Husbands & Lovers

“You’ll be happy to make all the arrangements and so on, won’t you darling?”

Alistair doesn’t ask Hannah her feelings about moving to Egypt; he simply informs her that they are moving. His supposition that she will make the arrangements is less of a request than it is an assumption that she’ll be happy to do his bidding, as reflected by the rhetorical nature of the question. This interaction characterizes their passionless relationship, as Hannah’s response, that this “sound[s] splendid” isn’t quoted directly, though Alistair’s dialogue is cited, suggesting that her voice is of much less importance than his.

“You sometimes had the feeling that the ordinary Egyptians themselves were only spectators to all this, the throbbing civic life of Cairo and of Egypt itself—their own country. Like me, Hannah thought […] A spectator to my own life.”

Hannah has so little control in her life, having traded her independence for the promise of security that marriage to Alistair offers, that she compares herself to a spectator. She likens the Egyptians to spectators as well, compelled to watch while the English exploit their resources. This comparison makes her appear empathetic to the Egyptian nationalist cause, a feeling that pits her interests against her own husband’s and bodes ominously for her future.

“Those eyes […]. The color of hope.”

To Hannah, Lucien’s green eyes represent hope. Green is often associated with the innocence and idealism of youth and new life, and Lucien compels Hannah to consider a return to life by allowing herself to love again. The narrative suggests that allowing oneself to love is a deeply hopeful endeavor because any number of things can break one’s heart. Hannah’s association of Lucien’s green eyes with hope foreshadows their growing love.

“Boats against the current, my head beats on. Borne back ceaselessly into the goddamn past.”

This line alludes to the final sentences of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby. In that novel, the narrator laments the way humans try to forge ahead and leave their past behind, though this is ultimately impossible, as their backgrounds always reclaim them. When Mallory recalls these lines, she’s on her way back to Winthrop Island, the scene of her love affair with Monk. No matter how much she tries to leave her past in the past, it seems that Mallory cannot escape it, and her recollection of these lines establishes a foreboding mood that hints at the trauma she endured on the island.

“You men […]. You’re so quick to judge a woman who marries for money. But men are the same. A different kind of treasure, that’s all.”

Hannah’s pragmatism suggests the pain of her past. She married Alistair to guarantee her safety, not because she felt herself to be in love. Society might condemn her for this unromantic, apparently materialist, choice, but a man is less likely to be condemned for marrying a woman because she is beautiful. She points out the double standards that make women’s lives and choices more difficult to manage because they are disempowered.

“There was a kind of rhythm to it, she realized, like the chuffing of a train as it worked up a head of steam.”

Alistair’s lovemaking is awkward, single-minded, and self-centered. As he “chuff[s]” toward climax, Hannah compares him to a train that is working to generate enough steam to run. This simile makes Alistair seem mechanical and completely devoid of passion. This comparison helps to establish Alistair’s character, including how he lacks self-awareness.

“When Hannah had woken at dawn, her new husband lay next to her in exactly the same position, as if in a coffin, perfectly white except for the pink tip of his nose.”

The comparison of the sleeping, sated Alistair to a dead body suggests that Hannah’s marriage represents her figurative demise. Lucien’s eyes symbolize hope, but Alistair’s corpse-like figure demonstrates that, in giving up the hope of love, Hannah submits to a kind of death. In maintaining fidelity to him, she allows part of herself—her passion—to die.

“How you start out with all these paths, all these choices. And then you realize that once you choose one path, you can’t go back. You think about all the paths you could have taken and didn’t. So I guess that’s what all those songs are about, really. Paths not taken.”

Monk uses “paths” as a metaphor for life choices. He explains that, in one’s youth, one has so many possible paths, or choices, but once one chooses a path, it is impossible to return to one’s life prior to making that choice. This is reminiscent of Robert Frost’s poem “The Road Not Taken,” which uses a fork in the road as a symbol of choices and explores a similar idea. It also alludes to the monologue about the fig tree in Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar, which states that choosing a fig on one branch means foregoing a fig on another.

“Lennox is the shiny version of me, like somebody ran me through a few Photoshop filters until I came out perfect […] I’m the rough draft while she’s the finished copy.”

Mallory uses the metaphor of a rough draft and finished copy to describe herself and Monk’s fiancée, Lennox, respectively. She feels like Lennox is a shinier, prettier version of her coarser, less polished self. This comparison highlights The Deceptiveness of Appearances because the image Lennox presents to the world may look flawless, but it conceals a deeply flawed individual.

“You see, son, being an Adams is a privilege. It’s a burden. We can’t do whatever we want in life. We can’t indulge ourselves. We work for the greater good.”

Mr. Adams’s insistence that their family has some crucial function in the workings of society seems altruistic, but it emphasizes his sense of privilege, and it hides his deeply manipulative nature and willingness to be unscrupulous to preserve the family’s status. This argument demonstrates how correct Monk is when he compares his father to Machiavelli.

“Jànos was dust, the children were dust, everything was just dust.”

This metaphor, comparing Hannah’s first husband and children to dust, conveys that their literal deaths persuaded Hannah to accept her own figurative death: the death of her hope. It is reminiscent of the phrase, “ashes to ashes, dust to dust,” from the Christian Book of Common Prayer. It refers to humanity’s origins as dust and the idea that people return to dust after our deaths. Though Jànos translates to the phrase “God is gracious”, it is also phonetically similar to Janus, the name of the Greek god of beginnings and endings. Jànos’s death heralded the end of Hannah’s hope for love, but her memories of him, which rush back while she’s with Lucien, signify the new beginning he offers her.

