Shizz:

I appreciate your thoughtful response.? My metaphor of choice for some of the most popular dramatic conventions is the that they are Procrustean beds — after the mythological character of Procrustes who sliced off or stretched victim’s legs to fit into an iron bed.

>>>does the selfish person see their own selfishness as a flaw if it?s something that means that they survive and prosper

Lots to chew over about the “character flaw”.? Suffice it to say that in the machinery of drama,? the standard function of the character flaw is to create an internal problem? 1]that complements the external problem; 2] Which? will prevent the character achieving her objective goal; 3] Until she acknowledges and resolves that flaw; and 4] at the outset of the story, she is unaware of the flaw or unaware that the character trait is a flaw – – she may think it’s a character strength; 4a] It’s also possible for a character strength to become a character flaw through? hubris — too much of a good thing is bad.

I do not subscribe to Ayn Rand’s proposition that selfishness is fundamentally a virtue.

>>>moral compass here seems to be a recoil away from the radicalism of her dead husband

Seems like the basis for a classic Hegelian dialectic.? She reacts to his thesis? with her antithesis.? (So… could the ensuing dramatic dialectic lead to a synthesis?)

[BTW: Hegel made the most significant and useful contribution to tragedy, and by extrapolation to dramatic theory since Aristotle, IMHO.]

>>>And yet this also produces a conflict for the protagonist since she also seems to think that the selfishness and greed is not morally right.

Okay, but what’s the external demonstration of that conflict in the story?? How does it play out in terms of her behavior, her relationship with her children. What’s the visual? ? Film is a visual medium and internal conflicts have to be manifested as external behavior.