Second Blog Post

Peter Brooks in the Melodramatic Imagination talks about something he calls the "moral occult". On page 5 of the book Brooks says "We might say that the center of interest and the scene of underlying drama reside within the 'moral occult'." Brooks states that the whole point of a melodrama is finding this "moral occult". What makes the melodrama interesting is that we know things that others in the book, movie, play etc. don't know. So we are waiting in anticipation in seeing what the other characters reactions are to this "secret" that we the audience are aware of. This unknown is what is in the moral occult. An example of a secret in a melodramatic piece is in the 1945 film Leave Her to Heaven. In this movie Ellen Berent, who is mentally unstable, falls for writer Richard Harland because he reminds of her father; who she had an obsession with. The two get married and Ellen slowly makes sure that his attention and love can only be focused on her. She does this by first killing his brother. Then later on she goes so far as to kill their unborn child when she pushes herself down the stairs. What makes the movie interesting besides the fact that Ellen is a nutcase, is the anticipation of seeing how Richard and the others will react when they uncover the things that Ellen has done. These actions being something already known by the audience. This is how the moral occult works and is evident in a melodramatic piece.