Shiloh

by

Bobbie Ann Mason

Mabel Beasley Character Analysis

Mabel Beasley is Norma Jean’s mother and Leroy’s mother-in-law. An older woman with a “worn face […] the texture of crinkled cotton,” Mabel is tough and has seemingly lived a hard life. She grew up in a log cabin in western Kentucky and seems to have lived in the same town all her life. Her husband (Norma Jean’s father) died when Norma Jean was only 10. Mabel clings to memories of the early days of her marriage, focusing with particular intensity on the honeymoon she and her husband took to the Civil War memorial park in Shiloh, Tennessee. Mabel often drops in on Norma Jean in her home, a habit she picked up during the 15 years when Leroy spent most of his time on the road. Because of this, Mabel and Norma Jean have a relationship that is too close for comfort. Mabel is nosy by nature and often inserts herself into Norma Jean and Leroy’s private matters: she criticizes Norma Jean’s smoking, Leroy’s newfound love of needlepoint, Norma Jean’s housekeeping, and she even cruelly implies that Norma Jean and Leroy may have neglected their son who died. Mabel’s obsession with the idea that Leroy and Norma Jean should visit the battleground at Shiloh to rekindle their marriage reveals that she, like Leroy, ignores the future in favor of remembering past happiness. And while Mabel’s suggestion is misguided (Norma Jean ends their marriage at Shiloh), she does—despite her cruelty and nosiness—seem to love Leroy and Norma Jean and want them to be happy.

Mabel Beasley Quotes in Shiloh

The Shiloh quotes below are all either spoken by Mabel Beasley or refer to Mabel Beasley. 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:
Grief, Love, and Estrangement  Theme Icon
).
Shiloh Quotes

Mabel is talking about Shiloh, Tennessee. For the past few years, she has been urging Leroy and Norma Jean to visit the Civil War battleground there. Mabel went there on her honeymoon—the only real trip she ever took. Her husband died of a perforated ulcer when Norma Jean was ten, but Mabel, who was accepted into the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1975, is still preoccupied with going back to Shiloh.

Related Characters: Leroy Moffitt, Norma Jean Moffitt, Mabel Beasley
Related Symbols: Shiloh
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:

Later, she says to Leroy, “She just said that about the baby be­cause she caught me smoking. She’s trying to pay me back.”

“What are you talking about?” Leroy says, nervously shuffling blueprints.

“You know good and well,” Norma Jean says. She is sitting in a kitchen chair with her feet up and her arms wrapped around her knees. She looks small and helpless. She says, “The very idea, her bringing up a subject like that! Saying it was ne­glect.”

Related Characters: Leroy Moffitt (speaker), Norma Jean Moffitt (speaker), Mabel Beasley
Related Symbols: The Log Cabin
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:

At Shiloh, she drives aim­lessly through the park, past bluffs and trails and steep ravines. Shiloh is an immense place, and Leroy cannot see it as a battleground. It is not what he expected. He thought it would look like a golf course. Monuments are everywhere, showing through the thick clusters of trees. Norma Jean passes the log cabin Mabel mentioned. It is surrounded by tourists looking for bullet holes.

“That’s not the kind of log house I’ve got in mind,” says Leroy apologetically.

Related Characters: Leroy Moffitt (speaker), Norma Jean Moffitt, Mabel Beasley
Related Symbols: The Log Cabin, Shiloh
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:

“She won’t leave me alone—you won’t leave me alone.” Norma Jean seems to be crying, but she is looking away from him. “I feel eighteen again. I can’t face that all over again.” She starts walking away.

Related Characters: Norma Jean Moffitt (speaker), Leroy Moffitt, Mabel Beasley
Related Symbols: Shiloh
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:

General Grant, drunk and furious, shoved the Southerners back to Corinth, where Mabel and Jet Beasley were married years later, when Mabel was still thin and good-looking. The next day, Mabel and Jet visited the battleground, and then Norma Jean was born, and then she married Leroy and they had a baby, which they lost, and now Leroy and Norma Jean are here at the same battleground. Leroy knows he is leaving out a lot. He is leaving out the insides of history. History was always just names and dates to him. It occurs to him that building a house out of logs is similarly empty—too simple. And the real inner workings of a marriage, like most of history, have escaped him.

