Night: Analysis of Major Characters
"Night: Analysis of Major Characters" explores the life and reflections of Mary Hooligan, a spirited Irish divorcée in her forties, who is house-sitting in London during a winter night. As she lies in her employers' four-poster bed, she engages in a candid soliloquy, examining her life, relationships, and identity. Mary embodies a philosophy that celebrates excess and embraces a robust, unapologetic engagement with life, showcasing her lively spirit and sensual appreciation of nature.
Throughout her introspection, Mary reflects on key figures in her life, including her tumultuous relationship with her alcoholic father, her deceased mother whose love remains a significant influence, and her adult son, Tutsi, who navigates life independently. Her ex-husband, Dr. Flaggler, is depicted as emotionally distant, contrasting with her warm memories of past lovers. Notable encounters with various men, including a hotelier named Nick and a charming stonemason, Maurice P. Moriarity, reveal Mary's longing for connection. The narrative captures her resilience and determination to forge meaningful relationships, even as she contemplates the future and her place in the world. Overall, Mary emerges as a complex character who navigates her past while seeking to carve out her own identity.
Night: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Edna O'Brien
First published: 1972 (U.S. edition, 1973); revised, 1974
Genre: Novel
Locale: London, England, with memories from elsewhere
Plot: Psychological realism
Time: The 1960's, with flashbacks through the
Mary Hooligan, a feisty, fortyish, Irish divorcée, currently house-sitting in London. Over the course of one winter night, she reviews, from her employers' four-poster master bed, her life and loves. Hers is a philosophy celebrating excess. An indomitable spirit, her story is similarly aggressive and witty, even zany, in its content and form. All of her senses are alert. Mary's robust handling of language is as forceful and exuberant as is her optimistic attitude toward life. Moved to launch into her soliloquy by approaching middle age and possible loneliness, she reveals herself to be in rude, good health. She is a rebel and a fighter, so she admires the idea of the Irish Republican Army man, McKann, whom she has never met. Sensually, she enjoys nature and the natural, celebrating birds, animals, flowers, and honest sexuality. She expects and uses no euphemisms or baby talk. In the course of her freewheeling associations, she sketches the people important in her life: her parents, husband, and son, and a parade of lovers. She also sketches her Irish homeland, where she has chosen her grave site, though she is in no hurry to take up residence in it. She has no Irish Catholic obsession and concomitant guilt. She is pleased enough with what she sees in her mirror. Mary enjoys life. She enjoys being a woman; unlike her former apartment mate, Madge, she is no whiner. Mary thinks that she will probably seek out her stonemason friend, Maurice P. Moriarity, when her house-sitting job is over, as it very soon will be. Jonathan and Tig, her employers, are making an unexpectedly early return. Connection and involvement with others must continue for Mary, so that she can carry on.
Boss, her violent, alcoholic father, who lives alone in the west of Ireland. He no longer farms.
Lil, her martyr mother, now dead. Her smothering love for her daughter continues to be a force in Mary's life.
Tutsi, her son, who plays no active part in the tale. An adult and something of a world traveler, he is not damaged by his environment and heredity.
Dr. Flaggler, Mary's cold, calculating, and condescending former husband. He is a museum curator, harsh in his family discipline and not open to real communication in his marriage.
The crooner, an anonymous city slicker who botched the de-flowering of Mary, back in her native west of Ireland. It was a holy day of obligation, she says.
Nick Finney, a red-haired husband and father of four with whom Mary has a brief encounter. He and his wife manage a hotel.
Bert, called the Duke, a man who lives well, though he is in no position to marry her. Mary believes that she has wronged him. It is he who suggests that she will soon be on the shelf and so contributes to her taking stock of her situation in her solitary monologue.
An anonymous toff, who, by his dehumanizing approach, threatens Mary's equilibrium, until she recalls that the sales are on in the city stores; she would enjoy the bargain hunting.
Maurice P. Moriarity, the one whom, of all the company that Mary kept, she thinks that she may rejoin. He is an Irish stonemason, and though their relationship was never sexually consummated, Mary feels that the connection they developed rivals that of any family knot.