Aunt Ruth
Posted: 13 May 2014At this point I don't want to get into this topic too deeply. I just want to mention something concerning Aunt Ruth I didn't notice before. Thanks to the topic "MM connections" I started thinking about the true nature of Aunt Ruth.
I did notice before that Aunt Ruth doesn't have any contact with anybody (exept very sparsely with her chauffeur). I always thought that Aunt Ruth was purely fictional and linked to Rita Hayworth, who Diane admired as a child, through her hair color. I just couldn't figure out the real "need" for this fictional person. Now I think I have a better "explanation" concerning Aunt Ruth.
Marilyn Monroe apparently always referred to her real mother as "that woman with red hair." Could it be possible that Aunt Ruth is a replacement figure for Diane's real mother which presumably is dead? This way the red hair refers to Aunt Ruth as being Diane's real mother and also establishes the link between her mother and Rita Hayworth. Aunt Ruth than is a crossing between these two women. This would also seem to suggest that Diane realy loved her mother and due to her fleeing into her fantasy world being Hollywood she combined her mother with her idol Rita Hayworth. Hence the birth of Aunt Ruth.
This is speculation of course and I do not have any credible evidence to back that up. This to me seem to solve a couple of problems, not in the least the one where Diane's parents are. We never here her speak about her mother, only a reference to "her father" during the rehearsal scene in which Betty states (playing the role): "My father is up stairs." This to me seem to suggest that her parents are indeed dead (maybe killed in some accident) and that Diane has been raised by her grandparents who abused her. Hence Diane's wish that her mother was still alive, who in her fantasy is modelled after Rita Hayworth: red hair and succesful.
Still, this is just a proverbial sketch of my take on Aunt Ruth. I cannot find enough material to seal this interpretation tightly. But that's one of the beauties of this movie, isn't it?
I did notice before that Aunt Ruth doesn't have any contact with anybody (exept very sparsely with her chauffeur). I always thought that Aunt Ruth was purely fictional and linked to Rita Hayworth, who Diane admired as a child, through her hair color. I just couldn't figure out the real "need" for this fictional person. Now I think I have a better "explanation" concerning Aunt Ruth.
Marilyn Monroe apparently always referred to her real mother as "that woman with red hair." Could it be possible that Aunt Ruth is a replacement figure for Diane's real mother which presumably is dead? This way the red hair refers to Aunt Ruth as being Diane's real mother and also establishes the link between her mother and Rita Hayworth. Aunt Ruth than is a crossing between these two women. This would also seem to suggest that Diane realy loved her mother and due to her fleeing into her fantasy world being Hollywood she combined her mother with her idol Rita Hayworth. Hence the birth of Aunt Ruth.
This is speculation of course and I do not have any credible evidence to back that up. This to me seem to solve a couple of problems, not in the least the one where Diane's parents are. We never here her speak about her mother, only a reference to "her father" during the rehearsal scene in which Betty states (playing the role): "My father is up stairs." This to me seem to suggest that her parents are indeed dead (maybe killed in some accident) and that Diane has been raised by her grandparents who abused her. Hence Diane's wish that her mother was still alive, who in her fantasy is modelled after Rita Hayworth: red hair and succesful.
Still, this is just a proverbial sketch of my take on Aunt Ruth. I cannot find enough material to seal this interpretation tightly. But that's one of the beauties of this movie, isn't it?
