Dragonwyck Page #9

I'm sure you are still unable

to understand.

I want to try, if you'll help me.

Shall I? Shall I tell you

what you want to know?

Brace yourself.

Prepare to have your God-fearing,

farm-bred prayer-fattened morality...

shaken to its core!

You see, I have become what is

vulgarly known as a... drug addict.

Why?

No tearful reproaches?

No attempts to save me, to regenerate me?

Why do you fnd it necessary?

That is what you could not

hope to comprehend.

It is because I have set free

something within me...

something that, ever since I can remember,

has been like a rock...

caught in my heart, in my brain...

pushing at me, choking me.

I know you better than you think.

Perhaps I have underestimated

your intelligence.

No. It's pretty ordinary and farm-bred.

I couldn't follow everything you said,

but I think it's pretty simple.

You're just plain running away.

Is it as simple as that?

I've seen farmers with their crops ruined

and their cattle dead.

And most of them just go to work...

but some of them blame their troubles

on God and get drunk...

to forget, to run away...

to run away and hide!

That's what you're doing.

Whenever you've come up against something

unpleasant that you couldn't change...

- Like the rent laws...

- Or the death of my son.

- Our son.

- Get out of here.

- Nicholas, let me help you.

- I don't need to be helped.

Help me then.

Please don't shut me out like this.

Let me be unhappy with you

and happy again.

Let me be part of you.

Let me love you, and love me too!

That's quite a story, Peggy, but...

I'm afraid you'll have to tell Mrs. Van Ryn

there isn't much I can do for her husband.

Tell her?

She doesn't even know I've come here.

- Then what...

- Do you suppose I'd so much

as whistle to get help for him?

- It's her I'm afraid for, Dr. Jeff.

- Afraid of what?

I can't say right out, but there's

a blackness in that house and in him.

His comin' and goin',

the look in his eye when he watches her.

You've got to come and take her away!

- What makes you think she'd want to go?

- Whether she wants to or not!

I'm only a doctor. I've got no right.

You can't leave her there

to be hurt and hurt again...

not knowing what she's done wrong

or how to do right...

happy as a child because he so much

as sends a plant to her room.

- A plant?

- An ugly-looking growth to my taste

from Egypt or Asia or...

- Has she been taking her meals in her room?

- Yes, ofttimes.

Why?

Come on.

Please don't stop on my account.

Your father wouldn't have.

I remember how he continued

to read so doggedly.

Ephraim Wells took his religion without

fiinching, the way a strong man should.

Nicholas, what do you want?

I appreciate

the warmth of your greeting...

quick happiness in your face at my appearance,

your pleasure at my company.

Why have you come here?

Inasmuch as this is my house,

must I explain my presence in it?

Of course not.

Forgive me. I'm... I'm so tired.

I'm sure you are.

This has been a trying time for you.

And yet strangely enough,

your tribulations seem to have become you.

I cannot remember you

more beautiful than you are now.

Your beauty amazes me

as much now as always.

Your strength, the earthiness

of your peasant stock...

More, your grace...

your unexpected look of quality.

It would be a pity

if we were not to have another...

if you were barren.

- That's a matter of the Lord's will.

- Oh, yes. The Lord...

I'd forgotten. The Lord

who giveth life and also takes it away.

- Why did he take my son's life?

- I have no way of knowing that.

It could not have been without purpose.

No one gives life...

takes it without purpose.

Why do you suppose you are here, Miranda?

By the Lord's will, or by mine?

What you are is the refiection

of what I wanted you to be.

You live the life that I gave you.

Now you do look frightened.

What are you thinking?

- OfJohanna.

- Why?

I don't know.

(Woman Singing Faintly)

- Do you hear it?

- What?

Nothing. Wind through the trees.

- There is no wind!

- There is!

A creaking board somewhere.

- (Harpsichord Playing)

- It's not important. It's stopped now.

- But I didn't hear anything.

- Neither did I!

Yes, you do.

It's... It's from the Red Room!

- The harpsichord... Azilde!

- Stop it!

Then Katrine did hear her that night

when Johanna...

And you must've heard her too. And you must've

been listening the night our little son...

I never believed it really, but now I do.

(Harpsichord, Singing Continues)

(Ends)

I just happened to be passing by,

and I thought I'd drop in.

Passing by? I see.

Summoned in the best heroic tradition

by the faithful little cripple.

And have you an army of farmers equipped

with pitchforks lurking in the garden?

No. That fght's all over,

and you lost it.

But Peggy seemed worried

about you, so I...

Do I look as if I needed medical aid

in the dead of the night?

You can hardly expect a diagnosis from me

based upon your appearance alone.

It's good to know you have become

more careful in your diagnoses, Doctor.

I can recall when you were less thorough.

- I've improved a lot since then.

- There was much room for improvement.

May I be frank?

You're not a very good doctor, Dr. Turner.

There are too many things

you should know that you don't.

I still insist I've improved.

For one thing, I've learned

a great deal about plant life.

I would think that human life

were more to the point.

I've discovered that the two

are strangely related.

You know, in a way,

you're responsible for it all.

How nice. We must discuss

your discoveries sometime soon.

- What about right now?

- (Miranda)Jeff.

What are you doing here

at this time of night?

- The patroon and I are discussing fiowers.

- Flowers?

While we're on the subject, I suppose you've

thanked him for the lovely plant in your room?

- I don't understand.

- It doesn't matter. He does.

Is it as pretty as the plant in your late wife's

bedroom the night she died?

Aren't you letting the discussion

become rather morbid, Dr. Turner?

I was never able to forget that plant.

At frst I thought it was beautiful.

- But I've learned since then it was also very deadly.

- Nicholas, what does he mean?

It's a glucoside similar in action

to digitalis but much more toxic.

It was a good idea to have a doctor on hand

that night you asked me to stay for dinner.

Weren't you lucky

I wasn't a better doctor at the time?

It was all so legitimate.

Your wife with a bad cold...

She couldn't have tasted anything

in the cake. It was all soaked with rum.!

I don't believe it!

Miranda...

you'd better come with us.

Come on.

Tom Wilson.

jeb Ribling! Gebhard, Brown, Berger...

Come forward, all of you!

I have something to say to you.

Apparently I have not yet been able

to make my position clear.

I will try once more...

but believe me,

my patience has come to an end!

Lives, liberties, happinesses...

Pursue them where you will. Sing and dance

Rate this script:5.0 / 1 vote