect of John’s guilt is revealed: he is the one who said to let the children play where they wanted, he’s the one who let her go near that pond.[21] This revelation seems to indicate that Laura blames him for Christine’s death, but is trying to come to terms with this. This is quite an important change in the central theme in the movie, as now it’s no longer about John struggling with his feminine side, but John struggling with traumatic memories of failing to protect and save his daughter. Traumatic recall is the painful resurfacing of events of a tragic nature.[22] John remembers Christine every time he is alone and looks into the water. This definitely constitutes as traumatic recall and is quite a significant change.

            There are of course, other changes in the movie. The director decided to change Christine’s clothing: she does not wear a white and blue dress with puff sleeves, but a shiny red mac, which is much more distinguishable in the dark streets of Venice. John is startled when he first sees a small figure crossing his field of sight rather quickly, and instantly stops to see if the figure comes back. Of course, this is not the case until the ending of the movie. Each time John or Laura remembers Christine, she is running towards them, smiling and she’s always wearing that shiny red mac. The movie also takes place in a different season of the year. In the story, John and Laura are in Venice on a holiday, and they are enjoying themselves in the sun. In the movie, it is getting much colder. They always need their scarves and gloves, and hotels are closing for the winter. In the story, the city seems bright and sheltered during the day, but that brightness disappears entirely once the sun sets. Then, Venice turns out to be an entirely different city, where the long narrow boats on the canals remind John of coffins.[23] The movie takes place in the late autumn, early winter, and this bright façade already starts to fade during the day. The streets are deserted, people close their windows to keep out the cold. Venice is a brilliant city, but has a very dark side, a dark side suggested by the labyrinth of narrow canals which John initially negotiates so well, but where he eventually loses more than just his way.[24]

            Of course, the story has been dramatized to entertain the audiences. The movie has been marketed as a ‘psychic thriller’, thus it needed to contain some scaring moments.[25] This has been added into the movie by naming the two sisters, and by focusing on their ‘weirdness’. The blind sister is named Heather and the active one is called Wendy. They are seen laughing hysterically during the scene where Laura convinces John to let her have tea with them, and every close-up, they have this smile on their faces, which can only make the viewer feel uncomfortable. After the prophecy that their lives are in danger, and Laura has left to be with Johnnie, John has a terrible accident at the church he is restoring, and only barely makes it out without any injury. Of course he is shaken up by the whole incident, and for a moment actually believes that this was the prophecy. Unfortunately, the series of events that follows prove him wrong. While following the small, hooded figure in the red coat through the canals of Venice, John seals his own fate. He locks the gates, and with it, locks out his only rescue. At the ending of the movie, the ‘bleeding’ slide is once again shown, and it is now clear that this was a prophecy of John’s blood spilling from his neck wound all along.

Bibliography

Bal, Mieke, ‘Introduction’, in Mieke Bal, Jonathan V. Crewe, Leo Spitzer (eds.), Acts of Memory: Cultural Recall in the Present (Hanover and London 1999).

Du Maurier, Daphne, Don’t Look Now (London 2015).

The Editors of Encyclopedia Britannica, ‘Clairvoyance’: https://www.britannica.com/topic/clairvoyance (07/01/2017).

Horner, Avril and Sue Zlosnik, Daphne du Maurier: Writing, Identity and the Gothic Imagination (London 1998).

International Movie Database, ‘Don’t Look Now (1973)’: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0069995/?ref_=nv_sr_1 (08/01/2017).

Leyshon, Nell, ‘Death in Venice’: https://www.theguardian.com/books/2007/jan/27/fiction.daphnedumaurier (07/01/2017).

Roeg, Nicholas (director), Don’t Look Now (1973).

Wisker, Gina, ‘Don’t Look Now! The compulsions and revelations of Daphne du Maurier’s horror writing’, Journal of Gender Studies 8 (1999).