Marriage a la Mode

The second main character is Isabel, who is first depicted through William’s memories. She has undergone a major shift in character by the time the story begins. The first signal of her transformation is “the new way” she laughs (1), which is described as derisive rather than joyful. She laughs at William when he tries to speak with her, telling him not to “be so dreadfully stuffy—and tragic,” as if she “killed” their love (3). To William, she is largely unrecognizable, a change that started when she went to Paris with Moira Morrison; in the text, Paris stands for sophistication and cutting-edge art and culture. She dismisses everything old and “sentimental,” including the family’s old home in London, and now spends all of her time with bohemian friends in the country. This also manifests in selfishness; she keeps the fruit William brought for their children and goes bathing with her friends, leaving William by himself. She does not defend him when her friends mock him, telling them, “[B]e nice to him, my children! He’s only staying until to-morrow evening” (5).

The story shifts to Isabel’s perspective in the final scenes, when she is alone with her friends and receives William’s letter. She is confused by the letter’s contents, “more and more excited, even frightened” and decides it is “absurd, ridiculous” (8). These mixed feelings—particularly fear—hint that William might be putting an end to their current arrangement, where his salary funds her and her friends’ lifestyle and they only insult him for it. At first, she mocks the letter and shares it with her friends, and her new laugh returns. However, she suddenly stops laughing and is “exhausted.” When she flees into her bedroom, she has an epiphany, realizing her behavior is “vile, odious, abominable, vulgar” (8). She is on the precipice of honoring her marriage and husband by writing back, but she ultimately gives in to the immediate pleasure of her friends’ company. While at first her new way of laughing is observed through William’s eyes, the narrator now highlights it, suggesting that her new lifestyle is ingrained in her.

Moira Morrison is the catalyst for Isabel’s change; she gives a studio party that William and Isabel attend, and afterward, Isabel and Moira go to Paris together. Moira positions herself as a sophisticated artist, telling William, “I am going to rescue your wife, selfish man. She’s like an exquisite little Titania” (3), and she introduces Isabel to her set of bohemian artist friends.

However, descriptions of Moira counteract her self-perception and highlight The Shallowness of Bohemian Circles. She wears a “bonnet like a huge strawberry” (4), appearing ridiculous rather than avant-garde. She comes across as vain and shallow, and what she talks about is inane, for example, “wondering what color one’s legs really [are] underwater” (8). While she is ostensibly an artist, her latest discovery in the story is simply sleeping: “It’s so wonderful. One simply shuts one’s eyes, that’s all. It’s so delicious” (7). Like her friends, Moira is preoccupied with frivolity and eating, simultaneously relying on William’s generosity and disparaging him.

Moira refers to Isabel as “Titania,” alluding to the Queen of the Fairies and Oberon’s wife in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This implies that Isabel is enchanting, but like Oberon, the King of the Fairies, Moira acts as a sort of stage director, managing and directing all the interactions among her protégés. At the end of the story, she calls Isabel “Titania” again when Isabel is debating staying and writing to William. Her influence on Isabel is very strong, and when she “pipes,” like a magical piper, Isabel changes her mind again, postponing her reply to William.