There's also the odd moment when he says his wife died and the song abruptly stops for a moment. He seems utterly expressionless--as if
he has soothed the pain by burying it in an emotionless existence.
Then the music picks up again (almost immediately), and we realize that his cantankerous front protects
him from having to care about anyone, or at least it is supposed to.
But he does care. He can't help it--and he is especially graceless with Dolly (at first) because he likes her, and that threatens to explode his protection.
When he finally proposes at the end, he is simply giving in to feelings he has suppressed earlier in the action.
The penny that he gives her--his original penny, apparently--is symbolic of that.
That's my guess, anyway. |
