Can You Ever Forgive Me? · 2018 — 第 10 / 14 章 · 3'03" · B2

Lee Visits Her Ex Elaine, Explained:talk someone off the ledge

Lee and Elaine catch up on dead cats and old addresses, but the small talk is a countdown. "There was always a wall between us," Elaine says, and Lee's "You can't imagine what I've done to survive" hangs in the room unanswered. It plays as an ex-lovers' reckoning: tenderness, then score-settling.

あらすじ

Lee visits her ex-girlfriend Elaine, a professor, and tells her that Jersey — the cat Elaine once gave her — has died. They trade updates about old neighborhoods, then the conversation turns to how Lee was supposed to become something more. Elaine says she cannot keep pulling Lee back from the edge; she has a class to teach.

BreakupsArgumentsConfrontingConfessingCoupleB2mediumamerican
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注目の表現

looks liketalk to someone aboutattached toin years

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このシーンの表現

talk someone off the ledge

calm someone down from panic

Elaine says steadying Lee is no longer her job, calling it exhausting.

I spent the night talking her off the ledge.

このシーンの他の表現

  • looks like

    it seems

  • talk to someone about

    discuss something with someone

  • attached to

    fond of

  • in years

    for a very long time

  • where else

    what other place

このシーンのメモ一覧

61 行のセリフに 30 件のメモ

表現 · A2thanks for coming

thanks for attending

Thanks for coming.
表現 · B1sound important

seemed important

It sounded important.
表現 · A2looks like

it seems

As Lee walks in holding the cat, Elaine opens with an easy observation.

Looks like you brought Jersey with you.
スラング · B2old bitch

a crude word for the cat — Crude and teasing; only among close friends.

How is that old bitch?
表現 · B1talk to someone about

discuss something with someone

Lee says the cat is exactly what she came to discuss, easing into hard news.

That's what I wanted to talk to you about.
表現 · B2be attached to

fond of

Lee says she cannot get another cat because she grew too attached to this one.

I got too attached to her.
発音attached to

The d in attached slides straight into to.

I got too attached to her.
表現 · B1in years

for a very long time

Elaine mentions an old haunt, and Lee realizes she has not thought of it in years.

Oh, my God. I haven't thought about that place in years.
表現 · A2exactly the same

identical

Exactly the same.
表現 · B1where else

what other place

Asked if she still lives in the old place, Lee answers with a question that says she has nowhere else.

Where else would I be?
表現 · B2do something to survive

what one does to live

You can't imagine what I've done to survive.
発音what I've done

What I've done links up, with the stress landing on done.

You can't imagine what I've done to survive.
表現 · C1in fits and starts

in bursts, not steadily

Asked how she sleeps, Lee answers in two words that admit years of broken rest.

Fits and starts.
スラング · C1Fits and starts

in uneven bursts — A set phrase for uneven progress; informal but common.

Fits and starts.
文法 · B2was just supposed to be

be supposed to: Be supposed to be marks what was expected of her; the unfinished line carries the regret.

I was just supposed to be...
発音supposed to

Supposed to often reduces to something like sposta.

I was just supposed to be...
表現 · B1more than this

beyond this

something more than this.
表現 · B2have a crisis

be in a crisis

Lee asks Elaine to stay by saying she is in a crisis, part plea, part attempt to hold on.

I'm having a crisis here.
表現 · B2a wall between someone

an emotional barrier

There was always a wall between us.
文法 · B1There was

existential there: There was introduces the existence of something; the real subject is a wall.

There was always a wall between us.
スラング · B2God damn it

a crude oath — An angry oath; keep it out of polite speech.

You know, God damn it, Elaine, I tried more with you than anybody else ever.
表現 · B2keep one's distance

stay emotionally or physically apart

Elaine rejects Lee's claim of effort, saying she worked hard to stay distant.

You did everything you could to keep your distance.
文法 · B2everything you could

relative clause: The clause you could modifies everything, meaning all that you were able to do.

You did everything you could to keep your distance.
表現 · C1self-involved

absorbed in oneself

Elaine lists Lee's faults in a rush: lies, constant drinking, and self-absorption.

You lied, you drank constantly, you were self-involved.
文法 · B2get you to trust

causative get: Get someone to do something means to cause them to do it; here, to trust her.

I tried to get you to trust me.
文法 · B2I wish you hadn't

wish clause: Wish plus past perfect expresses regret about something already done.

Yeah, I wish you hadn't.
表現 · B1not my job

not my responsibility

Lee, it's not my job anymore.
表現 · C1talk someone off the ledge

calm someone down from panic

Elaine says steadying Lee is no longer her job, calling it exhausting.

To talk you off the ledge. It's exhausting.
表現 · B2make it up to someone

compensate someone

Jack promises to do better and make it up to Lee, eager to win back her trust.

I'll do good. You'll see, Lee. I'll make it up to you.
表現 · B1written receipt

a paper receipt

And get a written receipt.

「Lee Visits Her Ex Elaine」を読み解く

What's really going on

This is a breakup scene that never fully ended. Elaine offers old memories and a warning — she is done being the person who talks Lee down. When she names the problem, it is not the drinking or the lying but the distance: "There was always a wall between us. Something I couldn't penetrate." Lee's answer, "You can't imagine what I've done to survive," is both confession and shield; she wants comfort without letting anyone close enough to give it. Elaine lists what went wrong — the lying, the drinking, the self-involvement — and Lee only half-denies it. The scene shows the one relationship where Lee is not the clever one, and it is where she is still most exposed.

Theme

HeartbreakA reunion between exes that becomes an accounting of the relationship — what it was and why it failed.
LonelinessLee reaches out in a crisis; Elaine keeps her at the distance Lee built, and neither can close it.

このチャプターで学べること

  • A dead pet can stand in for years of unsaid grief.
  • Naming a wall can be kinder and crueler than shouting.
  • Claiming you tried hardest invites a full accounting.
  • Walking away can be the most honest answer in an old argument.

発音のポイント

  • attached to — The d in attached slides straight into to.
  • what I've done — What I've done links up, with the stress landing on done.
  • supposed to — Supposed to often reduces to something like sposta.
You can't imagine what I've done to survive.

Lee's confession that she has crossed lines to keep going — probably the forgeries — offered as both self-pity and a plea for sympathy.

There was always a wall between us.

Elaine's verdict on the relationship: they were never able to be fully close, and the distance was structural, not accidental.

You did everything you could to keep your distance.

Elaine turns Lee's complaint around: the wall was not built by her but by Lee, who worked hard to stay unreachable.

I'm having a crisis here.

Lee's blunt reason for the visit — she is not here for nostalgia, she is here because she is falling apart.

Lee, it's not my job anymore.

Elaine's boundary: she has stopped being the person responsible for talking Lee back from the edge.

このシーンについての質問

Who is Elaine, and how does she know Lee?

Elaine is Lee's ex-girlfriend, now a professor. They have a long, unfinished history, and Lee turns up at her apartment when she is in trouble.

What does Lee mean by 'what I've done to survive'?

She is hinting at everything she has done to get by — the stolen and forged letters — without spelling it out, hoping Elaine will understand and forgive.

Why does Elaine say there was a wall between them?

She is describing their old relationship: Lee kept her at arm's length no matter what Elaine did, so the closeness Elaine wanted never happened.

Why won't Elaine keep helping Lee?

She says it is no longer her job to talk Lee off the ledge and calls it exhausting. She is setting a boundary and going to teach her class.

Who is Jersey?

Jersey is the cat Elaine gave Lee, an old pet the two keep referring to. Lee came to tell Elaine that Jersey has just died.

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