(1) EZRA MANNON
A Disillusioned Lover Ezra Mannon enjoyed the spontaneity of love before he married Christine. When he courted her, her eyes communicated the feelings of her heart and his heart could talk to her heart. But after a few years of their married life their relations were reduced to mere animality. This disgusted him like anything. He says to his wife “Your body? What are bodies to me? I have seen too many rotting in the sun to make grass greener. Ashes to ashes, dirt to dirt! Is that your notion of love?”
Symbol of the Sublimation of Sex Frustration in marital life sublimated his sexual energy. Rejoined the Mexican war and rose to the rank of a major. In the meantime, his father died and he had to leave the army and then he took to business––he started taking interest in shipping as a. profession. But the agony of his life still gnawed at his heart; his restlessness drove him to seek some other avenues of satisfaction and he studied law and became a judge. Then he took part in politics and became mayor. Meanwhile, the Civil War broke out and he joined the army again where he rose to be a Brigadier General. During all these years he had bitter experiences of marital relations. Before he joined the army during the Mexican war he felt that Christine wanted him to go because she hated him, and that is why he did go. He hoped to be killed in action and thought that perhaps Christine also hoped so. When he came back home he found that Christine had turned to Orin and therefore he turned to Lavinia but because Lavinia was not his wife, he made up his mind to engage himself in worldly affairs and leave Christine alone. That is why he preferred to become a judge and later on a mayor. People called him an “able” man but he felt that he was not able to get what he wanted most in his life––the love of his wife. He was not even able to keep his mind from thinking of what he had lost.
His Troubled Mind But while