Moral Occult

In the Melodramatic Imagination by Peter Brooks, he mentions the “moral occult” and how it is frequently used throughout melodramas. Since melodramas are so overdramatic and so exaggerated, it is very easy to spot the moral occult, because everything is handed right to the audience. Of course in the film, things are hidden from the different characters, but everything is out in the open to the audience. Peter Brooks explains that the moral occult is “spiritual values which are both indicated within and masked by the surface of reality” (Brooks page 5). It is so important, because it allows the audience to know everything that is going on. It gives the viewers anticipation, because they know of the things that are happening behind the backs of the characters, but they are just waiting for the character’s to find out and that makes the story that much more dramatic. When there are secrets and lies are being told, the more time passes the more drama comes, and with melodramas, the character usually find out toward the end. So, the viewer is there waiting for a long time to see all of the drama unfold and it keeps their attention throughout the entire film. For example, in the film Leave Her to Heaven, the viewer knows that the wife is psycho the whole time even though the husband and her sister don’t really know. Also, we know that she deliberately fell down the stairs trying to kill her unborn child, yet her husband thought it was an accident and that she had a miscarriage. There is so much information that is being held back from the characters of the film, yet none of it is hidden from us.