64 pages • 2 hours read
Meg MasonSorrow and Bliss
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
Writing
Writing is a recurring motif throughout the book. The first time it appears is in the form of the alphabet sentence game that Fergus Russell introduces Martha Friel to. It becomes a calming activity that she practices even years later. Significantly, the alphabet sentence game is a shared connection between Martha and the father figures in her life, as Martha later shares the game with Peregrine. Upon Peregrine’s death, Martha leaves an alphabet sentence tucked behind Peregrine’s favorite painting in the museum in Paris. Thus, the alphabet sentence game underlines the shared connections of writing between Martha and these two important men in her life; the close bond she has with both men further mirrors the comfort that writing brings Martha.
Following the end of Martha’s marriage to Jonathan, she attempts to write novels that turn autobiographical; following the end of her marriage to Patrick, she writes a journal. In both instances, writing becomes a way for Martha to process her heartbreak. However, the effect of writing in each instance is different, and mirrors how Martha processes each experience. In the first instance, she keeps her feelings largely private, and this is reflected in her self-isolation, where she moves to Paris for four years. In the second instance, writing allows her to reflect on her actions and experiences, leading her to communicate better with Patrick when he reads her journal, and subsequently reconnect with him. Thus, the motif of writing speaks to themes of both The Isolating Nature of Mental Illness and The Importance of Communication in Relationships.
The Allotment Garden
The allotment garden is an important symbol in the book. Patrick puts down their name for one when he and Martha move to Oxford. This action reflects Patrick’s initiative in helping Martha: The move to Oxford itself is instigated by Martha’s episode, and Patrick suggests moving out of London, believing the city to be a trigger.
Patrick is excited about both Oxford and the allotment garden. He is also the only one who works in it; Martha insists that she will only accompany him if she doesn’t have to help, and Patrick indulges her, procuring a shed and chair so that she can rest and watch him. This symbolizes the continued effort Patrick puts into the marriage, while Martha allows herself to largely be a witness rather than a participant. This is also ironic, as Martha at one point accuses Patrick of being too passive.
The symbolism of the allotment garden is heightened by the fact that it forms the setting where Martha breaks the news of her pregnancy to Patrick. Significantly, Patrick is only once able to grow a successful crop of lettuce in the garden; beyond this, despite his efforts, the garden stays barren. The garden’s one-off yield and nothing beyond symbolizes Martha’s accidental pregnancy and child loss, and the fact that Martha and Patrick don’t have any children. Martha herself is aware of this connection, and the last time she is in the garden, she remembers and grieves her lost child.
Martha’s Tattoo
Martha gets the barometric map of Hebrides tattooed onto her hand. The symbolism of this choice is straightforward in the book, as Martha explains it herself: She relates to a place where the weather is uncontrollable, and she refers to her episodes as “brain weather”—she can sense one coming, but there is nothing she can do about it. Martha gets the tattoo sometime after she receives Robert’s diagnosis, and beyond the content of the tattoo, the act of tattooing is, itself, symbolic. She is tangibly capturing a condition that has remained elusive and unknowable all of her life until this point.
Tattooing the map is Martha’s self-professed way of memorializing the things she has lost, but it also establishes the illness as an indelible part of her identity and life experiences. Martha sees her illness as having controlled so much of how she behaved and responded to people and things; thus, it is an inseparable part of her. It is also, however, part-villain in her mind, as it stole from her the potential to be a mother for so many years. Thus, it is significant that Martha chooses to tattoo herself, as a tattoo is something outside of and alien to a human body, but then becomes an extricable part of it.
