Sunday, February 7, 2010
Who could now play the role of Maria [in the Sound of Music], as Julie Andrews played it? She was womanly, tender, cheerful, largehearted, and, dare I say it, properly submissive; and if she had instead been a caricature of these things, if she had been bitchy, touchy, prim, emotionally unruly, or a doormat, why on earth would any sane man propose to her? Captain von Trapp is attracted to the woman in her, the woman who can at one time rebuke him for ignoring his children, and then, when he has regained his senses, be the delegate of his authority and his love, in taking care of the children as their mother.
— Anthony Esolen, A Lot of Sound, No Music #
