Jay’s Sample from the film The Misfits

Character name:  Rosalyn Taber

Astrological sign that best fits this character: Cancer

Explain your choice:  Cancers have an intense need to LOVE and FEEL LOVED.  Their emotions swing from one extreme to another. In their world, they often feel insecure.  They may always be on edge. Because of their insecurities, they may appear shy and sensitive.  In the movie The Misfits, the character Rosalyn Taber comes to Reno, Nevada to petition for a divorce.  Her traveling-salesman husband follows her because he loves her and wants her.  But, Rosalyn doesn’t feel it. Quite possibly, she was never able to communicate her sadness to her husband, but in court she says because he was always working, he was never there.  She felt so alone.   

Write a line from the text that  supports your explanations:

Soon into the movie, Rosalyn meets Clark Gable in a bar. Gable’s character is named Gay (short  for Gable!).   Although he may be 25 years older than Rosalyn, he catches her at a very vulnerable time in her life.  She is confused, if not frightened for where her life is headed.  And Gay knows it.  It doesn’t take him long to  put across the love and charm he believe she needs. But, in the scene where Gay makes his move, she rejects hi.  Gay says, “What makes you so sad?  I think you are the saddest girl I ever met.” 

Jay's Note:  When Marlyn was a young child, her mother Gladys worked in a Hollywood movie studio. I think she was a filmcutter. She was very pretty herself. She was also a drinker and a partyer. At one point in her life before she was separated from her mother, Marilyn/Norma Jeane asked her mom who was that guy in the picture hanging on the wall of their home. The picture was framed in silver. The guy in the picture wore a mustache and had his hair slicked back. It was a picture of famous movie star Clark Gable (see below). Gladys told Norma Jeane, "That's your father…." Norma Jeane grew up without a father. When Gladys was commited to a mental hospital, Norma Jeane was handed off to an orphanage. She grew up obsessed with finding her father. Later, she found out that her mother slept with a lot of men. Clark Gable slept with a lot of women. Everyone knew that. Thirty years later, Marilyn met up with Clark on the Misfits set. They were to play lovers. I wonder what was going on inside her head and her heart when she shook hands with the man in the picture in the silver frame.