being on your own doesnt mean being alone

I’LL JUST SAY THIS.. the laurie/jo ‘proposal’ scene is EXTREMELY painful because laurie says “i’ve loved you ever since i’ve known you” and we have had the whole movie to see how WELL he knows her and how much of their living and growing up has been done together…. it is PRECISELY the extent to which laurie DOES know and understand jo that lets us know how much he loves her…. it’s not a love based on an idealized or surface-level image of her, but on years and years of closeness… so when he says “it’s no use”… “we’ve got to have it out”… he clearly already knows in his heart what she’s going to say… his deep knowledge of her is both the source of his love for her and the source of his agony because in loving her he knows she doesn’t love him in the same way…………