Jefferson, with Child, in Paris

By Chris McHugh

[1] In the film Jefferson in Paris, Jefferson has two great love affairs, one with a married English woman and the other with a fifteen-year-old slave. He is also portrayed prominently as an intellectual through, for example, the several scenes displaying the polygraph he invented and his skill with the violin. It seems odd that an intellectual in public office would allow himself to fall into such risky romantic situations twice; both affairs could have cost him his political career. It seems almost as if he is trying to fill the space left by his wife's death in whatever way possible, and woe to the woman he chooses for that job. In fact, Sally seems to almost not know what is going on between the two of them at any point in the movie. The scene in which Jefferson offers to pay Sally and then gives her a locket as a gift illustrates both Jefferson's abandonment of his "head" and Sally's childish innocence (1:30).

[2] Most people know Jefferson as the intellectual portrayed in the movie, the man who embraces the fields of medicine, agriculture, mechanics, and, seemingly, anything and everything under that broad term "science." Despite his scientific outlook this particular scene begins with Jefferson trying out his wrist after months of having it wrapped and supported for healing and claiming it was the salve Sally made that healed it: "Whatever these . . . French surgeons say, our old American remedies are still the best." This statement seems completely against his nature, but it would fit if he was trying to come up with ways to put Sally on the same ground as him. If he convinces himself Sally's salve was more than a crude pain killer, and maybe based in science, then she can be worthy of his feelings. His head is making excuses for his heart.

[3] While Jefferson is justifying his feelings for a slave girl, Sally does not seem to have much of anything going through her mind. Jefferson says she should benefit from helping his wrist heal and her response is simply "Yes, massa." Even when it becomes clear he is about to pay her, she does not react at all, she simply accepts whatever Jefferson wants. Once he has given Sally the money, she stands there playing with it, not knowing what to do with it, so Jefferson offers to keep it for her, and she immediately hands it over without saying a word. Then he asks her what she will do with the money, and the only thing she can come up with is to bring it home to Virginia. This seems, at first, to be a wise attempt to save the money against a future need. When Jefferson asks about buying "pretty things," though, she claims she'll buy them in Virginia. Everything Sally says or does in this scene seems to be at the suggestion of Jefferson, almost like a confused child who simply goes along with whatever he or she is told.

[4] In fact, this scene is almost designed to highlight Sally's age. In response to a comment about the reckless ways James would use the money, Sally says, "he young and wild," to which Jefferson facetiously responds, "and you're so old and sage?" James is Sally's older brother. Then, when Jefferson asks about buying pretty things, a question that in itself suggests Sally, like a child, has no serious concerns, she goes on to talk about the bright colors she likes in Virginia: "Pink I likes, and yellow." It seems Jefferson's suggestion that she only concerns herself with pretty things is accurate. To top it all off, Jefferson plays a game with her like a child in which he hides a gift -- a necklace -- to her behind his back, and she giggles and tries to snatch it away. He even holds out his hands for her to play a guessing game.

[5] At the end of the scene, Sally seems to show that she is not the child the rest of the scene made her out to be. She even seems to play a larger role in her relationship with Jefferson than thought. She does this by suggestively spreading the neck of her dress to display the necklace. As Jefferson runs his hand along the line of the necklace, the camera zooms in on her large eyes as she looks up at Jefferson. Her large, innocent eyes, belonging to a fifteen-year-old girl starting to discover the effects she has on men, not those of a mature woman consciously seducing a man. Jefferson abandons his head to fill his heart, and innocent, ignorant Sally gets caught up in the mess.