Mary Moody Emerson: Angel of Death
|
A full-length feature screenplay
The Story
A little girl is tossed out of her lofty nest into familial servitude when her father is killed. Not allowed to go to school, she discovers a tattered old book with no cover. Later she'll learn that the book she practically memorized through those dark years was Milton's Paradise Lost. Once of age, she's emancipated from her grandmother and insane aunt, and vows to think, write and live freely at all costs.
Aunt Mary tutors the Emerson boys into Harvard but isn't allowed to attend their graduations. Her genius isn't honed by formal education, her behavior not tamed by social graces. Refusing marriage, Mary chooses poverty over conformity. Her heart takes a different route searching for her father.
Mary writes letters and journals as she darts across New England confronting ministers and writers, wrestling with God and nature. She becomes Ralph Emerson's muse and critic. He calls her the best writer in New England. His writing is published. She dies unknown.
A writer trapped by gender and circumstances, a mourner even Death refuses to comfort, Mary is a destitute figure. Her life should read like a tragedy.
But how she chooses to live it is her real story.
Now, restless in the family plot on Author's Ridge in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Mary refuses to remain under the shadow of the writers she influenced.
This is her time.
Mary writes letters and journals as she darts across New England confronting ministers and writers, wrestling with God and nature. She becomes Ralph Emerson's muse and critic. He calls her the best writer in New England. His writing is published. She dies unknown.
A writer trapped by gender and circumstances, a mourner even Death refuses to comfort, Mary is a destitute figure. Her life should read like a tragedy.
But how she chooses to live it is her real story.
Now, restless in the family plot on Author's Ridge in Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Mary refuses to remain under the shadow of the writers she influenced.
This is her time.