65 pages • 2 hours read
Jodi PicoultMercy
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1996A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Dynamics of Power in Romantic Relationships
The central conflict of Mercy is presented by the case of a man who kills his terminally ill wife as per her wishes. This is an act born out of the deep love he has for her, coupled with the opening scene of the book in the Prologue, which indicates tension within a romantic relationship. This points to one of the central themes in the book: the nature of romantic love and how it impacts the dynamics and power balances within a relationship. This theme is explored largely through the relationships of three couples in the story: Cam and Allie, Jamie and Maggie, and Cam and Mia.
Cam and Allie are the first couple to be introduced by name in the book, and from the very beginning, it is clear that, besides being very different from each other, the love is not equally matched between them. Allie is conscious of the fact that she only managed to marry the extremely handsome, popular, and well-regarded Cameron MacDonald because she was the only other person of their age to eventually return to Wheelock. Significantly, their returns to town were prompted by vastly different motivations—Allie wanted to come back, whereas Cam was obligated to do so. Thus, Cam unconsciously sees and treats his relationship with Allie as akin to his position in Wheelock: something he both has settled for and can take for granted.
Although Allie is aware of the inequality in their relationship, Jamie is the first one to voice it. In some sense, Jamie and Maggie mirror Cam and Allie. Flashbacks of their relationship and revelations from people who knew them suggest that others, too, knew that Jamie and Maggie had an unequal relationship. Maggie openly admitted that she could never do what she was asking of Jamie. In fact, Jamie’s love for Maggie is so intense that Graham is successfully able to use an insanity plea in court to get him acquitted. Jamie’s love for Maggie causes him to lose touch with reason or, at the very least, give himself over to emotion entirely on multiple occasions. He was entirely unaware that he was stark naked when he came out onto the lawn with Maggie to help her to the ambulance; similarly, unaware of his surroundings, Jamie breaks down entirely at Maggie’s funeral.
Jamie knows and accepts that he is the one who loved Maggie first and loved her more, just as Allie does with Cam. The similarities between them are perhaps what draws Allie to Jamie in the first place and why Cam, on the other hand, is repulsed by Jamie. Besides serving as a reminder for The Weight of Familial Duty, Cam cannot understand the kind of love Jamie felt for Maggie that led him to kill her. Cam doesn’t experience this kind of love himself until he meets Mia.
Cam’s relationship with Mia, as he later reflects, is the only selfish thing he has done in his life. The appeal that Mia holds for Cam is partly owing to what she represents—a kindred soul, sharing the same wanderlust and travel experiences, but without the shackles of family and responsibilities. His attraction to her is so strong, that, like Jamie around Maggie, Cam appears to lose his sense of reason around Mia and acts in dereliction of the family duties and responsibilities that have dictated his life so far. Despite the guilt weighing down on him, he tracks Mia down and begs her to return when she leaves the first time. He continues the affair after Ellen finds out and shames him for it, and he is even prepared to leave Allie. The only reason he doesn’t end up doing so is because Mia leaves him.
Mia’s attraction to Cam, just like his to her, is rooted in what Cam represents to Mia. She has grown up with her parents as a model for romantic love: a passion or infatuation so all-consuming that everyone else, including their child, is left looking in from the outside. Witnessing this, coupled with the feelings of exclusion she experienced as a result, left Mia looking for the fulfilment of such an ideal love within a domestic sphere. This is what Cam represents, with the attraction they share and Cam’s role within Wheelock and as Allie’s husband. However, Mia eventually realizes that a romantic relationship with Cam is impossible without shattering the image of Cam as a family man, and thus, she eventually leaves.
Mia’s leaving, simultaneous with Allie’s discovery of the affair, becomes a catalyst for a shifting balance across romantic relationships. Cam is left with nothing to do but ask Allie for forgiveness; Allie, furious with Cam and standing up for herself for the first time, is not keen on delivering said forgiveness, and Jamie, witnessing this unfold, realizes that it is possible for the power balance to shift within a relationship. Perhaps this realization helps Jamie look forward to, and even welcome, a real future following his acquittal, even if it is one without Maggie.
The Weight of Familial Duty
The conflict in the book begins with Jamie’s confession that he has killed his wife. Jamie specifically drives to Wheelock to commit this crime so that he can confess to Cam, who is his cousin and clan chief. Jamie believes that, because of this, he will be taken care of. His conviction is in line with a central theme of the book, further bolstered by the history of Wheelock and its inhabitants: the weight of familial duty.
The history of Wheelock and how its people came to settle there feature heavily in the book’s narration and help explain different events and character’s motivations. For instance, Cam is the police chief because he inherited the position, passed down over generations to the figurehead of the MacDonald clan. Cam returned to Wheelock from Carrymuir following his father, Ian’s, death; Angus, Cam’s uncle, played a significant part in his return, reminding a reluctant Cam of his duty and responsibility to his clan and family. Years after Cam took up the role of police chief, Angus continues to serve as his conscience with respect to family matters, urging Cam to do right by his cousin, Jamie.
