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Martha Nash Legg
Eleanor Stier and John Nash meet in 1952 when Nash visits the Boston hospital where Stier is employed as a nurse to have some varicose veins removed. Eleanor is an “attractive, hardworking, tenderhearted woman” from a working-class background, five years older than Nash. She is attracted to Nash, a MIT professor from an upper-class background, despite their dissimilarities. After meeting again by chance, Stier and Nash begin dating. Eleanor later becomes pregnant, and although she hopes that Nash will decide to marry her, he chooses not to. Eleanor and Nash’s relationship grows troubled, and they fight frequently: Nash often belittles Eleanor for her lower-class status and lack of education, and he keeps their relationship a secret from his friends, family, and colleagues. John David Stier, their son, is born in June 1953. Nash refuses to pay child support, leading to the dissolution of his relationship with Eleanor, who reacts angrily by informing Nash’s parents—who didn’t know about their grandson—of Nash’s “secret.” As Nash begins to recover from schizophrenia in the 1980s and 1990s, he makes some conciliatory visits to Eleanor and John David, who live together in Boston, though Eleanor remains frustrated with his behavior as a father.
Eleanor Stier Quotes in A Beautiful Mind
The A Beautiful Mind quotes below are all either spoken by Eleanor Stier or refer to Eleanor Stier . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Prologue
Quotes
Underneath the brilliant surface of [Nash’s] life, all was chaos and contradiction: his involvements with other men; a secret mistress and a neglected illegitimate son; a deep ambivalence toward the wife who adored him, the university that nurtured him, even his country; and, increasingly, a haunting fear of failure. And the chaos eventually welled up, spilled over, and swept away the fragile edifice of his carefully constructed life.
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Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23
Quotes
Nash displayed a rather curious inconsistency in his attitude and behavior toward his son. At the time of his birth, he had reacted in neither of the ways one might have expected of a young man confronted with the pregnancy of a woman with whom he has recently begun sleeping, eschewing both the high road that would have led to a shotgun wedding, as well as the more commonly elected low road of flat-out denying his paternity and simply vanishing from his girlfriend’s life. He doubtless behaved selfishly, even callously […] But…it is natural to conclude that Nash, like the rest of us, needed to love and be loved, and that a tiny, helpless infant, his son, drew him irresistibly.
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Explanation and Analysis:
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Eleanor Stier Quotes in A Beautiful Mind
The A Beautiful Mind quotes below are all either spoken by Eleanor Stier or refer to Eleanor Stier . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Prologue
Quotes
Underneath the brilliant surface of [Nash’s] life, all was chaos and contradiction: his involvements with other men; a secret mistress and a neglected illegitimate son; a deep ambivalence toward the wife who adored him, the university that nurtured him, even his country; and, increasingly, a haunting fear of failure. And the chaos eventually welled up, spilled over, and swept away the fragile edifice of his carefully constructed life.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 23
Quotes
Nash displayed a rather curious inconsistency in his attitude and behavior toward his son. At the time of his birth, he had reacted in neither of the ways one might have expected of a young man confronted with the pregnancy of a woman with whom he has recently begun sleeping, eschewing both the high road that would have led to a shotgun wedding, as well as the more commonly elected low road of flat-out denying his paternity and simply vanishing from his girlfriend’s life. He doubtless behaved selfishly, even callously […] But…it is natural to conclude that Nash, like the rest of us, needed to love and be loved, and that a tiny, helpless infant, his son, drew him irresistibly.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
