General Hospital Message Board

January 31, 2008, to early February 2008 – Claudia

Sonny and Kate broke up. Sonny disengaged from Kate and had a one-nightstand with Claudia; the new female character introduced to the show.

Claudia was twisted and complicated. She was born into the mob and was emotionally and sexually abused. Because of this background, she used sex to attract and manipulate men and gain power over them and/or in the world of the mob. Claudia also expressed her sexuality through her choices of clothing, which emphasized her feminine features and were often in bright red colours.

From the beginning, a contrast was drawn between Kate and Claudia. They were different in almost every dimension. Their approach to fashion. Their expression of their sexuality and their choices of the worlds they had decided to live in.

Upon Claudia’s introduction, Kate was redefined as a prude, and this was somewhat reflected in her choice of wardrobe. This contrasted with Claudia’s attire, which were an expression of her sexuality. But most importantly, Kate and Claudia differed in their experience of life. Claudia had access to a dark place within herself; a place that Kate might not have had much experience with. So even though Sonny was attracted to Kate because of the light that she brought into his life, he still connected with Claudia from that dark place. This is where the writing made the distinction: Kate brought out Sonny’s “good” side and Claudia brought out Sonny’s “dark” side.

Sonny seemed to want to escape this darkness when he was with Kate and it seemed that when he got involved with Claudia, he disliked himself for doing so. This then translated into a series of scenes where Claudia was abused, undermined and degraded. This was also somewhat present in the scenes of the one-nightstand. The dynamic might have constituted the abuse of a female character on screen and in my opinion, it was a breach of boundaries that must be questioned.

It was after one of these instances where a scene aired in which Claudia broke a mirror with a vase full of red roses. She then looked at her own reflection in the pieces of the mirror. In the words of a fan, this was the reflection of “a broken woman”.

The mirror became an important element of the story of Sonny and Kate later in 2008.

What did the mirror represent and what was the deeper meaning behind these scenes?