The Love Story in James Cains Mildred Pierce :: Mildred Pierce Essays

The Love Story in James Cain's Mildred Pierce In Mildred Pierce, by James Cain, the novel revolves around some very interesting and universal concepts that seem to be themes in many of his novels. â€Å"As in his previous work, the novel revolves around love, money, and sex, but though success is perverse and wish fulfillment destructive, there is no murder† (Gale Group Biography) One most interesting theme is the theme of love and lust, and what drove the characters to their actions, and what motivated them. For some it was love, for some it was lust. So is Mildred Pierce a love story? Or is it just a tale of sex and scandals? In Cain’s works, love appears in almost a forbidden appearance, though it is obviously an important aspect. â€Å"Cain said he had only one story to tell: a love story. ’I write of the wish that comes true for some reason a terrifying concept ... I think my stories have some quality of the opening of a forbidden box.’ The act of forcing the wish to come true isolates Cain’s obsesses lovers from society and places them on what he calls a ’love-rack’† (Madden, journal) This forbidden box is very apparent in Mildred Pierce, as seen through the eyes of Mildred. Mildred appears to be a normal working mother, loving her children, and providing everything for them that she can, meanwhile struggling with her finances and problems with society’s expectations, and even her daughter, Veda’s expectations, which are quite a few. But underneath, there’s this very forbidden concept. Mildred loves her daughter, Veda, almost too much. â€Å"James T. Farell refers to Mildred’s ‘almost unnatural love for her daughter’† (Madden James M. Cain, 79) It is never exactly said in so many words, but the idea of Mildred loving her daughter more than what is natural is there, lurking underneath, like a forbidden box, on the verge of opening. Yet, even though we see signs of it, we don’t seem to lose respect for Mildred, because of her character, and the way it is drawn out, because Mildred herself never even realiz es it. This is something that would seem to be very hard to accomplish as a writer, and Cain does a fantastic job of it, illustrating the forbidden and the not forbidden love Mildred feels for Veda.