Terms of Endearment: Analysis of Major Characters
"Terms of Endearment" explores the complex dynamics of its major characters, centering around Aurora Greenway, a captivating yet self-absorbed widow living in Houston. Aurora's character is defined by her charm and her obsession with appearances, particularly her auburn hair and her opinion of herself as a connoisseur of art and life. She is often critical of her daughter, Emma, whose more subdued personality and struggles in life starkly contrast with Aurora's flamboyance. Emma, despite her intelligence and emotional depth, feels overshadowed by her mother's eccentricities and is trapped in a failing marriage to Flap, an uninspired academic.
The narrative also features Rosie Dunlop, Aurora's outspoken maid, who adds a comedic element while providing insightful commentary on the characters' self-centered behaviors. Aurora's suitors, including the persistent but unremarkable Vernon Dalhart and the conservative Hector Scott, further illustrate the varying responses to Aurora's commanding presence. Through these characters, the story delves into themes of love, ambition, and the often tumultuous relationships shaped by personal expectations and societal pressures. The interplay of their lives highlights the challenges of living authentically in the shadow of others' desires and disappointments.
Terms of Endearment: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Larry McMurtry
First published: 1975
Genre: Novel
Locale: Houston, Texas; Des Moines, Iowa; and Kearney and Omaha, Nebraska
Plot: Domestic realism
Time: The 1960's and 1970's
Aurora Greenway, a middle-aged, fairly prosperous widow in Houston, Texas. Aurora is incurably selfish but charming. She spends her time encouraging and then terrifying a host of middle-aged beaus. Her principal vanities are her lovely head of auburn hair, her vocabulary, and her authentic Renoir. Her principal disappointment—in addition to the suitors, who always fall short of her expectations—is her daughter, Emma, who is as ordinary as Aurora is eccentric. She bullies Emma and her suitors to make the most of themselves, to be more alive, and to seize the moment; often, though, her encouragements only paralyze them with terror.
Emma Horton, Aurora's only child, who lives in the shadow of her mother. Emma is bright, articulate, and capable of deep emotions, but she is mousy-haired, a little dumpy, and saddled with a bad marriage to a lethargic young English professor, Flap. Emma does not lack a spirit of adventure and has two romantic affairs, but they are without the flair and exuberance of her mother. Her strengths are principally as a mother and surface when she is dying of cancer and must plan for her children's future in the midst of a disintegrating marriage. While Aurora makes trivia into high drama, Emma effaces the great tragedy of her short life into daily domestic detail.
Rosie Dunlop, Aurora's maid, tiny and outspoken, tremendously attached to Emma, and usually at odds with Aurora. Rosie is a counterpoint to the romantic lives of Aurora and Emma. Her perpetual crises with her philandering husband, Royce, are essentially comic because they are forever resolvable. Rosie provides pithy and accurate commentary on the affectations and selfishness of Aurora; like all the others, however, she is under Aurora's spell.
Vernon Dalhart, a Texas oilman, one of Aurora's suitors. He is short and unimposing, and his most memorable feature is that he lives in his Lincoln in a parking garage that he owns in downtown Houston. He never quite succeeds in winning Aurora but is perennially there to solve her problems, help her dependents, and provide absolute adoration.
Hector Scott, a retired general who is Aurora's neighbor and her principal suitor. Hector is tall, gray in both hair and dress, and as rigid and conservative as a proper general should be. Hector is alternately floored and infuriated by Aurora's assumption of command of everyone, including him. His persistence, however, pays off; he is the only beau whom Aurora takes to bed.
Thomas “Flap” Horton, Emma's husband. Flap enters the story as a graduate student, then later is an English professor at small, unremarkable midwestern universities. His only energy is sexual; academically and emotionally, Flap is a wimp. His philandering breaks apart his family before Emma's cancer does. Flap's lethargy pressures Emma as much as her mother's exuberance does. Flap is an intriguing negative balance to Aurora in this novel, and neither values Emma appropriately.