War of the Roses: Theoretical Thesis

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Later that night as the couple is preparing to go to bed, they rehash the events of the dinner, and we can see that they have grown apart. Barbara comments on Oliver's phony laugh, and Oliver defends his laugh and his behavior in interrupting Barbara's Baccarat story, by explaining that he has his eyes on the prize of becoming law partner, and if that means he has to force a laugh on occasion, then he is willing to do that for his family. Even at this point in the movie, however, the Roses do not recognize that they are in trouble as a couple and as a family. It is also clear that the love is fading, at the beginning or early days of their marriage, Barbara would never have criticized Oliver, but would have acquiesced without comment. It is perhaps that acquiescence that is at the root of their increasing dysfunction.

Later, when Barbara has finally made the deal on the house of "their" dreams, a house she has been watching and waiting for years to go on the market; she is at the right place at the right time when the owner dies, and she gets the house. All the years that she is raising Josh and Carolyn, Barbara is redoing their dream house mansion. Now, the children are leaving for college, and Barbara's role is changing and she expresses her confusion about this while interviewing Susan, the housekeeper that Oliver has arranged for her interview.

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For Oliver, the housekeeper is a status symbol, but for Barbara, the housekeeper is an acknowledgement that her house, though full of things, is empty, and that, especially with Susan there, she has no responsibility in her life and makes no contribution to her family. The structure in her life has suddenly changed, and she is not facing it well. Barbara is manifesting the conflict and feminist perspectives of family (Bus and Malamuth 296).

Oliver, on the other hand, refuses to acknowledge that there is a problem. His children are going off to college, and his wife wants a divorce. He is replacing his children with a new member of the household, Susan. He remains in complete charge of the family and household, and even when Barbara seeks to establish for herself a career, he sabotages it, because he is jealous of her time spent on her catering service, and because he cannot allow his own ego to experience the change in dominance he has over the family.

This dysfunctional relationship satirizes real life, but the elements of the fading love, the changing role of women, the dominance of the head of household income earner, and his role as the director of the family is very much a reflection of the family in decline from the functional and conflict perspectives.

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