Everyone loves her?

Every named character who has appeared in The Crying of Lot 49 through chapter has expressed some form of sexual or romantic interest in Oedipa, except her husband. Roseman wants to run away with her, Dr. Hilarius says he has a near telepathic connection to Oedipa and ironically calls her for help, Miles tries to get with her immediately after meeting her, and for Metzger it's explicit enough. Even Pierce who is dead was a former lover. However, Mucho shows no interest in her and when she asks him for help executing the will, he wants no part of what she's doing. It appears that Oedipa is also uninterested in him. In chapter two when she mentions him again, she re-introduces him as her husband. Is this a reminder for us or for her? She might just have no interest in commitment and care more about casual relationships, but if this is true then why is she married?

For the first few characters hitting on her, Oedipa didn't reciprocate and turned them down quickly. This made me think that she is used to getting attention and it doesn't phase her at this point. I was then pretty surprised when she decided to have sex with Metzger, but what disturbed me the most was that she was asleep and intoxicated when it started, which definitely doesn't sound consensual. This also didn't phase her at all, so I wonder if she was abused and eventually came to accept that as normal. It's also pretty interesting that she she describes it only by the lights and her surroundings, showing that she wasn't totally engaged. 

Comments

  1. I like your point about whether reiterating that Mucho was her husband was for us or for her. They really do lack interest in each other.

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