With this chapter’s heading, West returns to his cartoon-like narrative technique; this time, the title pictures Miss Lonelyhearts’ mock-enthusiastic courting of Betty as their being a couple of storybook adolescents. Miss Lonelyhearts invites Betty for a strawberry soda, but inwardly he addresses her not as Betty but as “the party […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 14 – Miss Lonelyhearts and the Party DressSummary and Analysis Chapter 13 – Miss Lonelyhearts Attends a Party
The “party” of this chapter’s heading resembles, in its ugliness, Miss Lonelyhearts’ previous encounters with drunken, lonely, and satiric people, and when he finally flees the party, in a trance, he exhibits an increasing loss of sanity. All of Miss Lonelyhearts’ sexual encounters have left him sick and despairing. After […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 13 – Miss Lonelyhearts Attends a PartySummary and Analysis Chapter 12 – Miss Lonelyhearts Pays a Visit
This chapter’s heading is similar to West’s parody in “Miss Lonelyhearts on a Field Trip,” and it also resumes that chapter’s plot material. On “the field trip,” Miss Lonelyhearts was supposedly the working journalist. Paying a visit to the Doyles, Miss Lonelyhearts plays the part of a priest calling on […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 12 – Miss Lonelyhearts Pays a VisitSummary and Analysis Chapter 11 – Miss Lonelyhearts and the Cripple
This chapter’s heading alludes to its central scene, Miss Lonelyhearts’ first encounter with Fay’s husband, Peter Doyle, who refers to himself as a cripple almost as obsessively as his wife does. Miss Lonelyhearts, in revolt against Betty’s interference, is ready to return to his priestly calling and to offer help […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 11 – Miss Lonelyhearts and the CrippleSummary and Analysis Chapter 10 – Miss Lonelyhearts Returns
This chapter’s heading suggests at least two overlapping pictures: Miss Lonelyhearts gazing at the misery of the city streets, and Miss Lonelyhearts once more sitting at his desk, ready to give attention to his correspondents’ unhappiness. Back in the city, Miss Lonelyhearts knows that Betty and nature have not cured […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 10 – Miss Lonelyhearts ReturnsSummary and Analysis Chapter 9 – Miss Lonelyhearts in the Country
Although this chapter’s heading appears to be straightforward and idyllic, the country idyll actually contains much of the illusion, threat, and decay that Miss Lonelyhearts hoped to leave behind in the city. Betty continues her role from the preceding chapter — that is, she continues to be the nurturing mother, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 9 – Miss Lonelyhearts in the CountrySummary and Analysis Chapter 8 – Miss Lonelyhearts in the Dismal Swamp
The Dismal Swamp of the chapter’s title is the actual name of an enormous swamp located in Virginia and North Carolina. Miss Lonelyhearts’ swamp, however, has no geographical location; it comprises the despairing depths of his consciousness and all the impossible solutions to life’s ills, solutions which Shrike ridicules towards […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 8 – Miss Lonelyhearts in the Dismal SwampSummary and Analysis Chapter 7 – Miss Lonelyhearts on a Field Trip
This chapter’s heading is one of the most effectively satirical lines in the novel. The “field trip” ostensibly takes Miss Lonelyhearts out of his confined office and into the world where his correspondents live and suffer. The “field,” however, turns out to be Fay Doyle’s body, and Miss Lonelyhearts makes […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 7 – Miss Lonelyhearts on a Field TripSummary and Analysis Chapter 6 – Miss Lonelyhearts and Mrs. Shrike
The heading for this chapter is less pictorial and satirical than most of the other chapter headings. It focuses on Miss Lonelyhearts’ adulterous desire for Mary Shrike and on her grotesque teasing of him. During the course of the chapter, there is an ironical reversal of roles as Miss Lonelyhearts, […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 6 – Miss Lonelyhearts and Mrs. ShrikeSummary and Analysis Chapter 5 – Miss Lonelyhearts and the Clean Old Man
The scene described by this chapter’s heading does not appear until the last third of the chapter, but its image looms symbolically over the entire chapter. Here, minor characters, as well as Miss Lonelyhearts, take fiercely aggressive stances against innocent people, male and female, who seem intolerable to him because […]
Read more Summary and Analysis Chapter 5 – Miss Lonelyhearts and the Clean Old Man