54 pages • 1-hour read
The Marriage Plot
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Themes
The Illusion of Romantic Destiny
Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of mental illness.
The pursuit of love is a constant focus for the novel’s central characters. Madeleine loves Leonard for the same reason that Mitchell loves Madeleine: Each perceives the object of their affection as exceptional, standing out from all others. For Madeleine, Leonard is an unlikely love interest. Not only does he come from a less privileged socio-economic background, but he also presents himself as an iconoclast—one who disregards the norms of both mainstream culture and the more rarified culture of the Ivy League. This unconventional personality initially makes Madeleine wary of him, but then she grows curious. She is interested in Leonard because he is so unlike others she has dated or other university students that she is drawn to him.
Just as Madeleine is surprised at Leonard’s apparent lack of romantic success—given that she finds him so alluring—Mitchell is initially surprised that Madeleine is not noticed by more men. He regards her as beautiful and places her on a pedestal as a kind of ideal partner. Her rejection of him only makes her more appealing, and Mitchell becomes determined to remain in her life until she eventually returns his love. He comes to see the intensity of his love for her as proof of their joint destiny: Because he is certain that his love is real and not misplaced, it must therefore be true that they are meant for each other and that she will eventually realize this. This romantic faith mirrors the religious faith that Mitchell seeks in his studies and his travels. Mitchell and Madeleine each have a vision of an ideal partner who is specific and uniquely meant for them—one who stands outside of the norm and cannot be replaced by any other potential partner. They both have an unconscious certainty that upon securing this partner, all other aspects of life—work, family, and the like—will fall into perfect harmony.
By the end of the novel, these central characters arrive at the understanding that there is nothing special, unique, or new about their love lives or relationships. The “marriage plot” that Madeleine has disavowed throughout her college career is one that she has indirectly fallen into. Deliberately continuing her relationship with Leonard in part to spite her parents—to prove that they are wrong about him being poor husband material—makes Madeleine desperate to make the relationship work. She must accept the reality that Leonard’s mental illness will permanently shape her marriage and that, if Leonard wishes to end their marriage, there is nothing she can do to change his mind. Mitchell, too, finally admits to himself that he has intentionally prevented himself from getting over Madeleine, and he comes to realize that no amount of waiting for her to begin to love him will change her mind. This acceptance that a lack of romantic love is not necessarily inhibiting his life as a whole is freeing for him.
The Need to Accept the Uncontrollable
Each of the main characters sets out to exert control over circumstances that cannot be controlled. Mitchell exemplifies this notion most explicitly, repeatedly telling himself that though Madeleine has explicitly rejected him as a romantic partner, she will ultimately change her mind. He therefore mentally prevents himself from getting over his love of Madeleine and moving on to other love options. He is certain that he has arrived at knowledge that Madeleine has yet to possess but is confident that, at some future point, she will realize that they are intended to be together. At the end of the novel, Mitchell resolves this conflict by reaching the understanding that he has been wrong: He cannot make Madeleine love him, and he was wrong to believe that they were destined to be together.
Madeleine, driven by a combination of love for Leonard and a desire to prove her mother wrong, sets out to sacrifice as much as she can in the name of keeping Leonard stable. This involves everything from tiptoeing around his mood swings and catering to his needs to putting his career before her own by relocating to Pilgrim Lake with him. The growth that she experiences by the end of the novel hinges on her coming to terms with the fact that she cannot “cure” Leonard of his illness. Only by being her own person can she be free to pursue her own meaningful life.
Leonard vacillates between being convinced that he will be forever a victim of his circumstances (both his genetics and his parents’ lack of expectations for him) and trying to dictate the shape of his life by managing his mental illness on his own terms, without medication. He becomes certain that if he is able to live just on the edge of mania—without fully giving in to it—he will be able to reap the benefits of the manic state without the negative results. This illusory form of control inevitably leads to disaster.
Just as Mitchell cannot control Madeleine’s feelings, Leonard arrives at the discovery that he cannot control his mental illness. Instead, he must either live with the bouts of depressive and manic states or accept the negative side effects of the medication. At the end of the novel, it is unclear which of the routes he has chosen, but he is certain that both routes will negatively affect Madeleine. In ending their marriage, Leonard believes himself to be setting her free of the burdens of his illness, which he himself can never escape. In returning to his hometown, he resigns himself to a sense of finality, believing that his circumstances and condition will never change and that he will never be successful. This resignation, too, presents an illusory sense of control: He convinces himself that by no longer wanting what he can’t have, he can spare himself agony. In this way, his character arc ends without resolution, suggesting that he has further development ahead of him.
The Pursuit of Personal Fulfillment
Each of the novel’s main characters hopes to succeed in a professional field that fuels their personal passions. Flashbacks of Madeleine’s college career indicate that she chose her English major because of her love of books, without any plan for how to make money from her degree. She believes that her pursuits are worthwhile because they challenge the normative strictures that have defined her parents’ lives—in this way, Madeleine’s aim is to fulfill herself by subverting the norm. When she takes an interest in a subject, however, she becomes quickly and totally consumed by it, allowing it to dictate every aspect of her life and way of thinking, as is the case of A Lover’s Discourse by Roland Barthes. Though she recognizes that semiotics is a fad among students during her final year at Brown, she is unwilling to admit that she herself has been caught up in this fad.
Leonard, too, feels destined for greatness, and while this belief is a facet of his mental illness, he grows frustrated by the menial tasks he is assigned to complete at the Pilgrim Lake lab. Even more frustrating is how difficult his medication sometimes makes it to complete such tasks. Leonard often has grandiose visions of himself doing great and extreme things, and he does not recognize that these visions are warning signs of his mania. Often, his manic states make him feel as though he is living in a euphoria, akin to the kind of religious enlightenment that Mitchell seeks. In Mitchell’s search for personal fulfillment, he follows his interest in religious scholarship and theology, becoming convinced that the key to meaning is to rid oneself of all ego in order to achieve an enlightened state. Being unable (or unwilling) to fully sacrifice himself, however, to this cause leaves Mitchell frustrated, and he berates himself.
By the end of the novel, each of the main characters learns that aspects of their lives are interfering with the pursuit of their passions. Madeleine learns that she should pursue Victorian literature despite its conventional, unfashionable reputation, and importantly, she places her own goals ahead of Leonard’s as she begins graduate school. Leonard learns not only that he cannot control his illness without medication but also that he cannot safely live in a state of mania. Mitchell comes to a kind of stasis by attending the Quaker meetings. He recognizes, too, that he has sabotaged his own happiness and well-being by refusing to give up hope of a relationship with Madeleine. Freeing himself of her, ultimately, provides him with the ability to move forward into his future.
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