What does everyone think happenned to Rose's mom? Rose never mentioned her at the end of the movie, like she did about Cal's misfortune. In the beginning of the movie, one of the guys said that she was an actress named Rose Dawson. If that was the case, why didn't her mother see any pictures of her and realize that it was her daughter and she did survive the sinking?

-- Emily Wong (etwong@ucdavis.edu), January 24, 1998

Answers

Emily- I thought the same thing! I just couldn't believe that Rose did not contact her mother is all those years. Imagine, she got married, had children and in all those years never once thought that they could put it all behind them and be re-united? I don't know if I could have done the same thing. Good question!

-- Caron (bianchi@iserv.net), January 24, 1998.

I would think that Cal, for propriety's sake, would have set Ruth up with a modest income.

Lovett's guy said he was only able to trace Rose back to the 20's, about 8 years after the sinking. Maybe she was a stage actress in California before that or maybe Ruth didn't go to the pictures and since everyone thought Rose was dead, no one made the connection. (With all of the make up they wore in the silent pictures you probably couldn't recognize her anyway.) Were movies considered appropriate entertainment for the upper class, I just can't imagine Ruth going to something as common as moving picture shows.

-- crystal smithwick (crystal@hst.com), January 24, 1998.

I guess Rose wanted a whole new life. Rose's mother was pressuring her into a miserable life just for the welfare of herself. The mother didn't care about Rose's happiness. Plus, if the mother did recognize her daughter being an actress, then she too could have tried to contacted her. The fact that she didn't may be because she belived Rose was dead. Rose too, didn't want to see her mother possibly. After all, the mother didn't even try to go back for Rose.

-- Risa (shortyde4@aol.com), January 24, 1998.

How do we know that Rose never goes back to see her mother? Not once does it really come out and say that she doesn't. True, they never mentioned that she did, but I believe that there may have been a chance. Also, Ruth did attempt to stop Rose from running away from her lifeboat. She gripped the side of Titanic but was pulled back in by Molly Brown. You could hear her screams for several minutes. Wow! I just thought of something! Ruth didn't really try to go back and get her! Molly tried to go back but NO ONE else agreed===including Ruth.

-- Steve Parkin (steveparkin@hotmail.com), January 24, 1998.

We see Cal wandering around the 3rd class survivors area looking for Rose, so we know that he is interested in what happened to her (mostly so that he can retrieve the diamond, of course, but we know that he did have feelings for Rose, despite her relationship with Jack). Both Cal and Ruth must have reviewed the survivor lists, which were published in the newspapers. They would have had to have seen the name Rose Dawson and put two and two together. But if Rose did not want to be found, then she could have easily accomplished that. I guess we'll never really know....since neither Rose nor James Cameron wanted to share that with the audience.

-- Kathleen Marcaccio (dkosh@msn.com), January 25, 1998.

It appeared to me that throughout the movie Rose didn't really seem to have a good relationship with her mother. She seemed to resent her for "putting this on her" (refering to the necessity of marrying cal). I can see why. It also appeared to me that ruth's remark while loading the life boats "are the boats going to be seated according to class?" topped it all off. I can't believe ruth never even went after rose. If my mother did this to me, i would have lost all interest in her.

-- Laura (r_dawson23@hotmail.com), January 25, 1998.

Below is from a script that I got off the net, who knows if it is indeed James Cameron's words or someone else's interpretation of scenes that didn't make it in the film but should have. I think Cal did love Rose to as deep a level as his heart could go, but that wasn't nearly as great as the love between Jack and Rose. I'd think that Cal would support Rose's mom, seems like old society ladies always get help from their peers so that they can live in at least some degree of comfort they are acustomed to. But the movie says that Cal shoots himself after the market crash in 28, so who knows what she would have done after that, if she was still alive.

CUT TO: 300 EXT. DECK / CARPATHIA - DAY

It is the afternoon of the 15th. Cal is searching the faces of the widows lining the deck, looking for Rose. The deck of Carpathia is crammed with huddled people, and even the recovered lifeboats of Titanic. On a hatch cover sits an enormous pile of lifebelts.

He keeps walking toward the stern. Seeing Cal's tuxedo, a steward approaches him.

CARPATHIA STEWARD You won't find any of your people back here, sir. It's all steerage.

Cal ignores him and goes amongst this wrecked group, looking under shawls and blankets at one bleak face after another.

Rose is sipping hot tea. Her eyes focus on him as he approaches her. He barely recognizes her. She looks like a refugee, her matted hair hanging in her eyes.

ROSE Yes, I lived. How awkward for you.

CAL Rose... your mother and I have been looking for you-- She holds up her hand, stopping him.

