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In Mavis Gallants satirical piece, The Other Paris, love, or more like the absence of it
is the focus of attention. The tale of Carol and Howard is a pathetic one, it is frustrating how
naive the two are and its quite sad how the two view their engagement. The lack of love
portrayed through narrative voice and characterization within the passage stresses our societys
lack of knowledge on the concept of love and scoffs at our flimsy idea of the purpose of
marriage.
Gallants narrative voice brings humor to the story of the engagement of Carol and
Howard. Through the narrative voice, the readers are given a valuable insight into the thoughts of
the couple. These thoughts revealed to us the fact that Carol was not in love with Howard, in
fact, she barely knew him, and he to her. Throughout the passage, it was horrifying to discover
that Carol believed Love required only the right conditions, like a germanium. and Howard
had been lonely and had been advised to marry some nice girl before it was too late. Without
the narrative voice, we would have not known of the weak relationship between the two
characters and we would not be able to judge their false ideas on their justification of marriage.
We are able to draw from their thoughts and reason that the two are obviously marrying for the
wrong reasons.
Howard is marrying, not with the intention to fall in love, but to eliminate his chances of
ending up old and alone. He is motivated by those reasons and has quite an apathetic perspective
of his engagement to Carol. Carol is rushing the process of love, chasing after the hope that she
will fall in love with Howard eventually after they are married. The two contrast and can be seen
as foil characters because of their motivations to engage and be wedded. Howards determination
to be married by choice and Carols naivety and expectancy of love give the story purpose. Love
is not a result of a step by step formula. It cannot be compared to a germanium and it cannot be

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taught within any college lecture Carol attended. The college lecture symbolizes societys
attempt to regulate and define love, but love cannot be limited to a set of rules. It is abstract and
not stable enough to be the driving force for marriage. Carol is getting married for the prospect
of falling into the feeling of love, and in a peculiar way, it is not much different from people of
our generation who marry because they feel that they are in love. Perhaps that is why more than
half of the marriages are ending in divorces. People marry based on something as unstable as a
feeling which they falsely believe is love and when the feeling dies out, as does all feelings, they
are left unhappy and unsatisfied. Gallant implies that people often have the wrong idea of what
love is when sarcastically stating that there was no reason for the engagement or marriage to
fail and at the same time implying that it was not a feeling that could come about in the right
conditions.
So what is love and what makes marriage? It all boils down to the obvious, a choice.
Choice is proven to be the workings behind love and the strength of marriage through the
characterization of Carol and Howard. The one thing driving the engagement is choice, Howard
chose to ask Carol to marry him and Carol chose to say yes. If Carol was able to put behind her
fantasy of an ideal love behind her and instead realize that love is about choices and not feelings,
she would be less disappointed and unsatisfied with her marriage when it comes down to the fact
that she wont be in love the way the world tells you love is. Howard on the other hand has
sense enough to attach himself and has a stereotypical male, possibly more realistic, response
to his engagement. He is in a state of numbness and a state of congratulation, he is choosing to
be with Carol and doesnt expect all the fireworks that society advertises comes with marriage
unlike Carol who was under the illusion.

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Carol and Howard represent two groups of people within society, those who chase after
love and those who marry for choice. The narrative voice played a role in building the social
commentary by highlighting the flaws in Carol and Howards thinking behind the reason they
were getting married. Their characterization set aside groups and clarified Mavis subliminal
message that those who marry for the societys idea of love, like Carol, can be found in ruined
marriages unless if they are converted into people of choice, the group that Howard represents.
The two characters held different ideas on the purpose and the workings of marriage and they
hold different definitions on the ideas of love in order to prove that love is still something that
remains a mystery to many within our society, it cannot be learned within the walls of a school,
but with experience.