60 pages 2 hours read

Maggie Shipstead

Great Circle

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

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Character Analysis

Marian Graves

Marian Graves is the central figure in Great Circle. Her life is one of the two narratives, while the other is about Hadley Baxter’s attempts to make a film based on Marian’s attempt to fly across both the North and South Poles. As a character, Marian is inextricably linked to flight. Flying gives Marian the chance to escape, whether that is from the male-dominated society that restricts her opportunities, her abusive marriage, or the tragedies that plague her life. To Marian, flying is a way to seize back control from a world rife with sadness and confusion. When in command of a plane, Marian can exercise agency.

Flying allows Marian to defy Macqueen, society, and gravity, obliterating societal expectations and defining herself on her own terms. She becomes a successful female pilot in an age when men actively sabotaged women’s planes to keep them grounded. The importance of flight, to Marian, is such a potent metaphor that it turns her life into a legend, inspiring future generations, including Hadley. This importance of flight is such that, by giving up flight and choosing to live under a new identity in New Zealand, Marian makes a real sacrifice to be happy.