# Endnotes explained — Miss Marjoribanks

> Chapter companion for Miss Marjoribanks by Margaret Oliphant.

## What happens

The endnotes provide additional commentary on Miss Marjoribanks's engagement, noting that it was not approved by her friends and that she took comfort in having no involvement in it. The text also remarks on her preference for consistency and her treatment of the situation as a special emergency.

## Themes in this chapter

### Marriage as a Social Institution

The engagement is discussed in terms of social approval and the protagonist's detachment from the match, highlighting marriage as a communal rather than purely personal affair.

### Self-Perception and Ego

Miss Marjoribanks takes comfort in her non-involvement, reflecting her self-regard and desire to maintain a consistent, controlled image.

## Character check-ins

### Miss Marjoribanks

Reflects on her engagement, noting that none of her friends approved and that she is relieved to have had no part in it.

## Key lines

> It may be mentioned here that this was an engagement that none of the friends approved of, and that it was the greatest possible comfort to Miss Marjoribanks’s mind that she had nothing to do with it⁠—either one way or another, as she said.

The engagement was universally disapproved of by her friends, and Miss Marjoribanks was greatly relieved to have had no hand in it.

_Summarizes the social disapproval and Miss Marjoribanks's personal relief._

> It is only justice to Miss Marjoribanks to say that she was not addicted to fine writing; but then she was a person who liked to have everything in keeping, and naturally an emergency such as the present does not come every day, and requires to be treated accordingly.

Miss Marjoribanks was not given to elaborate language, but she valued consistency and felt that this unusual situation demanded special treatment.

_Explains her practical nature and her approach to the engagement as an exceptional event._

## Links

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