a super contained rant (not) about the song that is my actual living nightmare from Cabaret:
this song sent me into actual shock @ the fucking show my school put on, Saturday
(shout out to small private liberal arts colleges and the cool shit they do w their students)
but thhhhiiisssss soonnggggggg
In the build up to this song we learn that Fraulein Schneider has broken her engagement and given up on love out of fear (given up on most of her life out of fear, choosing compliance and survival every time).
Cliff also has been unable to find a job and in the introduction to this scene it is quickly realized that while Sally is kept in idle ignorance ("someday I've got to sit you down and read you a newspaper"- but gives her no actual information and stays pissed at her unknowing???) Cliff is getting too caught up in the politics and the drag of life, not letting Sally cheer him or pull him into dreaming anymore, instead cutting her off, telling her to shut up, and otherwise completely disengaging in her delight (the only thing that drives her forward, because without her cheerful delusion, who is she?)
This scene is a realization of the ugly truths that the illusion of love can hide. These characters are in exact opposition to each other; Sally, head in the clouds, dreaming of her glitzy nightlife, anything to push her forward; Cliff, feet on the ground, intimidated by a world much bigger than him, unwilling to take a stand without the promise of escape.
Sally's willingness to care, imbue energy, love, and life into everything she engages with, even if it's a bit naive, is the very embodiment of hope.
Cliff finds no interest in her hope when the weight of the world gets a little too heavy for him to carry, he shuts her down and insists she come with him to America. He will play it safe, live a reasonable ideal, if only his woman would obey and fit that ideal.
Ordering Sally around, telling her to just accept his decision with no actual explanation to her or care for her opinion on the matter, Cliff establishes that he simply tolerates who she is; as long as she quietly fills her role in his mind is the "wife and mother", and she doesn't challenge this role with actions such as going back to work, he will continue to "love" (tolerate) her.
This scene is Sally challenging Cliff and shattering her delusion of their romance.
Cue this song.
(no but seriously, while you read this next part listen to the song for added effect)
Sally: a being of care, joy, delight, love, passion, and everything else fabulously filthy- being left by her latest and greatest affair, his child in her womb, last demands ringing in her ears, is sat with a realization that would kill any hopeless romantic: He doesn't care.
Whatever she choses has no effect on him, as long as she fits what he wants. There are no little joys in their relationship. No passion. No romance. No affections or small thoughts throughout the day. She does not exist as more than a fleeting thought when he shuts that door in the morning. He lives a life completely separate from her isolated room, and keeps her as no more than a bauble, a pretty shiny toy to come home to at the end of the day. But her novelty has worn off, as it always does, and though the baby would provide some more entertainment for a while, she will always disappoint him, they will always disagree on the fundamental foundation of this dream:
what love looks like.
The sinking feeling this song carves in your gut as you drown in the same realization as Sally; there isn't room for care in a world that is ending. So let her walk out and get rid of the one thing she doesn't care about, the only reason she did care was for Cliff, anyway. The choice is mimicked when Cliff later hands her a ticket to Paris, and the most effortful affection he can manage is waiting for her in the station for a week. He doesn't make an argument, he doesn't petition or beg, he simply resigns to the option and silently leaves. The final truth is revealed, in every wake of scorched earth she has ever left, every fiery flare of passion doomed to fizzle out, Sally is the one hurt the most. Unlike her lovers, she doesn't get to shut the door on her own care. She has to live with herself, and she will shatter in this glass cage built by those bent on keeping her naive, for a blind beauty does not know when to bite back and her passions will stay contained as long as she stays ignorant.
(I could write a dissertation on this musical DON'T TEMPT ME)
