The Cost of Technology Theme Analysis

In Ray Bradbury’s “Marionettes, Inc.,” thirty-five-year-old Braling buys a “marionette” (a lifelike android, not a traditional puppet with strings) to temporarily distract his controlling wife, Mrs. Braling, so that he can have a little time away from her. Although the ultra-realistic marionette seems like a creative fix for Braling’s troubled marriage (and later, for that of his good friend Smith), things soon go terribly wrong. Although the story illustrates that technology can provide innovative solutions to seemingly insurmountable problems, it ultimately cautions readers about turning to technology as a quick fix for delicate, interpersonal problems. Doing so may only exacerbate the issue at hand or create several other—and bigger—problems to grapple with.

The story initially shows that technology can provide innovative solutions to complicated issues. For over ten years, Braling has dreamed of going to Rio, but his nervous, controlling wife has always stood in the way of his travels. When Braling (somehow) stumbles across the top-secret company called Marionettes, Inc., he realizes that having his own lifelike marionette is the perfect solution. By using his marionette, Braling Two, the real Braling can slip off to Rio, and Mrs. Braling won’t even know he left—thereby avoiding her controlling tendencies, anxiety, and rage altogether. Similarly, seeing how the marionette will help Braling solve—or at least sidestep—some of the problems in his marriage, Smith decides that he wants one, too. Smith’s problem is that his wife, Nettie, “overdoes it.” Exasperated, Smith explains to Braling that “when you’ve been married ten years, you don’t expect a woman to sit on your lap for two hours every evening, call you at work twelve times a day and talk baby talk.” Having a marionette, Smith thinks, will allow him a “respite.” Nevertheless, Smith is also grateful for his wife and knows that he’s lucky to have her. Therefore, the marionette seems like an ingenious solution to Smith’s discontent: it would allow Smith to have a break from Nettie even just one night a month without hurting her feelings.

However, the story is also cautious about using technology to solve such sensitive interpersonal problems. Through Smith and Braling’s interactions with marionettes, the story shows that technological solutions can actually create new, bigger problems. Although Smith doesn’t follow through with his plan of purchasing his own marionette, his wife does. The marionette costs nearly eight thousand dollars (and Nettie takes an additional two thousand dollars to live on for a while), leaving the couple with a mere five thousand dollars in their once-cushioned joint bank account. Seeing such a dramatic drop in his savings sends Smith into a panic: “His heart throbbed violently. His tongue dried. He shivered. His knees suddenly turned to water. He collapsed.” While Nettie may have been trying to find her own “respite” from her husband—or perhaps wished to leave him entirely but couldn’t bear actually doing so—her seemingly innovative solution ends up sending him into a fit of anxiety, first because of the monetary cost of the marionette and then because of the emotional blow. Upon realizing that his wife has, in fact, skipped out on him and left a marionette in her place, Smith is overcome by “terror,” “loneliness,” “fever,” and “disillusionment” in tandem. Nettie’s solution to her marital problems emotionally crushes her husband, possibly more so than if she just talked to him about her feelings.

Meanwhile, Braling’s plan of distracting his wife with a marionette ends up hurting himself the most, further underscoring the costs of using technology to fix one’s problems. On his very first night of “employment,” Braling Two goes rogue, claiming that he’s fallen in love with Mrs. Braling and plans to take over Braling’s entire life. To do so, the marionette vows to lock human Braling in the cellar toolbox and lose the key forever. Although the story ends ambiguously—with “someone” going back upstairs to rejoin Mrs. Braling—it seems that the marionette has overpowered the human due to his quick thinking, “metal-firm grip,” and ability to withstand “all physical wear.” In this way, the novel darkly points out that technological solutions can sometimes prove fatal, harming the very people they were supposed to help.

In “Marionettes, Inc.,” Bradbury provides a nuanced view of technology, showing how it can help solve (or completely avoid) certain problems while also underscoring how technology invites a slew of its own problems into the mix. He uses Braling, Smith, and Nettie—three characters who either covet or actually purchase their own marionette—to caution readers about turning to technology to quickly fix their problems.