The themes honestly and betrayal were showed when Flora wanted to be honest with her father but in another way she had accidentally betrayed her mother. It wasn’t clear if she had intentionally wanted to betray Ada. After all, she was just a child whom was too young to understand the moral values lying behind the situation. When Ada asked her to bring a piano key to George, she refused because Stewart had trusted them to be at home. Ada got angry and forced her to go. She went reluctantly. On her way, she changed route. Instead of going to George’s house, she went to find Stewart. She had not thought of the consequences. She thought of being honest with her father. She did not realize that she had betrayed her mother. It was the same for Ada too. She wanted to be honest of her feelings for George but because of her honesty she betrayed Stewart by having an affair with George.
The scenes were a mixture of the 19th century and 20th century values. The way they had dressed themselves were liked the 19th century. Ada committed adultery, which didn’t match the 19th century values. It seldom happened during that time. In the 19th century, the women had no say in anything and were only allowed to stay at home. Women had to obey the men. But in this case, this wasn’t true. The woman who was always with the maids weren’t like one. She could talk to Stewart like a man talking to him. She didn’t look like she was scared of him. Instead, she was always giving advice to him. The sound made by the piano didn’t match those shown in the film. It sounded more like a grand piano.
From the way they had made the film, it had displayed the values engaged with the real world in both the early century and the later eras. The way the characters dressed, they spoke, they held themselves and the different backgrounds in the film could show. The formal dress that Ada was wearing tells us that she was from a wealthy family. That was how the upper class would dress in the past. Those who were poorer would live in a simple house. Her house had coloured windows which were considered expensive at that time. She had a maid too. Hiring a maid at that time was very expensive and not everyone could afford it. Compared to Ada, the Maoris seemed to be more cultivated than educated. They were very traditional. This was shown from the way the Maoris dressed. The women didn’t go to work. The Maoris were quite conservative. During the play put up by the kids and a few adults, there was one scene when the man was going to chop his wife. They thought that it was for real and messed up the whole stage. They couldn’t distinguish between play and real life. They had over reacted which weren’t necessary.
Not all of the themes occurred naturally but it had to some extend. It needed our understanding to realize it. Flora realized that after Ada went to teach George piano, her relationship with him was closer than to her. She was jealous. When Stewart was locking the house, Flora had called him “papa” and was helping him instead of her mother. She might feel that having him as her father was better than George because Ada would love her more. When they were watching the performance, Stewart held Ada’s hand. When George saw, he stormed off. This could show that he was jealous. Ada had a smile on her face. Maybe Ada wanted to test if he was really interested in her or she deliberately wanted to make him angry and jealous. The theme jealousy wasn’t very clear. It was quick view and it didn’t often appear. Most of the themes liked love was shown naturally throughout the film. On the other hand, we could miss out some of the points too. The actions of the story could show that. But, the way Stewart had treated Ada did not show that he loved her. If we had not watched the beginning, we might have doubt whether they were husband and wife. Whenever they were together they seemed to be like strangers, very shy with each other.
In conclusion, it was a nice movie filled with emotions, tragedy and happiness though some of the values did not match the 19th century ones. The values occurred quite naturally throughout the whole film. The outline of the story was good. It made the audience anxious about the ending.
