Betrayal and other domestic concerns

We watched Casablanca last night. Victor or Rick? Victor or Rick? Does Ilsa do the right thing? Is being part of someone's work, the thing that keeps him going, fulfilling for her? And how can Victor really be the victor if Ilsa spends the rest of her life yearning for Rick?

I don't think Rick really wants to marry her. I think he likes the roaming maverick role, saving youthful innocence from the paws of the lecherous police chief, holding the real power in Casablanca between his jaded, done-it-all palms. He sends her off with Victor because he wouldn't have known what to do with her if she'd stayed with him.

Poor Ilsa.

I hope she developed outside interests and revelled in all the free time her husband's political activities gave her. Or got involved - Beautiful Silk-Clad Women Against the Bomb. Or something. But the film doesn't hold out that hope. She's a cipher, that's all - a symbol through which the boys fight to see who's got the noblest willy.

Stephen's work's in trouble. And what it means in practice is that I constantly come second. In everything. Never before has he said, 'Nothing,' when I've asked what he's doing. Now he does it all the time. There are bad things happening in the wider world, and when Stephen won't talk to me, I feel that they're lapping at our door. I'm as supportive as I can be - after all, I'm part of his work, the thing that keeps him going. But it's not enough. Not for me. All I can do at the moment is hope that it's enough for him.