Carla Brigance, the wife of a defense attorney from the film, A Time to Kill, invokes empathy towards the viewers as she tries to keep her marriage from failing. Carla’s husband, Jake Brigance was defending a black male who committed murder, an action caused by the rape of the defendant’s daughter in a very unfair and white-dominated state from the 1980’s.
Though the Brigance family was white, those that were angry that a black male was able to receive support even if he killed two white men were almost offended, which triggered the active rise of the Ku Klux Klan (ATTK, 49:00-50:25).
Hannah Brigance, the daughter of the couple, was also bullied at school, being called a “nigger lover” (ATTK, 51:20- 51:26). Without concerning the race of Hanna Brigance, the viewers were able to empathize with what Jake would have felt when he heard that his daughter was being bullied at school (and how Carla would have felt seeing Hannah “bawling” and telling Jake about the situation).

The guilt and the sadness of purity and innocence were absorbed by the viewers, especially if the viewers were parents (or could deeply empathize with parents). Her mother Carla, was very worried about her family as a whole and decided to stay at her parents’ home for a while. Her actions and hardship from their property frequently set to fire, arguments with her husband, and others getting negatively influenced by the trials; her tears and sweat appealed and were able to influence the viewers to feel real empathy for her family (ATTK, 50:48-51:30).
Carla’s emotions and facial expressions throughout the film fully showed her stress from the negative and positive effects the trial was given to her family. Real empathy was felt when Carla came back to her husband a night before the hearing took place and truly showed understanding towards him. Her anger was gone and she had love to finally put herself in Jake’s perspective, why he initially decided to take the case and why he did not try to stop the murders (ATTK, 2:06:43-2:08:25).
In the beginning of the film when the family started going through financial difficulties and hardship that others were causing them, Carla interpreted her husband as a mercenary man who took this case for his reputation. However, as she separated from her husband and had time to herself, Jake’s hard work and effort to win the case showed enough real empathy to convince Carla to come back to him with faith and trust. His responsibility in the case, even with their house burnt, led her to perceive that he was still involved in the case because he truly felt empathy for Carl Lee and his victimized daughter, Tonya. When Carla visited Jake in his office a night prior to Carl Lee’s final hearing, she manifested real empathy as she said, “you were trying to make things right, I know that now. I thought you took this case because you wanted to prove to everybody what a big-time lawyer you were, but I was wrong. You took this case because if those boys had hurt Hannah the way they hurt Tonya… You would have killed them yourself. I love you, Jake” (ATTK, 2:06:43-2:08:25).
Her statement touched the hearts of those that were viewing as well as her husband’s as he finally found someone who understood him more than he could imagine. Carla’s representation and assimilation to empathy were iconic and heartwarming. Carla is symbolic towards the guilt that many people will be able to feel if they focused on work instead of their families. The empathy from Carla leads the viewers to understand that there needs to be a good balance between work and family and that communication is important since humans, all make mistakes, especially when they are stressed.

Works Cited:

A Time to Kill.  Joel Schumacher. Regency Enterprises, Warner Bros, 1996. Swank Motion Pictures. Web. 20 Sept 2017.