“The Proxy Marriage by Maile Meloy”

Originally published in the May 21, 2012 issue of The New Yorker.

A young man and woman in Montana, each secretly attracted to the other, perform a series of proxy weddings for soldiers stationed in Iraq. The third person perspective or POV centers on William as the main character in this story. At the beginning of the story as the exposition Maile introduced the main characters they are William, piano player, undergraduate at Oberlin, composes music, in love with his best friend named Bridey. Bridey, studied musical theater in NYC to pursue career, unaware of William’s love towards her. 

The Rising Action started when Bridey’s father who are a lawyer, started proxy marriage business at that time and ask his daughter and William to act as the proxies, both of them agree. William take this job seriously, he even imagine that the marriage is really for him and Bridey, meanwhile Bridey does not take this seriously, she just want to help her father’s business and get the money from it. 

For years William and Bridey act as the proxies for many proxy marriage at Montana since they are in high school till they are finally went to the university. William’s feeling never change even they are not live in the same city anymore, he always preparing himself for the time to finally tell his feeling to Bridey. 

Climax in the story is when Bridey married to another guy and this really hit William, he is so desperate and only can blaming himself he lost his love. At that time there’s Gilian, William’s college friend that actually have a special feeling for him. In that situation, William and Gilian is getting more closed but their relation is just for casual sex without any serious commitment. 

After Bridey divorce with her husband. William see this as the one and only chance for him to get her and then he decided to cut off his relation with Gilian and this is the falling action plot in the story. At the last proxy wedding, the groom and bride is asked to kiss, William kissing Bridey passionately as the way he want to tell her his feeling for over years and turns out Bridey also have the same feeling towards him and the story ends.

The setting in The Proxy Marriage is Montana US, Church, William’s house, Bridey’s house, William’s apartment, School as the setting of place and around 1982-1990 (due to war of Afghanistan – Iraq as the proxy marriage is request from the soldier who cannot attend their wedding), afternoon, and morning as the setting of time.

For the character as the author tells from the exposition, the main or major characters are, William and Bridey Taylor. Meanwhile for the subordinate are William’s mother, Bridey’s father, and Gilian. For the appearance, William is a tall, shy and awkward boy and Bridey is pretty girl who is free spirit. In this story all of the characters characterization is flat. 

Meanwhile, for the development of characterization for William is dynamic character that he finally changes his personality and mindset to finally confess his feeling after he know how it’s feel when he lost his love even before he tried to pursue it.

According to William Foster Harris, there are three types basic pattern of plot ; the happy ending, the unhappy ending and tragedy. Based on that, I can tell the plot of the short story that I choose which is The Proxy Marriage by Maile Meloy is the happy ending one where the main characters finally can confess their true feeling after a long time.

Talking about theme in modern prose, The Proxy Marriage itself has combined four of the theme which are physical theme that I can tell from all of the characters activities in the story, social theme as the socialization from the character to another, divine theme when it comes to Proxy Marriage process itself and a bit of organic theme as the first main character involved with one of the subordinate character.

To conclude, The Proxy Marriage by Maile Meloy is such a simple love story which is packaged in an unusual and quite unique background that also makes the imagination of the reader immersed in the atmosphere of events that occur in the story. The strength of the story lies in its original plot and compelling characterization. The proxy marriage provide poignant glimpses into the lives of the secondary characters being married, some of whom, it is suggested, will never make it home or end up divorced if they do. Overall this short story is worth reading as an option for those of you who want to explore and find out something cultural that never even occurred to you in your mind.