What does Susannah cut her hair before killing herself in Legends of the Fall?

Answer 1

It is widely accepted that a woman's hair is her glory. It glorifies her. Hair accentuates a woman's beauty. In fact, Susannah was indeed a beautiful woman with glorious hair. In saying that, Susannah realize she was still in love with Tristan, but Tristan made it clear, once she visited him in jail, that he did not share her feelings nor will he reciprocate her love. Undeniably Tristan's rejection devastated her. As she had come to terms that she was madly in love with Tristan and perceived him as the love of her life. Therefore, and chose not to live without being able to love him and to be love by him.

I digressed, nevertheless, to answer the question….I once heard this line from a movie named, Mr. Skeffington. In the movie Job Skeffington said, "A woman is beautiful when she's loved, and only then." Susannah concluded that she had married the wrong brother (Alfred) to who simply adored her and praised her on her beauty, in particular her hair. But Susannah no longer perceived herself as beautiful. For she was rejected, unloved by her one true love. Therefore, in cutting her hair she was sending a message to her husband whom discerned that she was indeed still in love with Tristan… but he refused to acknowledge it on fear of her abandoning him… So he was content with continuing life after he was certain of the truth. Alfred transformed his love for her into an imprisonment. He was never going to let her go. Sadly as a result, she sought to desecrate what he so venerated about her starting with her hair, and then her beauty (gunshot wound to the head) which was ultimately her life.

She was heartbroken by Tristan's rejection, yet suffocated as Alfred's most prize possession.