ROSE

Please don't. Don't talk. Just listen. We will make a deal, since that is something you understand. From this moment you do not exist for me, nor I for you. You shall not see me again. And you will not attempt to find me. In return I will keep my silence. Your actions last night need never come to light, and you will get to keep the honor you have carefully purchased.

She fixes him with a glare as cold and hard as the ice which changed their lives.

ROSE Is this in any way unclear?

CAL (after a long beat) What do I tell your mother?

ROSE Tell her that her daughter died with the Titanic. She stands, turning to the rail. Dismissing him. We see Cal stricken with emotion.

-- Jen (jendrew@hotmail.com), January 25, 1998.

Well, I for one am glad that piece of the script ( if indeed it was authentic) was not included. I do not believe Cal would have honored anything Rose asked of him...plus he would have wanted the Ocean's Heart back.

As for Rose's Mother, she problably figured her daughter was lost to her..and probably would not have seen any "photos"...afterall, the life of a actress would have been so comon to her. She was so concerned with class status.

-- Connie Ostlund (sorka@teleport.com), January 26, 1998.

I don't think for a minute that Cal loved Rose. He loved his possession of her and that diamond. If he had married her he would have been a wife-basher. As for Ruth, I too would like to know what became of her. If I left my daughter to freeze to death or drown and didn't try to go back for her I'd deserve everything I got. Karma moves in mysterious ways.

-- Lianne (liannegraham@one.net.au), January 28, 1998.

Let's think about this for a second. Ruth would probably have checked the passenger list to see who survived. Don't you think that, even though she hated Jack, she would have checked for his name? Especially since she knew that Rose was with him when the ship sank. Wouldn't it have been peculiar to see ROSE DAWSON listed on the survivor list? I think that she knew that Rose survived, but she realized that after all of the humiliation that Rose put her through (not getting on the boat, etc.) while on Titanic, that it was better to let her live her own life. She probably would have gone nuts anyways if she found ou that Rose did the deed with Jack.

-- Natalie (mlent@erols.com), February 15, 1998.

Did you realize that when Rose said "Is this in any way unclear?" That that was the same thing Cal said to Rose after he knocked over the table and was telling her she had to obey him. I have that version of the script too, and I thought this was a very strange coincidence --- a "look who's in control now" kind of thing.

-- Natalie (mlent@erols.com), February 15, 1998.

I would have to agree with Natalie. I think her mom would've looked and seen Rose Dawson and figured it out. I think Ruth would've been very ashamed of how she treated her daughter, especially since Rose nearly died. I do believe that Ruth loved her daughter, I think she was just a very scared and proud woman who did not see any other way out of her bad situation (no money). Of course she did not handle it 'right', but we all make mistakes. And by losing Rose (even though Rose lived) I believe Ruth paid the price of her mistake.

I find it hard to believe that Rose never contacted her mother, though. Rose was such a caring and beautiful spirit that to hold a grudge like that against anyone, especially her mother, would be very uncharacteristic. She would not have been scared that her mother would take control of her life again because Rose had already broken free and become independent.

I think that at some point in her life, she would have contacted her mother and made some sort of truce. I don't think Rose could have lived with the guilt of her mother dying before they had had a change to reconcile.

-- Becky Gordon (becky.gordon@pfs.sprint.com), February 18, 1998.

I am also glad that the above mentioned dialogue was not a part of the movie. I like much more that Cal is left to wonder.

-- Becky Gordon (becky.gordon@pfs.sprint.com), February 18, 1998.

based upon the movie, the very last time we saw Ruth, she looked totally out of it in the lifeboat....just sitting there watching what was going on with the ship was probably quite a shock mentally and emotionally....maybe she went crazy and had to be put into a mental hospital...I don't think Cal would have taken care of her after the sinking which would have left Ruth destitute and maybe she died soon afterwards.

-- karen pressley (gemin555@aol.com), February 19, 1998.

Well i think that after this traumatic experience, i believe in my mind that Ruth probably was overcome by grief. REmember the way she looked as she saw the stern of the ship raising upward toward the sky, she had her hands on both her ears, i believe to keep out the horrible cries of so many still on the ship. My thought is that she ended up in a sanitarium, that is why she never noticed Rose in films and pictures. She was not a strong woman and relied on others, maybe at one time she was though, because she says earlier to Rose in the film "{DO you want to see me as a seamtress working?" that told me that she possibly was once not rich at all. Once she became so used to that way of life, Ruth forgot where she came from, wherever that was or so. Therefore i don't think Ruth survived the Tragedy of losing her daughter on the TITANIC, partly because she pushed her into marrying into money for a means of survival for her and Rose.

-- Miz Brown (ShipDreams@aol.com), April 25, 1999.