The First Love Triangle____________________

Having recounted the tale of Kansas City,
we now go to the center of the action
and look in on Curly and an argument
that sets our story in motion.

As we saw, Curly is in love with Laurey
played by a young and beautiful Shirley Jones.

To win her over, he romances her
with a song

about taking her to the social
in a surrey with a fringe on the top.

His song is full of poetry
that plays into Laurey's desire to live
an idealized life in which nothing changes.
When they ride in the surrey, he tells her,
the river will whisper over and over:
"Don't you wished you'd go on forever,"
which is precisely what she wants --
the promise of happiness that never ends.

Unfortunately, when Curly tells her
he made up the surrey, he provokes her wrath.

"Why'd ya come around here with your stories
and your lies gettin me all worked up that a way,"
she says to him. "Who'd want to ride along side a you anyway?"

Aunt Eller, who is watching from the sidelines,
sees right through Laurey's childish anger.
"Why don't ya grab her and kiss her
when she acts that way, Curly," Aunt Eller says.
"She's just achin for ya to I bet."

"I won't even speak to him,
let alone allow him to kiss me...." Laurey says.

"She likes you -- quite a lot,"
Aunt Eller tells Curly, cutting to the chase.

"If she liked me any more
she'd sic the dogs onto me," Curly replies.

Laurey and Curly are acting much like children,
which they apparently are since
both are young and Laurey is new to womanhood.
They tease and insult each other
and she puts him off with the resistance
of a young girl in love, which is a cliché of popular fiction,
not to mention a plot device
that makes it possible for there to be a story
since it keeps the lovers apart until the end. 

Angry at the way Curly got up her hopes
with the story of the surrey
and at the fact that he took so long
to ask her to the social,
and afraid to let herself be vulnerable
by letting on how much she wants him,
Laurey decides to play hard to get.
Instead of going to the social with Curly,
she agrees to go with Jud,
the hired hand who lives in the smokehouse
and is secretly obsessed with her.

Aunt Eller can't understand what Laurey's thinking.
She's got a great guy who likes her
as much as she likes him
and instead she's going to the social with this
unwashed lump of a man.

It is clear that Laurey is letting foolish pride
get the better of her as she holds out,
feigning dislike and indifference
and refusing to give in to the entreaties
of the man she loves.

Soon, Laurey catches Jud peering in her window
and regrets her decision to go to the social with him.
But she's afraid to take back
her acceptance of his invitation.

Meanwhile, at a gathering before the social
that is held at Aunt Eller's and Laurey's farm,
a vain and frivolous female with an annoying laugh, 
by the name of Gertie, 
has attached herself to Laurey's true love, Curly.

During the gathering, Laurey is with her friends
inside the farmhouse and her attitude is once again
governed by pride and an effort to deny
that she needs Curly.
In a song, she pretends not to care
that he is with another woman,
saying there is always another man to seek.

"Never gonna think that the man I lose
is the only man among men," she sings.
"I'll snap my fingers to show I don't care;
I'll buy me a brand new dress to wear;
I'll scrub my neck and I'll brush my hair
and start all over again.

"Many a new face will please my eye;
many a new love will find me.
Never have I once looked back to sigh
over the romance behind me.
Many a new day will dawn before I do."

The song offers a philosophy
of self-involvement and serial love affairs
that is profoundly alien to who Laurey really is.

It is accompanied by a dance sequence 
in which her friends engage in
artificial and exaggerated movements
in which they play act a kind of mock vanity
as they seem to admire themselves.

Who needs men, they are saying.
We can retreat into self-love
and the pleasures of the moment.
At the same time, they seem to be mocking themselves
for making such a false claim.

Then the annoying laugh of the woman Curly is with
intrudes on their fantasy and Laurey
can no longer pretend. She attacks,
until Aunt Eller breaks it up.

_____________________________________________________________

Curly is in love with	Aunt Eller's niece	Laurey.	But so is the dangerous hired hand, Jud, who will take her to the social.		Will Parker returned from Kansas City.