Duty vs. Heart
A reflection after viewing David Lean's 1945 film, "Brief Encounter"
“Brief Encounter” is a masterful story of doomed love.
Celia Johnson’s Laura Jesson is a self-described “ordinary woman”: a respectable, middle-class, dutiful wife to her husband, Fred, and a caring mother to her several children. She is also a creature of habit, journeying into a nearby town (Milford) the same day every week to shop and pop into a matinée film.
Yet her dutiful life is upended when a train kicks up a piece of grit that lands squarely in her eye. Helpless, a doctor — played by Trevor Howard — swoops in and removes the object obstructing her vision. When she is relieved, Laura sees a charming man: Dr. Alec Harvey.
It is not a revelation of sorts (i.e., a “love at first sight” moment). The interaction is innocent and filled with exchanged pleasantries. Afterwards, Laura goes her way back home and Alec goes his own.
However, the two cross paths again — and this time innocence turns into attraction as they embark on a secret, extramarital affair. To Laura, Alec is a seismic break in her self-diagnosed humdrum existence; meanwhile, Fred — though affable — is aloof, blissfully unaware of his inadequacies in his spousal duties (although, she does not outrightly criticize him for doing so, but the film’s cinematic language more than shows her inner turmoil).
To cover her tracks, Laura begins lying to Fred, and even ropes in other unaware friends into her web of deceit. She even becomes more cruel — at least internally spitting venomous insults toward others, which she regrets instantaneously.
Ultimately, Laura and Alec are not free to love, which is expertly depicted in the film’s cinematography where they are often in tight, dark spaces, rooms, cars and so on.
When the end is nigh, Alec asks for Laura’s forgiveness for “meeting you, in the first place. For taking the piece of grit out of your eye. For loving you. For bringing you so much misery.” Laura responds, saying, “I'll forgive you if you’ll forgive me.”
The two, who even conspire to run away together, dejectedly return to their dutiful lives: Laura to her husband and children, Alec to his family and profession (albeit in South Africa).
Noël Coward’s tight script and David Lean’s wonderful direction can be viewed as an exploration of the British psyche during World War II: where the citizenry subscribed to, and embodied the rallying cry “Keep Calm, and Carry On,” to — without fear — fulfill their respective duties to sustain life’s normalcies in the country during the Battle of Britain.
But a dutiful life is gritty, harsh, and sometimes soulless as one can become lost in the routine. Yet their is also virtue in duty: to work, to a spouse, to children, and to the community. And if one believes the truth — that we are all called to a specific vocation in this Theodrama — then one must realize our lives are not our possession: that we must rise and adhere to God’s call of duty.
Therefore, when Alec removes the grit from Laura’s eye, she mistakenly sees a pleasant life, one without responsibility and amorous, unrequited love. In actuality, Alec is the grit — that being the grit of sin and an unvirtuous existence.
However, a common philosophical axiom of the modern age is to “do what your heart desires” or “the heart wants what the heart wants” because, ultimately, if the heart needs this — that could possibly not make the desire evil. Indeed, generations have absorbed this thinking. But evil is tempting for a reason. Every human who has had the ability to grace this earth has an innate sense to pursue happiness. Now, pursuing happiness is not an ill in and of itself, for it is an inalienable right — and every person should have that ability.
Yet there is a responsibility with free will and reason. Like the freedom to pursue virtue, there is also the freedom to pursue vice. In “Brief Encounter,” the main characters choose the latter — Laura, for a time, rejects her vocation (and marital vows) for this sensuous venture. Like sin, it’s intoxicating at first, but it’s unstainable, as she constantly battles her conscience, whisking away any thought of returning to her normal life. Pursuing only her own heart’s desire and happiness, in consequence, shrinks her compassion for others and the world. In fact, Laura and Alec find themselves on the brink of despair, to the point where the former nearly commits suicide.
Ultimately, freedom is not what we can do, but what we ought to do — it’s a duty that enriches the heart, and vice versa. There is a balance necessary to make one not simply a drone — punching in and punching out without properly examining your actions — but also to not fall away from the path of righteousness. Sometimes, there are difficult responsibilities we wish to escape from or others we reject entirely for being too challenging, even though rejection isn’t what we ought to do for our own sake or the sake of others.
Case and point: are the lovers in “Brief Encounter” free? One would rightfully say no.
At the film’s close, Laura loses the love — ultimately rejecting what her heart desires. Meanwhile, Fred finally realizes his wife is troubled, and sees her pain for the first time. He tenderly consoles his wife, saying, “You’ve been a long way away” and “Thank you for coming back to me,” which is the audience’s only indication that he suspects anything. But prior to this line, he asks “Whatever your dream was, it wasn't a very happy one, was it?” Laura simply utters, “No.”
Without the lens of living through the Second World War, perhaps the modern audience would find the conclusion unsatisfying — or even restrictive: that Laura loses her “true love” in the end, becoming reshackled to her patriarchal duties instead of loosening those chains. Yet Laura and Fred passionately embrace, reforging their marital bonds and attachment — both recognizing, though wordlessly, their shortcomings and recommitment to their calling as husband and wife, and parents.
In pursuing their vocational duty, which is where their souls truly lie, they are free. And Laura’s heart is finally at rest.
May we all be so fortunate to recognize that rest in our vocation.