The Snake Pit Page #10

"No shooting around here."

But they wouldn't listen to me. I've

been chopped up. I've been ground up.

1-9-7-0.

What am I talking about?

Come, come, Gertrude.

Come along, Gertrude.

- Well, this is it.

- What'd you say?

- Nothing. I was just talking to myself.

- A very bad habit.

You must be very sick.

Where'd you come from?

- One.

- One? Well, they bring you here

if you don't go home in a year.

- I hadn't been there a year.

- Sometimes they know sooner.

- Your name, please?

- Virginia Stuart Cunningham.

I'm Miss Somerville.

I keep the record.

I'm sure I haven't taken

your temperature today yet.

Normal. Thank you.

Miss Somerville?

Wasn't she the head nurse

in one before I was there?

Whatever she was,

she ain't anymore.

Very sick, you know.

Hester, let me go!

I won't do it again, I promise!

Let me go! Let me go!

Oh, Miss Vance!

Serves you right. I warned you

to leave Hester alone.

You gotta be careful with her.

Very sick, you know.

She don't talk, and she don't like nobody

she don't know, and she don't know nobody.

She fights 'em.

Hey, where you goin'?

Hello. I know how

you feel, Hester.

I used to feel like that too.

I'd like to be your friend.

Won't you let me

be your friend?

I'm the first lady of the land.

I have a right to cover my face.

I'm the first lady of the land. Nobody

can stop me from covering my face.

I'm the first lady of the land.

Do you know why Hester

didn't want to talk to me?

She thinks I'm just a dame like

all the rest of them. I'll bet you do too.

You all think you're more decent

than I am. I come from a good family!

You can't prove that I'm one of them!

You can't! You can't!

You can't prove that I'm one of them.!

You can't.! You can't.! You can't.!

- # Blong, blong, blong, blong

Blong, blong, blong #

I'm talking to you as

a representative of authority.

Because if they could get Molly out of here,

August 20, 1943, she would give them $10,000.

But they must investigate the case

to the nth degree and make a report on it.

I believe I can prove to them that I was

never insane. I had no bad habits of any kind.

And I'm willing to cooperate. They

can ask me any questions they wish...

and broadcast my answers

all over the world.!

It was strange.

Here I was among all those people...

and at the same time I felt as if I were

looking at them from someplace far away.

The whole place seemed to me

like a deep hole...

and the people down in it

like strange animals...

like...like snakes...

and I'd been thrown into it.

Yes. As though... As though

I were in a snake pit.

A snake pit?

Later... weeks later...

I understood.

I remembered once reading

in a book that long ago...

they used to put insane people

into pits full of snakes.

I think they figured that something which

might drive a normal person insane...

might shock an insane person

back into sanity.

- Did you ever hear of that?

- Yes.

Well, it was just as though

they'd thrown me into a snake pit...

and I was shocked into thinking

that maybe I wasn't as sick as the others...

that I really might get well.

You are getting well.

I hope so. But why, Doctor?

Why am I getting well?

Is it because I'm supposed

to know why I got sick?

- Do you?

- Well, I know what you think.

It's because of what happened to me years

ago... like that doll when I was a little girl.

Well, not quite.

You didn't get sick

only because of the doll.

Was it because my father and mother

were so angry with me?

In a way, yes.

Look, it all starts

long before you can even talk.

It may have started

when you were a few weeks old.

You may have been hungry...

and too often your mother wasn't

there to feed you on time.

Then later, still long before

the doll incident...

you wanted very much

for her to love you.

It wasn't your fault,

but you didn't get that love.

Virginia, darling, I've already

kissed you good night. Now, go to sleep.

That made you turn

to your father.

And when he took your

mother's side against you...

you felt betrayed and unloved.

When children feel that way,

they get very angry.

Often, they want to eliminate the person

they feel doesn't love them.

You mean I wanted my father to die?

No, but unconsciously

you did want to get rid ofhim.

In a sense,

that doll was your father.

Then when he got sick and died, you

couldn't cope with this sense of guilt.

And so you began to bury the memory of

what had happened in your unconscious.

You pushed it down

deeper and deeper.

The years added layers

to cover it up...

but it was still there

and made you hurt yourself.

What did I do?

For example, you didn't

go out with boys.

The reason you gave was that you

were working, trying to become a writer.

Actually, you avoided them because you

were devoted to the memory of your father.

But I did go out

with Gordon.

That was rather like trying

to bring your father back, wasn't it?

Gordon was very like

your father in some ways.

He was head of a family,

wasn't he?

All right, Mother.

Virginia, you sit here.

Janey, stop fidgeting!

He was firm,

commanding, and you liked it.

Hurry, Virginia! You should know

by now I don't like being late.

Your father was punctual

and meticulous. So was Gordon.

- Don't forget... 6:30 sharp.

- Yes, Gordon. I won't forget.

Sometimes

I felt like a child with Gordon...

but I thought

I really loved him then.

When he asked you to marry him,

something deep in you rebelled.

Well, l... I just got sick.

It wasn't that I didn't

want to marry him. I did.

Consciously. But your getting ill...

was the physical expression of your

unconscious feeling that you didn't.

Even before you saw that truck,

you wanted to get rid of Gordon.

And you blamed yourself

for Gordon's death...

just as you blamed

yourself for your father's.

It's horrible, isn't it?

Again you needed love

and protection...

so you went to New York,

to Robert.

Robert? You said Gordon

was like Father. But Robert?

Wasn't he

like the other side of your father?

Yes, he was kind and

thoughtful. He sort of took care of me.

The way your father did?

Yes. But why,

after I was married to Robert...

why did I want

to run away from him?

I remember wanting to,

just before I got sick.

Because you were

going back to your original pattern.

You couldn't face

being married to Robert...

just as you had been unable

to face marriage with Gordon.

Yes, l...

I felt it was wrong somehow.

I felt like a child again.

Mrs. Cunningham, sometimes

children are afraid to grow up...

because they can't let go

of the love they felt for their fathers.

But they can't remain

with their fathers.

They do grow up, and...

and they do marry...

because they learn that husbands

and fathers can't be the same thing.

What did you say?

I said that husbands and fathers

can't be the same thing.

- Can they?

- No, they can't.

- It's funny.

- What is it?

Everything you've said

seems to make sense.

I feel as though

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