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Chapter 13
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
Confused by Miss Lonelyhearts’s suddenly positive demeanor, Betty asks him why he’s grinning. In the elevator, Miss Lonelyhearts tries to convince Betty to get a soda together, asks her why she’s upset with him, and lies that he’s quit his job. Betty begins to cry, and in a taxi, she reveals that she’s pregnant from their time together at her family’s farm. Miss Lonelyhearts asks Betty to marry him, telling her all the things she wants to hear, though he doesn’t truly mean them. They begin to discuss the life they’ll live together, and when Miss Lonelyhearts leaves Betty’s place to go home, he doesn’t feel guilty—or any emotion at all. He believes that his bed can take him anywhere he wants to go.
While the news of Betty’s pregnancy may have sent the old Miss Lonelyhearts into shock, the new, transformed Miss Lonelyhearts handles comforting Betty—and lying to her—with ease. Although he’s previously felt uncomfortable saying things that he doesn’t mean, Miss Lonelyhearts’s lack of emotions implies that he's succumbed to a new level of madness and has moved even further from being a legitimate Christ figure.
Themes
