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Chapter 10
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Miss Lonelyhearts, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Religion and Morality in Modern Society
The Illusion of the American Dream
The Limitations of Love
Isolation and Madness
Summary
Analysis
Feeling that being around Betty makes him feel worse about his situation, Miss Lonelyhearts begins to ignore her. Instead, he grabs drinks with his friends at the speakeasy, where he runs into Shrike. At the speakeasy, the bartender introduces Miss Lonelyhearts to Mr. Doyle. The men sit at a table together in a back room, staring at each other, and Miss Lonelyhearts finds himself excited and intrigued by their wordless communication. Mr. Doyle then begins to speak, and Miss Lonelyhearts realizes that he can’t understand what Mr. Doyle is saying because he isn’t speaking in coherent sentences. Finally, Mr. Doyle takes out a letter that he’s written to Miss Lonelyhearts, which explains how much he’s struggled at his job as a disabled man and how he continues to struggle financially. The two men sit holding hands beneath the table.
In this first interaction with Mr. Doyle, Miss Lonelyhearts seems to experience a level of interest and fulfillment that he hasn’t experienced with the various women with whom he’s interacted. Interestingly, instead of recoiling from Mr. Doyle when the other man begins to describe the difficulties of living with a disability, Miss Lonelyhearts acts as though he sympathizes with his struggles. He even initiates physical contact despite previously having tormented an older man for potentially being queer. This moment of intimacy also contrasts with how Miss Lonelyhearts often acts out of obligation with the women who confide in him, such as when he told Mrs. Doyle she was still beautiful even though he didn’t mean it.
Themes
