Burton's dream of seclusion

Bethany 2022-09-12 19:37:26

How many really happy days are there in Burton and Taylor's ten-year marriage? Countless. The best period of their relationship was before the marriage, that is, during the filming of "Wushan Wind and Rain Night" in Mexico at the end of 1963.

For those three or four months, Taylor shed her prettiness, donned her swimsuit and her tropical linen clothes, and came to the set with him every day. She fascinated almost everyone, but she had no air, and she stayed by his side like a person, took care of him, combed his hair over and over again, and accompany him to drink and revel.

They lived in a stone-built seaside villa, and he would put on a straw hat and typewriter in the mornings to write on the patio. Thinking of his beautiful lover sleeping in the house under his feet, his heart should be as warm and lazy as the sun at that time.

Burton likes Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, the crystal clear waters of Banderas Bay, the sandy beaches here, and sitting on the beach to watch the magnificent sunset and the moon from the other side of the sea. The tide rises slowly.

He liked so much to stay quietly in this place where he would not be disturbed by the noise of the outside world. He wrote in his diary that he wanted to do nothing and stayed here quietly for 40 years. Then he turned his pen and continued to write, "Of course, I can't live another 40 years." This year, he was 38 years old.

It was here that Elizabeth completely captured his heart, made him fall in love with her completely, and gave her everything he had without reservation. He finally decided to marry her, not hesitate to bear the infamy of abandoning his original wife, regardless of all relatives and friends' efforts to block him.

At this time, he did not know that this decision made him embark on a road of no return.

Nine years later, in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.

March 15, 1972, was their 8th wedding anniversary. That night he made a fool of himself in the diplomatic mansion where the dinner was held for them. He drank hard liquor and scolded a lot of people.

The hostess later recalled, “He said over and over how much he hated the profession of an actor, how unmanly and self-deprecating being an actor was—he seemed to hate himself.”

Burton's dream has always been to be a writer and a poet. This allows him, who has social phobia, to hide at home and work alone. He didn't like his actor and public figure status.

But he was still greedy, and he hoped that Tyler could accompany him when he was living a normal life.

When he took Taylor back to Oxford University in 1967, when his alma mater played the stage play "Faust", Taylor once discussed with him about quitting the film industry and living in seclusion here - he was at Oxford University as his literature writer Professor, she bought a house in Oxford and wished to accompany him here, taking off her fur, evening gown and jewels and diamonds, putting on her trousers and boots to feed the horses.

At that moment, Burton must have been truly happy and moved. His lover was willing to sacrifice her star status for him, and accompany him to be a couple of ordinary people in this ancient city full of books.

Perhaps, he and she would occasionally take the stage to read in the drama club in Oxford, or perform a few of his favorite stage plays with the students. Even, maybe Taylor could play Lady Macbeth?

It's a pity that these turned out to be unrealistic fantasies, and he and Taylor were like riding on a merry-go-round and couldn't get off at all. If you forcibly jump off, you will only fall to the ground.

At the end of 1972, Burton actually went to Oxford University to be a professor of literature for a semester. He was a little happy, but soon he was silent again, because Taylor did not really intend to come to accompany him.

He can only go back to the studio he hates, in order to make a lot of money for her to squander, shoot bad movies he hates, sell his soul again for money, squander the great gift God gave him, A talent that the world admires.

He also hated himself even more, and threw himself into the quagmire of alcoholism completely.

At this time, he did not know that he gave up the final redemption. He and Taylor broke down a few months later and separated.

He told the media, "Before I fell in love with Elizabeth, I didn't understand love... Once someone like her falls in love with you, she must completely possess your soul, otherwise she will not be happy. I But I demand the loyalty and obedience of the other party, everything is according to my will, and the two of us are not naturally able to have a harmonious family."

Yes, isn't it also selfish that he wants Taylor to give up her lavish life and live with him the life of a common man, a life of seclusion in Mexico?

So he didn't blame Taylor for not being able to let him have his ideal life. He only hated himself and felt helpless to the two people's dispositions, hobbies and lifestyles. And...it's nothing more than a deep sense of helplessness.

But Taylor didn't know that without Burton, although she was in pain, the pain would pass for a while, and she could continue to live. And Burton really couldn't live without her.

He is really a prophecy, "You can't live with her, and you can't live without her."

In the last year, whether he lived in Haiti, which is far away from media tracking, or in the quiet and peaceful town of Selini, he always wanted to find Taylor, to find the feeling of home where she was there. Just as he longed to live with her in Oxford, Puerto Vallarta, he even learned Spanish specifically to settle in Mexico.

But he didn't have the courage. He thought that he was no longer worthy of her, and he couldn't drag her down.

This year, she also came to Switzerland, and once lived not too far from Burton. She didn't dare to see him, for fear that seeing him would make her miserable, and she never gave up her efforts to win him back.

Just because everyone lacked the last bit of courage, God separated them permanently and completely.

"Cleopatra" in 1962 has such a few lines.

Dying Anthony said to the Queen, "Death is easier than love".

Therefore, he did not have the courage to save the love, but he had the courage to end the love with death and cut off the nostalgia.

"Does such a method of death fit the noble status of a monarch?"

"It can't be more noble, the noble monarch in the world, the final outcome is probably the same."

The world's immortal love, the final outcome is probably the case. This is 67 years, Burton's curtain call after the recitation, Taylor looked at him from behind the curtain, he took her hand and came back to the audience with a curtain call

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Extended Reading

The Night of the Iguana quotes

  • T. Lawrence Shannon: I said to this girl, I said, "Let us, let us kneel down and pray together." And we did. We knelt. And then all of the sudden the - kneeling position turned into a reclining position.

  • T. Lawrence Shannon: Shannon has been collecting evidence.

    Hannah Jelkes: Evidence of what?

    T. Lawrence Shannon: Man's inhumanity to God.

    Hannah Jelkes: What do you mean by that?

    T. Lawrence Shannon: The pain we cause him. We've poisoned his atmosphere. We've slaughtered his creatures of the wild. We've polluted his rivers. We've even taken God's noblest creation, Man, and - and brainwashed him into becoming our own product, not God's.