Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Edible Woman, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Gendered Expectations vs. Personal Identity
Consumerism and Consumption
Bodies, Pregnancy, and Food
Language, Meaning, and Alienation
Routine, Repetition, and Resistance
Summary
Analysis
The next morning, Duncan and Marian get breakfast together. In the middle of the night, Marian felt suddenly calm, able to banish her memory of Peter with his “hunting eyes.” But now that they are at this grubby coffee shop, Duncan seems confused about how they got here, and Marian’s anxiety is starting to return. The whole thing feels like an illusion, with her too-red dress and his light blue skin.
It is important to note that even as Marian grows closer to Duncan, he can only ever offer her partial comfort; Duncan is too frail (with his bluish skin) and the force of consumerism too strong (as represented by Marian’s bright red dress) for Marian ever to feel fully at ease.
Themes
When the waitress comes, Duncan orders ham and eggs, but Marian cannot stomach even toast or a glass of orange juice. Each time Duncan cuts into his eggs, his yellow yolks spilling all over the plate, Marian feels as if she is going to be ill. Duncan warns Marian not to get sick and tells her he is going to leave. But Marian pleads so desperately for Duncan to stay with her that he softens, agreeing to go for a walk.
Now, even the last foods that Marian could trust to sustain her have become inedible, signaling the completion of her dissociation. The recurring egg symbolism has become physically sickening to Marian, displaying how literally she has begun to take her own mental imagery (and how much she continues to fear marriage and childbirth).
Themes
After a while, Duncan suggests they catch a streetcar. They ride the streetcar several stops, then walk for a while; by now, Marian has no idea where in the city they are. Though everything is still covered in snow, Marian starts to wonder about how this place might look in the spring, when the bulbs come up and last year’s leaves start to rot. Then Duncan starts running and Marian chases after him, splitting the seam of her dress in the process.
Tellingly, being in this remote place with Duncan allows Marian to imagine a world beyond the frozen winter—giving her a sense of excitement for the natural, regenerative future that she never feels when picturing a life with Peter.
Themes
Marian realizes where Duncan has been taking her: to an abandoned factory, sitting at the center of a giant pit in the ground. Duncan sits down, and Marian follows him, though she fears that the earth might give way underneath her. At last, Duncan asks Marian what she is struggling with—why won’t she just go back to Peter? Marian wonders if she should see a psychiatrist. Though Duncan dismisses the idea, Marian worries she might starve to death otherwise.
Duncan has previously told Marian that he comes from a mining town, so this giant hole (called a “brickwork” in the novel) perhaps reminds him of home. But there is also something terrifying about this empty crater, a testament to the real wreckage of “production-consumption.” Marian might starve if she doesn’t eat—but the novel now seems to suggest that there are costs to consumption, too.
Themes
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Suddenly, Marian feels a desperate need to verify Duncan’s existence. “How was it for you last night?” she asks him, waiting for his response as if he were an oracle. Duncan is slow to answer. First, he thinks out loud about how much he likes the snow, because it affords people the chance to disappear. But at last, he responds to Marian’s question: “it was fine,” he admits, “just as good as usual.”
“How was it for you?” is the question Peter always asks Marian. The fact that Marian now asks this question to Duncan thus hints that perhaps Peter, too, is more anxious than he lets on, terrified (as Marian is here) that nothing is real or concretized until it is named.
Themes
Marian is hurt to know that she is not Duncan’s first, even though she cannot tell whether Duncan was lying before or whether he is lying now. Still, she feels that she would rather be with Duncan than with Peter. Unsure of what else to do, Marian begs Duncan to come talk to Peter with her. Duncan declines, refusing to move and refusing to let Marian stay with him either. As Marian walks away, she is surprised to see that Duncan is still flesh and blood, an outline in the snow.
Duncan has long insisted that words are unreliable, so it is perhaps unsurprising that he now uses words to make Marian question the reality of last night’s physical experience. But despite Duncan’s confusing words, his outline persists against the blanket of the snow—and subconsciously, Marian seems assured by the fact that no matter how much Duncan switches up his words, his body cannot actually, literally, disappear.
Themes
