Are people born evil or become that due to their surroundings? Miss Ellie did accept she gave up on JR far too early to Jock. Boys tend to idolize their fathers while offering the utmost respect to their mothers. When Miss Ellie spoke, those boys listened...including Jock.
After the death of Jim Davis it was obvious Barbara Bel was carrying the heavy lifting. This was obvious the moment she returned to Dallas while Jock went to South America. A good example of this is the video
@Snarky Oracle! has posted above. It's one of the best in the whole Dallas series and illustrates Miss Ellie's own power, even the Cartel respected it.
I'm not sure having Miss Ellie stepping into Ewing Oil on a regular basis might have worked but on the rare occasion when she did it was powerful stuff
JR was blamed for JR's bad behaviour. Only once did Miss Ellie question herself sitting at the piano in John Ross Ewing III.
Adults should be responsible for their own actions, but Miss Ellie acted too holier than thou and should have looked at herself more close
An interesting nature/nurture topic.
Yes, you are correct that adults are responsible for their actions.
Since we are discussing fictional characters, there is always some element of speculation and/or interpretation.
Just as JR was responsible for his adult actions, he did not become that way without Jock and Ellie's parenting
I agree with what you say apart from this though. You can have the upmost best loving wholesome family and still create a monster in a child. Not every bad child is the product of bad parenting.
I did disapprove of how she accepted his behaviour as an adult though and always turned that blind eye.
But was she always aware of their behaviour? Or was she naive?
An interesting nature/nurture topic. Since we are discussing fictional characters, there is always an element of speculation and/or interpretation.
Yes, you are correct about adults responsibility.
I am guessing that a psychological analysis.might say that JR was born neither good or bad. That JR's upbringing by
Jock and Ellie did not bring out enough of his good side. Combined with JR's desire to win his Father's approval, Jock's
teaching him the ruthlessness of the Oil business and Jock's favoring of Bobby, Ellie's favoring of Gary, Ellies' not parenting JR with the
same support that she gave Gary and Bobby... well look at the result. Also, JR's many dalliances - a psychological analysis would probably say that he was looking for the love that he was denied.
It is that background that makes Ellie a self-righteous hypocrite, who only cared about maintaining her life of wealth and privilege, and was happy to look the other way at Jock and JR's business activities when it benefitted her.