However, although Cam does carry out his duties for the most part, it is clear that he is chafing under these restrictions. Cam is livid with his mother, Ellen, for offering Jamie a spot for Maggie in the family cemetery, he is irritated with Allie’s involvement in the case, and he rejects any shared history with Jamie, ripping up the childhood photograph of the two of them together at Carrymuir. Cam’s frustration with Jamie increases in significance and symbolism with the realization that Jamie and Mia both arrived in town on the same day, and his dynamic in relation to these two newcomers reflects his feelings about having to constantly uphold family duty.
Jamie, his cousin who is charged with murder, represents a conflict for Cam on multiple levels—he showcases a kind of love and relationship that Cam has not experienced so far, by virtue of living in Wheelock all his life; he also presents a confusing situation wherein Cam needs to decide whether to conflate or separate his duties as police chief and clan chief. Mia, on the other hand, represents everything Cam longs for: independence, passion, freedom. With Jamie and Mia both arriving at the same time, Cam finally loses his sense of balance and gives in to the individualistic urges he has repressed for so long, as he rejects his bond with Jamie and begins an affair with Mia.
Ultimately, however, the affair comes to an end, and Cam is left picking up the pieces of his marriage to Allie—another place where he has failed his family duty. The circumstances surrounding the end of the affair almost serve as Cam’s penance for his actions: Mia leaves him with no notice, and Allie finds out about the affair before he has a chance to speak to her. Cam resolves himself to love Mia forever, even as he works on rebuilding his marriage. His resolution to family duty is further showcased by him finally sitting on the defendant’s side in the courtroom and even suggesting they extend the lease on Angus’s place so Jamie has somewhere to stay. However, although Cam resolves himself to staying and doing what is expected of him, it is unclear whether he and Allie will be able to save their marriage, owing to the complications introduced into their equation, as explored in the theme of Power Dynamics in Romantic Relationships.
Mercy and the Law
As the title suggests, one of the themes explored in the book is derived from its central conflict: The question of euthanasia, or “mercy killing.” However, the book looks at the idea of mercy beyond just the context of euthanasia.
Jamie arrives in Wheelock with Maggie’s body, confessing to having killed her as per her wishes, as she was suffering from cancer. The question about Maggie’s wishes and consent is a brief one for the characters of the book, and non-existent for the reader, as the first chapter opens with a conversation between Jamie and Maggie that clarifies this. For the characters in the story, Jamie’s consistent demonstration of love and grief over Maggie’s absence, as well as testimony from the people who knew the couple about the nature of their relationship, stands as sufficient proof that Maggie wanted Jamie to kill her.
Although the reality of Maggie’s death is that it was a “mercy killing,” this topic is not addressed in court at all. Graham demurs from using it as a legal defense, given the position of the law on the topic of euthanasia. Using it as a defense would be complicated, as winning a case with such a defense would involve getting laws rewritten, a gargantuan undertaking. Given that the book is set in 1995, two years before physician-assisted suicide was legalized for the first time in an American state (See: Background), the question of euthanasia is still a morally taboo and legally indefensible act within the novel.
Irrespective of what the law states, however, both defense and protection know that the circumstances surrounding Maggie’s death will undoubtedly inform the jury’s decision. This is why Audra moves to prevent the terms “mercy” or “mercy killing” from being used in the courtroom throughout the trial; this is also why Graham and Allie spend a considerable amount of time assessing potential jurors’ attitudes and value systems. Ultimately, Graham is successful in suggesting the idea of euthanasia in course without using the term “mercy” by painting a picture of Maggie’s illness and revealing how she never wanted to live in suffering. Thus, the jury eventually moves to acquit Jamie.
What happens with Jamie’s case is an exploration of the difference between justice and mercy, bringing up the question of whether there is room for the latter within the law. The prosecution consistently stresses how Jamie’s actions broke the law; justice can only be served if the law is upheld. However, Maggie’s wishes and condition, in concert with Jamie’s actions and the relationship the couple shared, raise the question of why the law exists, whether it should exist at all, and how it should be interpreted.
Thus, Jamie and Maggie ultimately seek the same thing: mercy. This is what both of them end up receiving, despite the fact that mention of “mercy” has been banned from the courtroom. Significantly, Jamie is able to receive an acquittal precisely because Graham did not use the same as a legal defense—in the world of the book, there is not always space for mercy when one is looking to uphold justice. Thus, Jamie and Maggie’s story explores the meaning of mercy in relationships while positing the question of what it means in relation to justice and society as well.
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