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Mary is one of the two main characters in “Happy Endings” and is involved in various relationships with the other main character, John. In story variation A, she has a happy life that many people would call successful. She marries John and enjoys her career and hobbies and their children, who also do well in life. In variation B, by contrast, Mary’s love for John is unrequited. Desperate to win his love, Mary allows John to abuse her as she serves his needs for sex, food, and a pretty woman waiting for him when he wants her. Mary even hopes that her despairing suicide attempt will win John’s love, or at least his sympathy, but it does not. In variation C, Mary is much younger than John but has sex with him out of pity. Meanwhile, she waits on her actual love interest, James, to take interest in her, but he is busy being a carefree young man. When Mary and James finally have sex, John reacts with jealousy.
Interestingly, the story in which Mary’s agency is hardly described—variation A—is the only one in which she has a happy relationship. However, that is also the story with no conflict to drive plot events, suggesting that it is an unrealistic story. In variations B and C, which feature conflict, Mary tries but largely fails to exercise agency, instead playing the role of easy sex hookup, cook, maid, caregiver, neglected friend, and murder victim. In variation F, the narrator teases that perhaps Mary would be more interesting as a spy. But whether she finds herself loved, spurned, used, or ignored, Mary dies at the end of each story variation.
