Marilynne Robinson: Character Analysis

Marilynne Robinson has written “the most complex thing we know of [is] the mind brain.” An important theme in Lila is that every human being is completely unique and complicated. Lila demonstrated that she is unique and complicated. She is very straightforward. Lila met Reverend Ames in front of the church after shopping. She told him that she did not plan on getting baptized and acted as if she is ignorant. Reverend Ames accepted her decision, but still gave the suggestion of baptism. He saw that Lila decorated his late wife’s grave with roses and wanted to repay her. But somehow, Lila said, “You ought to marry me” (Robinson 80). Then she wondered why she blurted out those words. In the next encounter with Reverend Ames, Lila said, “I want
you to marry me! I wish I didn’t. It’s just a misery for me” (Robinson 89). This showed that Lila spoke her mind, but struggled to make decisions on getting married and baptism. She also did not take compliments positively. During the second encounter after Lila directly told Reverend to marry her, the Reverend said, “ I was getting along with the damn loneliness well enough. I expected to continue with it the rest of my life. Then I saw you this morning. I saw your face” (Robinson 85). Then Lila exasperatedly refuted, “Don’t talk like that. I know about my face” (Robinson 85). Clearly, he subtly complimented Lila’s face, yet Lila cannot accept it. During the time in the brothel in St. Louis, a man named “Mack” teased Lila with “Rosie here is the kind of girl a man could want to marry...A man wants a girl the other fellas ain’t gonna come hankering for” (Robinson 194). Lila loved Mack, yet she realized that he tried to publicly mess around with her to make Missy jealous, which was why she hated him. Not taking compliments positively partly developed from Mack, the man that Lila loved before Reverend Ames. She realized that Mack is flirtatious and reacted the same way when Reverend Ames complimented her face. Lila has trust issues. She said, “that’s a fact. I don’t trust nobody. I can’t stay nowhere” (Robinson 51). Lila went through poverty at the lowest level. Through her experience at the brothel, she realized how cruel people can be, especially when she dealt with Mack. Doll was another antitrust influence. She taught Lila that “[men] ain’t your friends. Seems like you could trust ‘em, they act like you could trust ‘em, but you can’t” (Robinson 51). Doll influenced Lila to not trust anyone except herself, which is why she struggled to trust Reverend Ames even though she married him. It is obvious that Lila and Reverend Ames are different people. Lila and the Reverend are also similar. They both are quite introverted. When they went to town, “Reverend Ames would put his arm on [Lila’s] waist, still shy of her and pleased to be alone with her, knowing she was relieved to be alone with him” (Robinson 107). This demonstrated that both of them enjoyed each other's company, away from other people.They both sought comfort from each other. They both were ttired of the loneliness that they had to go through. After Lila doubted her decision on getting married, she stated, “It ain’t the same. Somebody like me might marry somebody like [Reverend Ames] just because [he] [has] a good house and winter’s coming. Just because she’s tired of the damn loneliness” (Robinson 84-85). Then Reverend Ames responded with, “I was getting along with the damn loneliness well enough. I expected to continue with it the rest of my life. Then I saw you that morning” (Robinson 85). Lila was tired of being lonely ever since her non-biological family were away from her. Reverend Ames tried to get used to the loneliness after his wife died, until he met Lila and became interested in her. He fell in love with Lila because “everything [she] [tells] surprises [him]. It’s always interesting” (Robinson 128). Lila fell in love with the preacher because he provided the comfort after the loneliness that she went through, and his presence seemed to comfort her. After Lila offered a bag of beans, she “took a step towards [Reverend Ames]. Sometimes it just feels good to hug a man, don’t much matter which one it is. She thought it might be very nice to rest her head of his shoulder” (Robinson 57-58). This showed that Lila sought comfort and relief from her loneliness. She grew up alone after Doll and the others left. Lila, Doll, and Reverend Ames all exhibit extraordinary heroism throughout Lila.
However, Doll is the most heroic out of all the characters. She kidnapped Lila from dying in the streets. The old woman questioned Doll about kidnapping Lila, and Doll responded that “nobody going to come looking” (Robinson 8). Doll knew that no one else would take Lila, so she decided to kidnap and treat her as her own child. She cared for Lila by washing and feeding her. After bringing Lila to an old woman’s house, the old woman offered fresh milk and Doll “gave it to [Lila] in sips, holding her head in the crook of her arm” (Robinson 6). Doll resembled a mother, taking care of her sick child. When the old woman and Doll constantly checked up on Lila, Doll told her, “Now, don’t you go dying on me...you [are] going to die if you have to. I know. But I got you out of the rain” (Robinson 8). She allowed Lila to die, which is the same as letting go of loved ones. She did not want to give up on a sick child. Most parents would do the same towards their own child. When Lila saw Doll look beaten up, Doll said, “When [the man] and [I] went to it, I thought that would be the end of me for sure” (Robinson 136). She dealt with the consequences of kidnapping Lila, even though Lila’s family did not care for her in the first place. As a result, she gave Lila the cold shoulder when she visited her in the jail, so that Lila would not be involved in Doll’s
situation.
