Marnie

Specifications

Graham, Winston, Marnie, 1961, The Bodley Head, London.

Reading

This was read from 11/08/2007 to 11/12/2007. The book was from the Central Resource Library of the Johnson County Library system.

Review

This is a good book, well worth reading.

This story is told in the first person by Marnie, a young woman of twenty three. Marnie is an admitted thief and a liar. She is also the product of a poor English family, who has managed to work her way into a higher class of society by using elocution lessons. Now she makes money by stealing. That is, she takes a secretarial job (she went to secretarial school), works there for a while, then steels money.

It is a psychological mystery in that it explores what made Marnie this way. Why did she steal? Why can't she stand to be touched by men? Why can't she love anyone.

It is know that she started because of her mother. That is, her mother was in a hospital, where she was given very questionable treatment. The doctor told her that if she continued to work at her job, she would be crippled shortly. So, Marnie started to support her mother, telling her she got a job as personal secretary to a millionaire named Pemberton. Of course, Pemberton doesn't exist, but the money comes from Marnie's thefts.

It is also an off center romance. That is, the inciting incident is when Marnie steals from John Rutland and Company. She attacks the "job" just like the others, but this time she gets caught. That is, she steals, and Mark Rutland traces her into her personal life, and confronts her.

She had stolen twelve thousand pounds (English money). That figures to about $20,000-$30,000 in today's money. Mark had replaced the money, but required that she return to work. A week later, he asks her to marry him, and she thinks she has to because the alternative is jail. (Later, he pointed out that she didn't have to because he replaced the money. It was his word against hers that she had stolen anything.)

This is a romance in that Mark and Marnie have a romantic (?) relationship. It is off center, in that Mark marries Marnie first. Throughout the novel, Mark expresses his undying love for Marnie. This is expressed in his acceptance and concern for her. Obviously, he accepted her despite the fact that she stole from his company. But he continues to accept her. On their honeymoon, she tells him that she cannot stand to have him touch her. (He raped her at one point, and afterwards apologized. She tried to commit suicide, but he saved her life.) He accepts this, and doesn't touch her, despite the obvious problems. She consults with Terry, his business enemy, but he accepts that.

Finally, she does accept him as her husband. She needs someone to talk to, and the only person she can think of that can is Mark. Then she begins to realize that she really loves him, and craves his touch, really.

This is also about business. That is, Mark and Terry are cousins, and each inherits some shares to the family business, but neither inherit enough to control the business. Terry is plotting to take over, but Mark doesn't know this until Marnie tells him. There is much political maneuvering. In the end, Mark sells out to someone else.

In the end, Marnie discovers that her mother has lied to her throughout her life. That is, she decides to that the shame of a marriage with Mark is no good, and, further, her previous activities might get Mark into trouble (she is beginning to love Mark, but she doesn't know it yet).

The problem is that name. In the past she has always been in trouble under other names, but Mark has her real name. Therefore she decides to run, maybe to France. She and Mark are involved in a hunting accident, but she isn't hurt as badly as Mark. So, she decides to steal from Rutland's. Unfortunately, she realizes she cannot do that. She sees now how her actions would really effect others, and she is basically a very good human being. She cannot do it. So she replaces the money she has already at her fingertips.

She goes to visit her mother, only to discover that her mother died the previous day. This is where she discovered that her mother has been living a lie all her life. And, the result of the revelation is that Marnie discovers the basic problems in her life. Her mother is a liar, a murderess, and a prostitute. Her life is the result of these lies.

Knowing this, she is sent into a mental turmoil. She remembers everything. Suddenly, she discovers she needs Mark, and she loves him. She learns to hate her mother, her uncle, and her mother's companion. But, they really are not worthy of that hate, in that, her uncle points out her mother got into trouble because she was basically good. That is, if she were a basically evil person, she would have had many ways out, but her goodness prevented that.

Terry finds out her name, and traces her to her mother's house. He agrees to take her back to Mark, but he lied, and takes her to her enemies, who will probably turn her over to the police.

Comments

There is one scene which has a lesson presented which is well worth thinking about. Marnie and Mark go on a fox hunt. Marnie is toward the front of the pack, and is enjoying herself. But, she sees the dogs tear the fox apart. When she sees this, Marnie thinks this is too much like her. That is, the fox stole maybe a chicken, so the people, who look and are high society types, stand by and rejoice at the fox being torn to pieces. These are good people, people very acceptable to society. But they accept, and encourage this violence, cruelty.

By this time in the novel Marnie has been confronted with her past, and has to confront the possible solutions, none of which are good. She sees this hunt as analogous to her situation. That is, she stole some money to help her mother live. Therefore, society has sent the police after her, to tear her apart just as surely as the fox was torn apart by the dogs. And society thinks this if good. just as the participants in the hunt gloated over the death of the fox. She is, rightfully, very depressed.

To me this calls into question the basis of the Criminal Justice system. How often is it really wealthy people who are trying to rub in their life of privileged on the poor. A poor man is kept down because he is not allowed to even get money for necessities. (This is a form of slavery, really.) Meanwhile, the wealthy worry about whether their vacation this year will be in Europe or in Hawaii, and take great pleasure in catching those they call criminals. I will write a more complete article on this in the political section of this WEB site.

This is also novel about how to handle problems. Marnie stole money from Mark - a lot of money. Yet Mark at no time asked for revenge. That is, he saw Marnie as a person with problems that needed addressed. He wanted a wife, so he used that as an excuse to help her address her problems even though she was not cooperating, and, at times, was actually hostile.

How much less trouble would we have with crime if this done as part of the criminal justice system. That is, actually try to see a criminals problems with life, and try to correct those problems. Yet people call this "soft on crime" and insist that the crime rate must remain high. I guess the problem is that most people are not Christian and want revenge. That is, in Romans, I believe, Paul makes the statement "Vengeance is mine, saith the Lord," therefore, a Christian would not worry about being soft on crime, rather would worry about cutting the crime rate, either by making the system of laws more reasonable, or by teaching criminals how to operate within this set of laws.

I have to admit that part of the reason I've spent so much time talking about this is that, like Marnie, I can see our system of laws coming up against me because the law has not allowed for any way for me to live within it. That is, we have set up a system of laws that require people to get money to live. (In the novel, Marnie's grandfather lived for eight years while he was not able to get work. I doubt that would be possible today - after a few years people would say the person is worthless, and question why we should have a welfare system to keep them alive. That is, people would take joy in see the man slowly starve to death, just as they took joy in seeing a fox torn to pieces.)