Never Get Married
Why bother, unless you really want to experience the joys of getting divorced. A Walk Worthwhile? Maybe, maybe not. Perhaps the title describes the journey that the characters went through – each deriving some sort of personal knowledge from the experience – during the divorce process and the aunt’s death. The aunt realized the loneliness of her situation, the young woman realized that what she wanted had nothing to do with the men in her life or money (though I’m not entirely convinced that she does know what she wants…), the husband and lawyer come to grips with their desire for money, and the postman realized the young woman was crazy.
It could also be that the title refers to just the main character. One could argue the contrary to the affore mentioned position. The young woman was the only one who experienced any sort of journey. To undergo such an even requires some element of change. The lawyer and the ex-husband don’t really change at all, however, their flaws become more apparent. The aunt knows that her money is all that people are after, but doesn’t do anything that seriously reconciles this problem. And the postman is simply a catalyst. He has a story to tell, but you never really hear it. He seems to be the only one with knowledge and perspective/insight on all of the issues faced by the characters – sort of an omnipresent know-it-all. The young woman gains the most from the experience. Perhaps, in the end, it was all worthwhile. She frees herself from a relationship she never seemed to be fully satisfied with (in terms of herself and her ex-husband), she breaks from burden of fillial piety toward her aunt due to her aunt’s wealth, and she finds that money is not what she truely wanted/what makes her happy/solves her problems. She seems to find that she wants a deeper existence than materialistic possetions, though she argueabley goes about it in the wrong way (poor postman). To be free of such constraints is worthwhile in the end, but only she can be certain of that. I guess it is what you make of your experiences/journies/”walks” in the end that dictates whether it is worthwhile or not, but i don’t think anyone is qualified in making that decision for someone else. Then again, in theatre all is what you make it to be, and, in the end, it was just a swinging, fun performance……
I think you nailed it. In theatre, we always look for the change the characters make. Little or no change often results in a poor story (though Chekov defies this). In these terms, it is apparent that Vanilla goes through the most change. She has the longest walk. As for “don’t get married”, the Czechs certainly have different views of marriage than we do. For good or bad.
So, you liked it?