Mary, Mary · Chapter
XXVIII explained
The policeman becomes obsessively fixated on Mary after she flees from his embrace, torn between his desire for her body and his need for vengeance.
What happens
The policeman becomes obsessively fixated on Mary after she flees from his embrace, torn between his desire for her body and his need for vengeance. He resents her social inferiority yet cannot dismiss her from his mind, and his anger grows when he sees her happily chatting with another young man. His frustration spills over into his interactions with his aunt and another girl, as he seethes with a dark determination to make someone pay for his wounded self-respect.
Themes in this chapter
Fantasy vs. Reality
The policeman's idealized image of Mary clashes with the reality of her independence and social standing, fueling his rage.
Social Class and Aspiration
Mary's perceived social inferiority complicates the policeman's desire, as he cannot marry her yet cannot let her go.
Romance and Marriage
The policeman's twisted view of romance as possession and his struggle with the conventional path of marriage.
Characters to notice
- Mary Makebelieve
Obsessed over by the policeman; seen chatting with a young man, her face flushing when she spots him.
- The Young Man
Walks with Mary, gabbling ceaselessly; the policeman dismisses him as a skinny whippersnapper.
- Patrick Joseph Brady
The great policeman whose obsession with Mary consumes him, leading to anger and fantasies of vengeance.
Key passages
“When the sexual instinct is aroused, men and dogs and frogs and beetles, and such other creatures as are inside or outside of this catalogue, are very tenacious in the pursuit of their ambition.”
Sexual desire makes all creatures—human or animal—relentlessly pursue what they want.
Opening reflection on the power of instinct.
“Love is an inaugurator displaying his banners on captured peaks and pressing forever to a new and more gracious enterprise, but the victories of hate are gained in a ditch from which there is no horizon visible”
Love drives us toward new and noble goals, while hate traps us in a dead end with no future.
Philosophical contrast between love and hate.
“He could have let her go easily enough if she had not first let him go; for he read dismissal in her action and resented it as a trespass on his own just prerogative.”
He would have moved on if she had rejected him first, but her leaving him felt like an invasion of his rights.
The policeman's wounded pride and sense of entitlement.
“She had surrendered to him willingly, and yet drew about her a protective armour of reserve wherein she skulked immune to the arms which were lawfully victorious.”
Though she had given in to him, she kept an emotional distance that frustrated his sense of conquest.
Mary's reserve as a form of resistance.
“Some person rich enough must pay for his lacerations or there was less justice in heaven than in the Police Courts; and it might be that girl’s lot to expiate the sins of Mary.”
Someone must compensate him for his emotional wounds, or else divine justice is weaker than human law; perhaps that other girl will pay for Mary's offenses.
His dark desire to transfer his anger onto an innocent person.