American Tragedy

The film "A Place in the Sun" raises some questions about what being guilty really means. The main character George Eastman plans on murdering his pregnant girlfriend Alice, so that he is able to be with his real love Angela Vickers. He takes Alice out to a secluded lake on a rowboat, parks his car in the middle of the woods, and gives the boat rental a fake name. But when it comes time to commit the murder, he decides he can't do it. Through some strange twist of fate, Alice decides to stand up on the boat, causing it capsize. And Alice can't swim. George ends up saving him self from a watery grave, but Alice dies. Does this make George guilty of murder however? He did plan on killing her, and she did die. But he didn't throw her in the water, nor did he cause the boat to tip over. But he also didn't save her.

"A Place in the Sun" is interesting because it makes the viewer side with George, who really isn't at all in the right during the film. He starts out working for his uncle on an assembly line, where is specifically told not to socialize with the female employees. And what does he do? He goes and impregnates the first female employee. He doesn't stop there either. After he gets Alice the assembly line worker pregnant, he meets the incredibly attractive Angela Vickers, played by Elizabeth Taylor, at one of his uncle's parties, and instantly he is infatuated with her even though he already has one pregnant lady friend. He then decides that he likes Angela more and that the only way out of this predicament it to kill Alice.

Even though he doesn't intentionally kill Alice, is he still guilty? I think he actually is, but only because of what the priest at the end says. He asks George which woman he was thinking of when the boat capsized and both he and Alice were struggling not to drown in the water. He tells the priest that he was indeed thinking of Angela, which means that he did not do everything in his power to save Alice's life. This, combined with the fact that he set sail on the lake with the explicit purpose of drowning Alice, makes George guilty of at least manslaughter.