In what ways are lellie’s and molly’s situations similar and different? essay

In what ways are Lellie’s and Molly’s situations similar and different? “ Dumb Martian” by John Wyndham depicts how individuals treat those who are apparently different from themselves. The story shows a forced relationship between Lellie, a Martian, and Duncan, a station superintended from Earth. Whereas in “ Samphire” by Patrick O’Brian firstly it might appear to be a story of a happily married couple but as the story moves on we come to know that they aren’t happy and their relationship is quite stale. There are lots of similarities between the characters of Lellie and Molly though Lellie is a Martian whereas Molly is a human being. Both of them are very quiet and love to remain lost in their own world, the world in which there is no place for others. In both the stories we can observe that both of them don’t have much of conversations which show that they are very introvert.

We can see similarities between Lellie and Molly not only in their characters but also in the situations they are in. Like both of them are away from their homes and don’t have any friends with them other than Duncan, who is there with Lellie whereas Molly has her husband along with her. Both of them are away from their home but for different reasons, Lellie is staying in a different planet with Duncan who is a station superintended from earth and has work there, whereas Molly has gone on a holiday by the sea with her husband. As the stories progress we can realise the reason of their (Lellie’s and Molly’s) quietness. Slowly it becomes clear that how unhappy they are in their relationships.

Since Lellie is an alien and has been bought by Duncan she is regarded as an investment who is always exploited by her insensitive buyer. Molly, though she is married to Lacey is not happy since Lacey is a very dominating man who wants Molly to act the way he wants, which makes her life filled emptiness. In the stories, Lellie and Molly both have been considered dumb by their acquaintances as they are women, which slowly creates a situation where both of them want to kill their relationships and the stories take a surprising and dramatic turn when Lellie tries to kill Duncan and take revenge and Molly tries to kill Lacey to end their relationship. In the story “ Dumb Martian”, Lellie who has been considered “ dumb” by Duncan, shows that she is far from being dumb and succeeds in her goal. Whereas Molly couldn’t succeed in killing her husband because when she tried to push Lacey from the cliff her hands became insensitive and she couldn’t find enough strength to give a strong push and hence Lacey survived.