Related Characters: Leroy Moffitt, Norma Jean Moffitt, Mabel Beasley, Randy
Related Symbols: Shiloh , The Log Cabin
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:

Leroy gets up to follow his wife, but his good leg is asleep and his bad leg still hurts him. Norma Jean is far away, walking rapidly toward the bluff by the river, and he tries to hobble toward her. Some children run past him, screaming noisily. Norma Jean has reached the bluff, and she is looking out over the Tennessee River. Now she turns toward Leroy and waves her arms. Is she beckoning to him? She seems to be doing an exercise for her chest muscles. The sky is unusually pale—the color of the dust ruffle Mabel made for their bed.

Related Characters: Leroy Moffitt, Norma Jean Moffitt, Mabel Beasley
Related Symbols: Shiloh
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Shiloh LitChart as a printable PDF.
Shiloh PDF

Mabel Beasley Quotes in Shiloh

The Shiloh quotes below are all either spoken by Mabel Beasley or refer to Mabel Beasley. 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:
Grief, Love, and Estrangement  Theme Icon
).
Shiloh Quotes

Mabel is talking about Shiloh, Tennessee. For the past few years, she has been urging Leroy and Norma Jean to visit the Civil War battleground there. Mabel went there on her honeymoon—the only real trip she ever took. Her husband died of a perforated ulcer when Norma Jean was ten, but Mabel, who was accepted into the United Daughters of the Confederacy in 1975, is still preoccupied with going back to Shiloh.

Related Characters: Leroy Moffitt, Norma Jean Moffitt, Mabel Beasley
Related Symbols: Shiloh
Page Number: 8
Explanation and Analysis:

Later, she says to Leroy, “She just said that about the baby be­cause she caught me smoking. She’s trying to pay me back.”

“What are you talking about?” Leroy says, nervously shuffling blueprints.

“You know good and well,” Norma Jean says. She is sitting in a kitchen chair with her feet up and her arms wrapped around her knees. She looks small and helpless. She says, “The very idea, her bringing up a subject like that! Saying it was ne­glect.”

Related Characters: Leroy Moffitt (speaker), Norma Jean Moffitt (speaker), Mabel Beasley
Related Symbols: The Log Cabin
Page Number: 12
Explanation and Analysis:

At Shiloh, she drives aim­lessly through the park, past bluffs and trails and steep ravines. Shiloh is an immense place, and Leroy cannot see it as a battleground. It is not what he expected. He thought it would look like a golf course. Monuments are everywhere, showing through the thick clusters of trees. Norma Jean passes the log cabin Mabel mentioned. It is surrounded by tourists looking for bullet holes.

“That’s not the kind of log house I’ve got in mind,” says Leroy apologetically.

Related Characters: Leroy Moffitt (speaker), Norma Jean Moffitt, Mabel Beasley
Related Symbols: The Log Cabin, Shiloh
Page Number: 15
Explanation and Analysis:

“She won’t leave me alone—you won’t leave me alone.” Norma Jean seems to be crying, but she is looking away from him. “I feel eighteen again. I can’t face that all over again.” She starts walking away.

Related Characters: Norma Jean Moffitt (speaker), Leroy Moffitt, Mabel Beasley
Related Symbols: Shiloh
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:

General Grant, drunk and furious, shoved the Southerners back to Corinth, where Mabel and Jet Beasley were married years later, when Mabel was still thin and good-looking. The next day, Mabel and Jet visited the battleground, and then Norma Jean was born, and then she married Leroy and they had a baby, which they lost, and now Leroy and Norma Jean are here at the same battleground. Leroy knows he is leaving out a lot. He is leaving out the insides of history. History was always just names and dates to him. It occurs to him that building a house out of logs is similarly empty—too simple. And the real inner workings of a marriage, like most of history, have escaped him.

Related Characters: Leroy Moffitt, Norma Jean Moffitt, Mabel Beasley, Randy
Related Symbols: Shiloh , The Log Cabin
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis:

Leroy gets up to follow his wife, but his good leg is asleep and his bad leg still hurts him. Norma Jean is far away, walking rapidly toward the bluff by the river, and he tries to hobble toward her. Some children run past him, screaming noisily. Norma Jean has reached the bluff, and she is looking out over the Tennessee River. Now she turns toward Leroy and waves her arms. Is she beckoning to him? She seems to be doing an exercise for her chest muscles. The sky is unusually pale—the color of the dust ruffle Mabel made for their bed.

Related Characters: Leroy Moffitt, Norma Jean Moffitt, Mabel Beasley
Related Symbols: Shiloh
Page Number: 17
Explanation and Analysis: