Imagining Life Together

Abstract Cavell argues that mutual transformation away from egoistic instrumentalism is necessary for human happiness and that the accomplishment of a (re-)marriage models this achievement. The happily re-married pairs of these comedies achieve a purposiveness without a purpose with one another as they figure out together what they are to do, with no aim exterior to the relationship in view. In doing this, they continually rebind themselves to one another freely. The members of the film genre of the comedy of re-marriage that Cavell discusses specifically depict this achievement under American social conditions between 1934 and 1949. Are such achievements still possible and valuable in contemporary life, and which, if any, films depict them?