O.k., so here is what I think happened: He and his wife did have three miscarriages before they had this fourth baby. One night, the baby was running a fever but the roads were closed or bad due to weather and he promised his wife that as soon as the roads opened again, they would take the baby to the hospital, but for now they would have to take care of the baby themselves. Now - here is where I am not sure what happened, so I have come up with two possible scenarios:
scenario 1: the baby died from his sickness before they could get him to the hospital; the wife killed herself due to the grief (jumped into the river or whatever); the husband went insane from his grief and blamed himself for the baby's death. He went delusional and held on to the baby's corpse and imagined his wife's presence. He also imagined the wife's ghost because his subconscious was telling him that she wanted the baby with her in heaven or in death or something like that - i.e. his subconscious knew they were both dead and the wife's ghost was his delusional manifestation of that. He had to finally come out of his delusion when he gave the old woman the baby because the old woman could see the baby was dead and made him face it. The end of the movie is him realizing all of this and remembering what really happened.
scenario 2: basically the same as scenario 1 except for how the baby and wife died - so, instead of the baby dying of the illness and the wife from suicide, they instead decided to go to the hospital despite the weather because they were so ultra-sensitive about their baby's health because they had already lost three as stillbirths. Their car veered off the road because of the bad weather and into the river and the baby and wife were killed; as in the first scenario, the husband became crazed and delusional, carried the baby back home and pretended it didn't happen.
As for the old woman and her baby sister being buried alive, I have no idea what that has to do with the story other than: 1) to give an opening to the discussion about the stillborn issue and bring that story-line forward and (2) to further the ghost story-line to throw us off the real story.
Anybody have any thoughts on my interpretations?
scenario 1: the baby died from his sickness before they could get him to the hospital; the wife killed herself due to the grief (jumped into the river or whatever); the husband went insane from his grief and blamed himself for the baby's death. He went delusional and held on to the baby's corpse and imagined his wife's presence. He also imagined the wife's ghost because his subconscious was telling him that she wanted the baby with her in heaven or in death or something like that - i.e. his subconscious knew they were both dead and the wife's ghost was his delusional manifestation of that. He had to finally come out of his delusion when he gave the old woman the baby because the old woman could see the baby was dead and made him face it. The end of the movie is him realizing all of this and remembering what really happened.
scenario 2: basically the same as scenario 1 except for how the baby and wife died - so, instead of the baby dying of the illness and the wife from suicide, they instead decided to go to the hospital despite the weather because they were so ultra-sensitive about their baby's health because they had already lost three as stillbirths. Their car veered off the road because of the bad weather and into the river and the baby and wife were killed; as in the first scenario, the husband became crazed and delusional, carried the baby back home and pretended it didn't happen.
As for the old woman and her baby sister being buried alive, I have no idea what that has to do with the story other than: 1) to give an opening to the discussion about the stillborn issue and bring that story-line forward and (2) to further the ghost story-line to throw us off the real story.
Anybody have any thoughts on my interpretations?