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Paul Vu

Professor Rodrick

English 115

15 November 2018

Toxic Relationships

The novel entitled, Play It as It Lays by Joan Didion, is the about the events that led

Maria Wyeth to be recovering from a mental breakdown in a psychiatric hospital. Throughout

the story, there is a recurring theme of toxic relationships. There are three relationships that the

readers are exposed to and they are between Maria and Ivan Costello, Maria and Carter, and BZ

and Helene. These unstable relationships are the reflections of how Hollywood views the male

always dominate and abusive one in the relationship.

The protagonist, Maria is shown to be a Hollywood star that finds herself to be in very

unhealthy relationships in the story. The first relationship was with Ivan Costello, which

occurred when Maria moved to New York to pursue her dream of being a movie star. Their

relationship can be described as one that is faulty and without love. Costello was implied to be a

manipulative man who did not hesitate to spend Maria’s hard earn cash and treated her like an

object. In chapter 55 of Play It as It lays, when Maria calls Costello he straight up told her that

“There’s not going to be any money and there's not going to be any eating breakfast

together”(142), meaning that if they got back together he would still treat her like trash and

spend all her money. It was only when Maria heard the news of her parents' death that she broke

up with Costello. She then meets Carter Lang and they get married and move to Hollywood and

have a daughter together.

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In Maria’s relationship with Carter, it seemed that they had a good married until it

became evident that it was a loveless one. In the Novel that they had a shaky relationship as they

would argue all the time and it always ends with Carter throwing objects around and Maria

isolating herself. It got worse as Maria had an affair with Les Goodwin and got pregnant from a

result of this affair. Carter upon hearing the news that Maria was pregnant with another man’s

child gave her an ultimatum. Get an abortion and have a chance to be with her daughter, Kate or

never see Kate ever again. Carter here is what I would call an “Iron Fist”. In the video, 10 Types

of Emotional Manipulation, Psych2Go describes the Iron Fist to be people who “use intimidation

and throw their weight around”(Psych2Go), to use you for their ends, and to get their way in

life.”, and this describes Carter perfectly in this novel. As he is threatening Maria to get the

abortion or else he will make sure that she would never see their daughter. This is a horrible

thing to do to a mother, to make her choose between her daughter and her unborn child. She

does, in fact, go through with the abortion but she is immensely impacted by this. She has

nightmares, can’t sleep, and refuses to live in her Beverly Hill house. This just comes to show

how Carter has ruined her emotionally and on top of this Maria still did not get to see her

daughter. Maria’s relationship is just an example of the emotional trauma of what a toxic

relationship can give but there can also be bad relationships with physical abuse present in them.

BZ and Helene have an odd relationship that seems to represent how the male is the

physically dominate one and will show it with force. The two, seem to be together for no reason

and they have remarried and divorced twice. BZ on top of this odd relationship is bisexual based

on an indirect reference with lemons. Helene only stays with BZ due to the money coming from

his mom. In which she uses to purchase clothing and accessories like the big emerald ring that

she wears on the day of Maria’s hearing. In chapter 62 to 63, Helene and BZ take Maria home
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after she got herself wasted at a bar. When she woke up she had noticed that Helene’s “eyes were

puffy and there was a bruise on her left cheekbone.”(163), with this line, the readers can infer

that BZ physically abuses Helene. A couple of chapters later it is revealed that BZ for some odd

reason is jealous that Helene has been hooking up with Carter which later on becomes a reason

why he commits suicide. In essence, this is the male dominance that Hollywood loves to portray

in relationships like the one between Helene and BZ.

Overall, the author Didion did an excellent job of giving the readers a glimpse into what a

Hollywood relationship is like. To men like Ivan Costello who views women to object in having

sex with, whenever he desires. To those like Carter who blackmails his spouse to manipulate her

to do his wishes. Onto BZ who physically abuses women and get jealous if she goes for another

man even though there is no passion between him and her. Play It as It lays, represents how

Hollywood believes that every relationship has a man dominates the women.
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Work Cited

Didion, Joan. Play It as It Lays. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1970.

Hall Health Center Health Promotion staff. “Healthy vs. Unhealthy Relationships.” Chicano

Movement Geography,

depts.washington.edu/hhpccweb/health-resource/healthy-vs-unhealthy-relationships/.

Date Accessed 14 November 2018.

Psych2Go. 10 Types of Emotional Manipulation, YouTube, 20 Nov. 2016,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=j5AOp93S1F4. Date Accessed 15 November 2018.

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