The biggest influence on Lila’s life was Doll.
One positive aspect of Doll’s influence was that during Lila’s stay at the brothel, she wanted to steal Missy’s child since she overheard that Mrs. would get angry at Missy. She thought that “she could pick [the baby] up and walk out the door with it, for all they cared” (Robinson 201). In the brothel, the girls were supposed to entertain the gentlemen and having a child would be breaking the rules. Mack wasn’t around Missy after knowing that she had a child. Lila also thought that if she stole the baby, “the child would never be an orphan, because Lila would always be there looking after it, keeping it beside her” (Robinson 201). Overhearing the news made Lila remember how she was kidnapped by Doll, since she was left in the streets. Doll’s influence made Lila want to treat the child as if it was her own. Another positive aspect of Doll was that she grew up in poverty. She was able to empathize with Lila and take her in. However, Lila met a runaway boy and was able to relate to him and his situation. She offered to take him in, just like Doll. She said to the boy, “[Reverend Ames] [will] find some clothes for you and get you some breakfast” (Robinson 152). Lila tried to pass on the kindness that Doll gave her when she took care of her. Unfortunately, the runaway boy declined the offer, even though he trusted her. One negative aspect was that Doll influenced Lila’s fight-or-flight response towards men. Doll said, “Men just
don’t feel like they [are supposed] to stay by you. They ain't never your friends” (Robinson 51-52). This later shaped Lila’s perception of trust. During the discussion between Lila and Reverend Ames about baptism and marriage, Lila said, “that’s a fact. I don’t trust nobody. I can’t stay nowhere. I can’t get a minute of rest” (Robinson 89). Based on a respected mother figure, Lila took Doll’s advice and struggled to trust Reverend Ames until later. Water has a symbolic meaning in Lila. It represents change and purification of a character during obstacles in which he or she must bypass. After Lila directly told Reverend Ames to marry her, Lila decided to go through baptism. During the process, Reverend Ames “[rested] his hand three times on [Lila’s] hair. That was what made her cry. Just the touch of his hand. He watched her with surprise and tenderness, and she cried some more” (Robinson 88). Lila getting baptized by the holy water demonstrated that she began to accept Christianity. Her tears represented relief. She kept her emotions in place while she lived a lonely life and felt the need to express her pain during her baptism. Another demonstration of change was during Robert’s christening. Boughton “began groping for his handkerchief, holding the bowl in his weaker hand, and the water spilled, enough of it falling on the baby to make him mad” (Robinson 248). The water that was used during the christening spiritually cleansed Robert and introduced him to the Christian religion. Lila’s revelation was that she can mend ways with her past and move forward in the present. Lila tried to explain that, “there was no way to abandon guilt, no decent way to disown it. All the tangles and knots of bitterness and desperation and fear had to be pierced” (Robinson 260). Doll’s knife symbolized the remaining memory of her. It practically haunted Lila, as she continued to imagine Doll being present while she struggled to get by with life. She realized that “tt couldn’t be fair to punish people for trying to get by, people who were good by their own lights, when it took all the courage they had to be good” (Robinson 259). After Lila was left in the streets and Doll found her, Doll was beat up and bloody. Lila’s imaginations of Doll haunted her, especially when she imagined Doll reminding her to never use the knife on anyone and regretting to use it on Lila’s supposed father just because she kidnapped his daughter.As a result of Doll getting placed into jail from the knife fight, Doll’s guilt lived inside Lila. Doll told her, “Better you take [the knife]. Wash it down good, and hide it when you get the chance. Don’t you never use it unless you have to” (Robinson 133). She warned Lila to never use the knife, yet she ended up using it on a man. When Lila met the runaway boy, he reminded her of Doll. The boy killed his abusive father, since he was treated terribly. The boy recalled that he “hit [his father] with a piece of firewood. I don’t know. I think I killed him. If I didn’t, he would have killed me, soon as I woke up” (Robinson 149). The boy’s situation is similar to Doll, since she used her knife on a man. The boy suffered from guilt and wanted to die. Around the end of the novel, Lila wondered, “How else could she imagine seeing Doll again? Never once had she had taken her to be dead, plain and simple. If a scoundrel could be pulled into heaven to make his mother happy, it couldn’t be fair to punish scoundrels who happen to be orphans” (Robinson 259). Lila realized that she should not be living with Doll’s guilt, since it would be considered punishment. She constantly imagined reuniting with Doll at some point, but realizes that she can no longer live in the past and that she must move on with her new family.