Marilyn Monroe by Rollyson Carl

Author:Rollyson, Carl [Rollyson, Carl]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 2014-07-18T14:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

The Poet of Her Aspirations (December 1950–July 1956)

After all I have come up from way down.

When exactly did Marilyn Monroe become aware of Arthur Miller and of the special relevance of his writing for her? She had read his novel Focus (1945) before their first meeting on a movie set in December of 1950, and she seemed prepared that same week to engage him during their second encounter at a Hollywood party. After that evening of considerable conversation and silent rapport, she told Natasha Lytess, “It was like running into a tree! You know—like a cool drink when you’ve got a fever. You see my toe—this toe? Well he sat and held my toe and we just looked into each other’s eyes almost all evening.” Miller talked about his next play. They shared their admiration for Lincoln, and later Miller recommended Monroe read Carl Sandburg’s Lincoln biography. She hinted at her need for a hero and observed that she never even had a father to admire. Had Miller, coming to her just after Johnny Hyde’s death, played the father for her, touching only her toe while he seemed absorbed in the tale of her whole life?

Miller behaved like a secret sharer of Monroe’s dilemma, and in a long letter written shortly after their second meeting he urged her to keep her own counsel: “Bewitch them [the public] with this image they ask for, but I hope and almost pray you won’t be hurt in this game, nor ever change. . . .” Perhaps she was attracted to his seemingly selfless identification with her problem; here was a man who was not after her sexually and who did not dispute her integrity. He had seen her whole, objectively, and she responded to his quiet, soothing presence—very much like Maggie in Miller’s After The Fall, who commends her husband Quentin for having once looked at her “out of your self.” In other words, Miller had not responded to her as a stereotype, a projection of his fantasies, but instead had accepted her on her own terms. He seemed fully aware of the stereotyping that could destroy her (he had already created Itzik, the character in Focus who “should never have allowed himself to accept the role that was not his”).

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