# III explained — Mary, Mary

> Chapter companion for Mary, Mary by James Stephens.

## What happens

Mary Makebelieve reflects on her mother's romanticized visions of marriage and wealth, contrasting them with the grim reality of their lives. She begins to see marriage as a factual necessity rather than a fairy tale, and develops a curious, naive attraction to men, wondering about the nature of male-female relations. A question about whether her mother was ever struck by a man provokes an intense, unexplained emotional outburst.

## Themes in this chapter

### Fantasy vs. Reality

Mary's mother spins elaborate fairy-tale visions of lords and trousseaus, while Mary begins to see marriage as a mundane fact among grey-lived couples.

### Social Class and Aspiration

The mother's scorn for 'mean, ugly days' and her detailed fantasies of wealth highlight the desperate aspiration to escape poverty.

### Coming of Age and Sexuality

Mary's dawning curiosity about men, her confusion about sex as merely a matter of clothing, and her fascination with being hit by a man signal early sexual awakening.

## Character check-ins

### Mary Makebelieve

Contemplates marriage as both a romantic ideal and a practical reality; feels a magnetic, confused attraction to men.

### Mrs. Makebelieve

Describes elaborate fantasies of marriage and wealth for Mary, but expresses fury at their mean, ugly present; reacts violently to a question about being struck by a man.

## Key lines

> Six feet deep is scarcely deep enough to bury romance, and until that depth of clay has clogged our bones the fire can still smoulder and be fanned, and, perhaps, blaze up and flare across a county or a country to warm the cold hands of many a shrivelled person.

Romance cannot be fully extinguished even by death; it persists as a hidden spark that might ignite and spread, bringing warmth to those whose lives have grown cold and barren.

_Reflects Mary's growing belief that even in dreary lives, the possibility of love and passion endures._

> She asked her mother (with apparent irrelevance), had a man ever struck her? Her mother was silent for a few moments, and then burst into so violent a passion of weeping that Mary Makebelieve was frightened.

Mary innocently asks if her mother was ever hit by a man, triggering an intense, unexplained fit of weeping that frightens Mary.

_Highlights the hidden trauma and unspoken pain in Mrs. Makebelieve's past, and Mary's dawning awareness of adult violence._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/mary_mary_se/chapters/iii
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/mary_mary_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/mary_mary_se/chapters