1. Compare and contrast Miss Lonelyhearts, Shrike, and Peter Doyle. 2. Compare and contrast Betty, Mary Shrike, and Fay Doyle. 3. Compare and contrast the characters in the main narrative and in the letters. 4. Why is Miss Lonelyhearts unable to resist the advances of Fay Doyle? 5. Discuss sexual […]
Read more Study Help Essay QuestionsCritical Essay Miss Lonelyhearts: Problems of Interpretation
Our analysis emphasizes the idea that Miss Lonelyhearts is a study in nihilism; that is, all human motives are selfish, and the universe is empty of any power that can judge people, set things right, or provide guidance to help them improve. The efforts of Miss Lonelyhearts and Betty, the […]
Read more Critical Essay Miss Lonelyhearts: Problems of InterpretationNathanael West Biography
Nathanael West was born Nathan Weinstein in New York City on October 17, 1903, the first child of Max and Anna Weinstein. Both his parents were German-speaking Lithuanian Jews, who married in 1902, shortly after their arrival in America. West’s father was a hard-working and successful building contractor until the […]
Read more Nathanael West BiographyCharacter Analysis Peter Doyle
Peter Doyle is the only character in the novel who does not seem responsible for his own sufferings. Unlike Miss Lonelyhearts, Doyle is wholly the victim of his circumstances. We feel sorry for Miss Lonelyhearts’ correspondents, but, with the exception of Fay Doyle, they are not really part of the […]
Read more Character Analysis Peter DoyleCharacter Analysis Fay Doyle
Fay Doyle’s name suggests a combination of lightness and crudity, the lightness paralleling her delusions of her girlish charm, and the crudity corresponding to her muscular build, sexual aggressiveness, and her disregard for the feelings of others. Like the novel’s other women, she is always acting a role of which […]
Read more Character Analysis Fay DoyleCharacter Analysis Mary Shrike
Mary Shrike’s name suggests an impaled virgin, and this is the role which she plays with her husband, although she is also a person who herself impales others. She behaves like a willful little girl, enjoying her own suffering and her memories of her mother’s suffering. She pretends kindness towards […]
Read more Character Analysis Mary ShrikeCharacter Analysis Betty
Betty’s name, her manners, memories, and acts suggest that she is an innocent country girl trying to make her way in the frightening city. She displays enough solicitude, kindness, and patience with Miss Lonelyhearts to fool some readers into thinking her to be an attractive voice of sanity. But the […]
Read more Character Analysis BettyCharacter Analysis Shrike
The feature editor of the New York Post-Dispatch, and Miss Lonelyhearts’ nasty boss, Shrike bears the name of a bird that impales its prey upon thorns, implying that as Shrike’s victim, Miss Lonelyhearts is a kind of Christ. Shrike is older than Miss Lonelyhearts and plays the part of a […]
Read more Character Analysis ShrikeCharacter Analysis Miss Lonelyhearts
The identity of the novel’s protagonist is swallowed up by his name. In the eyes, words, and thoughts of others, he is nothing but his role, a role which provides for his readers false hopes and, for his colleagues, a target for their cynicism. Miss Lonelyhearts also feels that his […]
Read more Character Analysis Miss LonelyheartsSummary and Analysis Chapter 15 – Miss Lonelyhearts Has a Religious Experience
This chapter’s title is the most ironical in the entire novel. It refers to Miss Lonelyhearts’ hallucination of the world as a fish caught on the hook of Christ, to his conviction that he is becoming one with Christ, to his delusive rush to offer salvation to Doyle, and to […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 15 – Miss Lonelyhearts Has a Religious Experience