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| The diva of the entire show, the only character that really adds any plot besides Macavity, and still I don't think Grizabella gets the respect she deserves. And she does deserve it... |
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| I know what you must be thinking: a prostitute, thrown out of the tribe, the cats hating her, what fan should like her, right? I don't know why I like her. Perhaps it's her role as a singer, perhaps it's because she sings Memory, or perhaps it's her tale of redemption that finally lands her one of the greatest honors a cat can achieve. Of course she's not one of the prettiest cats to look at from what we've seen, but beauty is only fur-deep. I've heard it said that Munkustrap and some other Jellicle Cats may have been her kittens that she abandoned to leave for the Outside World, and therefore her ugliness runs deeper. Honestly I can't deny that, but doesn't her redemption, her want for happiness and acceptance--nothing else--again, make her more beautiful than any other? Grizabella I imagine has been through things that would have normally killed weaker cats, as one can tell by her appearance, and yet she has survived. Her strength in surviving the harsh existence, her strength in returning to face the very cats she abandoned, her strength in making that first choice to leave, make her all the more admirable and deserving of Heaviside in my mind. |
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| Touch me! It's so easy to leave me |
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| All alone with the memory |
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| If you touch me, you'll understand what happiness is. |
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| Look, a new day has begun. |
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| I've heard it asked before: What do those words mean? You can't really touch someone and know what happiness is (according to most), or is she speaking metaphorically? Personally, I don't think she is being metaphorical at all. She is miserable, unhappy, and desperate. It is through her hardships and survival that she has discovered what is really important in life: happiness. And that the moments of happiness are those points in our lives when we understand that life is really good to us. And we find happiness in acceptance by those around us. Well, Grizabella has lost that. She has no happiness when she returns to the tribe, begging to be accepted. She tells them, plain and simple, that if they could touch her and see the things she has seen, feel what she has felt, then they will know that the difference setting them and Grizabella apart is happiness, and they will know that they have it. For showing the cats this, opening their eyes to what they really have may be a blow to their pride, but certainly no other reason could be more just for sending a cat to Heaviside for a new chance at a new, happy life. |
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| A fan group dedicated to Grizabella...join! |
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