Mary Duane Versus Pius Mulvey

In Star of the Sea, two characters really stood out to me. The first is Pius Mulvey. At first, I thought he was a real misunderstood character; they kept calling him a monster and then you find out that he’s being blackmailed into killing Merridith. Then all of a sudden, Mulvey is evil; having already killed two people [one even being a really, good friend of his]. You could say that he has two personalities. One moment he loves Mary Duane, the next he is running for the hills so that he doesn’t have to starve with her. Then all of a sudden he’s back again to torture Mary Duane because she married his brother. By the end of the novel, I really did not like Mulvey; and I thought that he deserved what was coming to him for being so evil. Okay he killed his friend so that he would have a way to survive [but I would argue that he did not HAVE to kill William Swales; no one knew that he stole William’s identity. Why couldn’t he just create an identity? Not like anyone could really check to see if he was telling the truth.] And as for the second murder, let’s just say that it was only done for him to escape. But why did he have to torture his brother? His brother only stepped in to marry Mary because Pius failed as a father. I think that was the defining moment when  I realized that Pius really is a bad person.

The second character that caught my attention was Mary Duane. In the epilogue the author makes it clear that he did not have much information from Mary’s point of view; that in the book she really was defined only by her relationships with the rest of the characters. I explained my views on Mary in my last post pretty clearly [Click here if you want to see that]. However, there are some really important things that happen to her near the end of the novel; like the argument Mary has with Pius in the room. It is evident through that chapter that Mary does not like Pius, with all the yelling and with the not forgiving him. But then all of a sudden, at the end of the book, she saves him! When I saw that it was up to Mary to decide if he was going to get into the boat or not, I thought, ‘Oh he’s doomed. There’s no way she’s letting that guy in’. Then all of a sudden, she says that he is her brother-in-law [some brother-in-law right?]. When I read that scene my jaw literally dropped. It hit me that Mary really had to overcome two things to let him into the boat. First, she had to scrape for an ounce of pity or forgiveness. [Which is difficult, him being the indirect reason for her husband and child being dead and all.] Now let us say she is able to forgive or pity him; then she has to actually admit that she’s related to a person like him. Okay, it is one thing to forgive someone. But to then have to say, “Yes, he’s my family”, is way too much to handle. As a side note, after reading that scene I had to stop to question myself: Did Mary do the right thing? Would I have done the same?

Okay well, we all know forgiveness is the right thing to do; even pity in any case is acceptable and highly encouraged. But I have to say, I would have rather taken the man who wanted to see his children. If she left Mulvey, there was nothing saying that he was surely going to die. Merridith was dead, the deed was done. He only had to survive going through customs. [Of course, there is no guarantee that the people blackmailing him weren’t going to kill him just for the sake of killing him.] I have to admire Mary though, for her courage to do what is right.

As for Pius Mulvey, he did get what was coming for him. Not even a year later he was found stabbed to death and disfigured. I think karma really got him. It really left a sour thought though. I don’t think his crimes equated to all that his killers did to him. [Come on, they cut out his heart while he was still alive! That’s way too much. He was a murderer and all, but he didn’t torture his victims like that.]

I wish I knew what happened to Mary in the end. What became of her? Did she ever get married again? Did she get her happily ever after? Or did she live the rest of her life being tortured by men? Guess we’ll never know.

Fictitious or Factual?

A part of the novel that webbed some fiction into facts is the letter that Merridith writes to his sister. It is safe to say that most of what he describes is fiction with only a hint of truth. He did go visit their parents’ grave, but the graves did not have fresh flowers; his father’s tombstone had been sabotaged [probably by former tenants]. Even when detailing his current trip, some fibs are spawned. Like when he says that he and his family is enjoying ‘roughing it out’.  I hardly believe that Merridith is having a good time on his voyage with that foul smell on board and that urinary infection. It is interesting however, how each of his lies really do have some truth to them: Merridith did visit his parents’ graves [I will give him that], and he does have to ‘rough it out’ on his trip. But there are only very small truths in his letter.

It makes me wonder as a reader if Dixon has done something similar with this entire novel. I ponder if what I’m reading even happened. Like how would Dixon know that Mulvey used to steal? [Or that he even enjoyed it?] As far as I know Dixon is riding in first class and doesn’t exactly know Mulvey.  But I guess none of this matters as long as the message [whatever it may be] is put across clearly; being artistic is not bound only to expressing the truth, but also to incorporate a sense of creativity as well [as Dixon is told by his editor]. I don’t believe there is a responsibility to stick to reality. The only responsibility Dixon has is to convey the pain and misery that he watches others go through. If a few minor details have to be altered to express this, then so be it. If people want actual facts, go get a textbook. A novel gives room for free expression.

Mulvey also learns about free expression when he wakes up from his dream and writes his ballad; realizing that changing some of the lines would make it better. But as he changes them, he begins to venture off from the facts of what truly happened with the sergeant and his brother. “The facts did not matter, that was the secret”, Mulvey says. I think he means that the expression of the feelings in that moment values more than what actually happened. Just telling an entertaining story or singing a good song should be the priority.