“I couldn’t believe he never knew, all this time, that he was the sun to my earth.”

In this metaphor, Mallory compares herself to the planet Earth, one of many celestial objects that orbits the much larger sun, represented by Monk. This metaphor demonstrates her sense that Monk is life-giving and vital to her, while she is merely one of his many satellites, of no more importance than any other.

“Pleased to meet you, Mallory. My nephew tells me you’re his muse.”

Aunt Barbara’s allusion to the muses of Greek mythology establish Mallory’s importance in Monk’s life, despite her feeling that she is merely the earth to his sun. There were nine muses, each associated with a different kind of art and the inspiration required to produce it. Monk’s description of Mallory as his “muse” makes it clear how vital she is to his sense of self and creative process.

“I felt this instant of terror that I’d never see him again, that he had disappeared between the jaws of some monster, like Jonah and the whale.”

Just before Monk takes the stage at Mo’s, he tells Mallory that he loves her, and then he rushes off. Terror overwhelms her, and she uses an allusion that relates her sense of dread to how it would feel to watch the biblical Jonah disappear into the whale’s mouth. This foreshadows their separation. It also implies that Monk is like Jonah, a sinner who disobeys God but eventually repents and returns to the fold, foreshadowing Monk’s reconciliation with his father when Mallory leaves and he reunites with Lennox.

“That’s what love is. And this physical thing we have, this insane combustion that happens with us, the bonfire last night? It’s because of that.”

Monk uses a metaphor to compare the love he shares with Mallory to fire. This not only suggests love’s power but also its capacity to become destructive, resulting in vulnerability and pain.

“[N]ot going to stand in front of the cameras like the loyal fucking Stepford wife and…”

When Paige speaks with her lawyers after the news of Jake’s infidelity breaks, she insists that she will not act like a Stepford wife. She alludes to Ira Levin’s novel, The Stepford Wives, in which a community of men—exhausted by feminism—turn their wives into idealized robots who find fulfillment in the rearing of children and completion of housework. Paige refuses to support Jake through the scandal his affair caused, instead choosing to hold him responsible for his betrayal. Her allusion suggests that a woman who would choose differently is a puppet of patriarchy.

“So then Monk swoops in, right? Like my own personal Lancelot. Literally takes me by the hand and drags me in to join in all the fucking reindeer games.”

Lee describes her reunion with Monk, mixing metaphors by combining contradictory allusions. First, she compares him to Lancelot, one of King Arthur’s knights, and then she compares him to Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer. One is a mythical knight who seduces the queen and another is a children’s cartoon character. This incongruence suggests that Lee’s character is all about appearance and less about actual substance. Unlike allusions used by Mallory and Monk, Lee’s allusions do not suggest that she has a keen understanding of others.

“I’m telling you, Mallie, you have to find a way to put out that fucking candle, okay? Put out that candle so you can stand in the same room with him without burning up.”

Paige uses a metaphor to compare Mallory’s remaining feelings of love for Monk to a candle. It is no longer a conflagration or combustion, as Monk once suggested, but a small reminder of the passion they once shared. Paige intimates that the fire from the candle could still be destructive, however, as it could “burn” Mallory up.

“The heat was so intense, his skin seemed to be splitting like the skin of a ripe plum.”

When Lucien saves Hannah from the fire in Cairo, he endures tremendous pain and eventually dies from his injuries. This simile compares his skin to the delicate, tender skin of a plum, emphasizing how fragile human beings can be. That Lucien gives his life to save Hannah (and their baby) from the fire strengthens the symbolic association of fire with love.

“I will build you a throne next to the sun.”

As he dies in her arms, Lucien alludes to Verdi’s Aida, a tragic opera about an Ethiopian princess who is enslaved in Egypt and falls in love with an Egyptian general, Radames. The allusion reflects Lucien’s death and the doomed love that causes it. It also expresses the strength of Lucien’s love and connects love’s power to the fire of the sun.

“‘Here’s the deal,’ I say. ‘The catch-22.’”

When Paige tries to convince Mallory to tell Monk the truth about why she left him and kept Sam a secret, Mallory alludes to Joseph Heller’s novel, Catch-22, to express her feeling that she is damned if she does tell Monk the truth and damned if she doesn’t. A “catch-22” is a lose-lose situation. If she tells him the truth, she fears he’ll be disgusted, eliminating any possibility they could reunite. If she doesn’t, he’ll never completely forgive or understand her choice, preventing a reunion.

“What is it about her, he needs to touch her? Like magnets or something. He can’t be without her touch.”

Monk feels he cannot keep away from Mallory, comparing them to magnets. This simile emphasizes the force that seems to pull Monk and Mallory together. It doesn’t feel like a choice but, rather, like something that is part of their very nature.

“I want Sam to have a sibling. Or two.”

Mallory appears to choose a future with Monk, acknowledging her love for him, when she tells him that she wants to give Sam a brother or sister. Hannah also tells Lucien that she is prepared to live again, choosing a life of love over a relationship that symbolizes death by telling him that she wants a baby. Mallory’s and Hannah’s hopes for the future and their willingness to be vulnerable in love again are highlighted by their desire to have more children with the men they love.