At what point do you think Rose fell in love with Jack? I think Jack was in love from the first moment he saw Rose, but when did she fall in love? Was it when Jack went to dinner with Rose or at the steerage party? Or was it before that while they were walking all over the ship the day after he pulled her back? What is your opinion on this? I am not quite sure what to think.

-- Jennifer (sdebesa@worldbank.org), April 09, 1998

Answers

I think Rose fell in love with Jack when he pulled her aside during the tour in the gym. It was right after that that she realized it. I think that she fell in love with his spirit during the walk on the ship deck, but not necessarily him. She was still devoted to Cal up until that point. Until she knew that he cared for her, she didn't allow herself to have more than just feelings of "lust". Until then, she hadn't had anyone to care about her needs. Everyone in her life seemed to care about perception. They only cared that Rose did not ruin how they were perceived by others. I would be curious to see what Rose's father was like. Was she Daddy's girl, or did she have the same distant relationship with him that she had with her mother. But that is a different subject completely.

-- Misty Chacon (HiRver@concentric.net), April 10, 1998.

I agrree with Misty on Rose. About Rose's father I believe he must have kep himself at distance from her. I guess the family triangle - Rose, Ruth and Rose's father - was not a happy one. He was not a good father. He spent all the family's money but they were still left with a good name. So Rose and Ruth were probably obedient to their fate. Rose never mentions anything about her father which explains her feelings (or lack of feelings) about him.

-- Dan Draghici (ddraghic@sprint.ca), April 10, 1998.

I think that Rose fell in love with Jack when she was just about to fall overboard.I also think that Jack fell in love with Rose when he first laid eye's on her.

-- MATT VALASCO (SCOOTER@THE NET.COM), April 10, 1998.

I think Rose fell in love with Jack at dinner, right when he said the lines "I have everything I need .... a few blank sheets of paper ..." Did you see the look she gave him at that moment? Like she had just been shown and had realized who he was and what was important to him -- to be sheltered, to live life as it comes and to have only one possession. Some paper on which to draw. How romantic!

-- Liz (lgoetsch@wppost.depaul.edu), April 10, 1998.

I think Rose BEGAN to fall in love with Jack when she was looking at his sketches on the boat deck. If you see the film again, notice how she looks at him when he's explaining "Madam Bijou" to her. Her expression definitely shows a mixture of confusion and enlightenment. I think she realizes her love for him when he pulls her into the gym, but only decides to go for it while watching the little girl in first class learn her "proper" table manners (I believe she sees this little girl as not only an image of herself but perhaps as a premonition of what her children will have to suffer if she marries Cal).

Jack? "Lust at first sight." LOVE when he pulls her in his arms from the back end of the ship and he introduces himself and asks her name.

-- Gilded Age Junkie (GildedAgeJunkie@yahoo.com), July 26, 1998.