Mary, Mary · Question
How does Mary, Mary develop the theme of Fantasy vs. Reality?
Answer
Mary, Mary by James Stephens develops Fantasy vs. Reality across the chapters the companion marks for this theme.
Mary and her mother escape their harsh reality through elaborate fantasies about wealth, fine clothes, a lordly husband, and a brother returning from America, contrasting their dreams of romance and luxury with the grim facts of their daily lives.
Mary's internal conflict between her mother's romantic fantasies and the grim reality of their lives, highlighted by her lies about her mother's work.
Mrs. Makebelieve escapes her poverty by pretending to be rich, imagining grand houses and dresses, contrasting sharply with their actual life.
Mrs. Makebelieve's elaborate plans for repapering, a Turkey carpet, and a piano contrast sharply with their actual impoverished conditions, while Mary imagines stories about ducks and flowers.
Evidence in the book
- Mary, Mary
Mary's internal conflict between her mother's romantic fantasies and the grim reality of their lives, highlighted by her lies about her mother's work.
- I
Mrs. Makebelieve escapes her poverty by pretending to be rich, imagining grand houses and dresses, contrasting sharply with their actual life.
- II
Mrs. Makebelieve's elaborate plans for repapering, a Turkey carpet, and a piano contrast sharply with their actual impoverished conditions, while Mary imagines stories about ducks and flowers.
- III
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.
- IV
Mary's romanticized view of the policeman contrasts with the mundane reality of his job. Her mother's sleep dreams also highlight the gap between desire and actual life.
- VI
Mrs. Makebelieve's schemes—a returning uncle or a chance marriage—contrast with the harsh reality of their daily struggle, and Mary's imaginative observations of strangers blur the line between reality and fantasy.
- VII
Mrs. Makebelieve oscillates between believing that the poor have hidden resources and confronting the harsh reality of their suffering, a tension between hope and despair.
- VIII
Mary dreams of coral wristlets and velvet sashes while her actual dress is let out to its last tuck and her beads are cheap penny purchases.
