The older generation in America was taught to give everyone the benefit of the doubt, but the younger generation knows that doesn't work. How can they trust strangers after hearing about murders, rapes, kidnappings, shootings, robberies and gangs? Yet their behavior is dictated by the benefit of the doubt when daters only think about leaving horrible or embarrassing dates, and ignore the uncomfortable feelings of being alone with a stranger in an elevator. Director Michelangelo Antonioni has a broader statement. He argues that morality, particularly in marriage, is obsolete. However, because man continues to rely on obsolete morals, he cannot find happiness. Antonioni explores the harmful role of morality in marriages in his films: Night and Red Desert. He expresses his conviction when he writes: "...Eros is sick; man is restless, something bothers him. And every time something bothers him, man reacts, but he reacts badly, only out of erotic impulse, and he is unhappy" (Antonioni 34). . Which morality, then, according to Antonioni, destroys marriages? It doesn't directly state a specific morality, but it might argue that it's about the structure of marriage and social hatred of divorce and infidelity. Marriage in ancient civilizations and up until the 20th century was an accusation between two families to gain political and social advantage. benefits. One of the reasons divorce and infidelity were prohibited was to ensure that families could not lose such benefits. Instead of developing a different system for uniting two people, intimacy became another basis for marriage, but divorce and infidelity were still social taboos. Marriage was not structurally built to ensure everlasting intimacy, and those who exploit the escape routes of divorce and infidelity have been punished as social outcasts. ...... half of the paper ......me. Giuliana focuses only on her own problems and consequently emotionally neglects her son. To gain his mother's affection, Valerio fakes paralysis because the viewer assumes that the only time Guiliana gives her son any full attention is when he is sick. Yet, Valerio's choice of illness is dramatic and significant. The structure of the marriage indirectly isolated Valerio from any healthy and supportive love and he became emotionally paralyzed. He has learned that love is a limited source and to get it he must lie. The Night and Red Desert examine the destructive nature of the structure and morality of marriage. Couples learn in difficult, painful, and embarrassing ways that they cannot achieve the intimacy they desire, but that their only escape routes are blocked. As a result, they are unhappy and teach their children this unhappiness, thus creating a never-ending cycle.