Harriet’s arrogance causes her to destroy everything of real value, and finally her perfect home becomes an isolating tomb. Joan may have seen it as a cautionary tale, a warning against some of her most ingrained and potentially destructive habits. If she could not show her less attractive side in real life, she certainly did so by her choice of material and by her deliberate shaping of it before and during production. In making her final revisions to the screenplay, Joan made certain that some specifically autobiographical elements were inserted: “I’ve come a long way since working in that
