The Long Goodbye Lesson Plan

Why is Eileen Wade prepared to forgive Roger for sleeping with Sylvia Lennox, but not Terry?

There are a couple of conclusions we can draw from Eileen's willingness to forgive her husband more than her former lover. Ask students to consider what this fact says about her opinion of Roger. Eileen clearly finds him weak-willed and unable to help himself, and so it stands to reason that he should be forgiven, at least in principle, since he doesn't really know what he's doing. Terry (or Paul, as she calls him), in her eyes, is much more capable, and so his actions cannot be so easily forgotten.

This fact also sheds some light into her relationships with the two men: even...