Note 2

Themes:

● Control (Mr. Braling’s wife => Mr. Braling; Mr. Braling => Mr. Braling 2)
● Unhappily marriage (Mr. Braling’s wife and Mr. Braling; Mr. Smith and Nettie)
● Technology amusement
● Betrayal (Nettie => Mr. Smith; Mr. Braling => Mr. Braling’s wife; Mr. Braling 2 => Mr.
Braling)
● Relationships between people and AI (artificial intelligence) - having feelings,
empathy
● No independence (Mr. Braling 2)
● Ethics (using marionettes to replace real people; ways characters treating each
other)
● Toxic friendship (Mr. Smith => Mr. Braling)
● Selfishness (each character concentrates on themselves )
● Deception (keeping secrets; lack of trust, communication)
● Escape (Mr. Braling; Mr.s Smith; Nettie)

Note 3

Theme/character Example Effect

Toxic Friendship “You may not admit it to me, but
● Mr. Smith => Mr. marriage has been awful for you,
Braling hasn't it?”, “It's got around, anyway,
here and there, how she got you to
marry her”.
Mr. Smith is trying to convince Mr.
Braling that he was too pacient to his
wife and their marriage was awful
while Mr. Braling does not fully agree
with it.

Control - “And how she tore her clothes Mr. Braling was blackmailed by his
● Mr. Braling’s wife => and rumpled her hair and wife to marry her. He couldn't do
Mr. Braling threatened to call the police anything he wanted these past ten
unless you married her”. years.

● Mr. Braling => Mr. - “When I return from Rio, Mr. Braling treats Mr. Braling 2 as
Braling 2 Braling Two here will go back though he is just a thing. Mr. Braling
in his box.” decided when the marionette would go
in the box and so on.

Unhappily marriage - “...how she got you to marry Mr. Braling was made to marry his wife
● Mr. Braling and his her”, “It was more than unfair. by her. He never wanted it, but he
wife You didn't love her. You told wasn't about to devastate his parents.
her as much, didn't you”

● Mr. Smith and Nettie
- “My wife loves me so much It wasn’t an unhappily marriage itself
she can't bear to have me but Mr. Smith was too overdosed with
gone an hour. I love her Netties extra love so it makes him
dearly, you know, but unhappy.
remember the old poem:
"Love will fly if held too lightly,
love will die if held too tightly."
I just want her to relax her grip
a little bit.”
Betrayal - “Nettie!' he cried. Nettie replaced her with a marionette
● Nettie => Mr. Smith Tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-tick-t and didn't say anything to Mr. Smith.
ick-tick.” She left him.

● Mr. Braling => Mr.
Braling’s wife
- “I’ve had him for a month. I Mr. Braling duplicated himself and was
keep him in the cellar in a using this marionette as a “real Mr.
Braling”
toolbox. My wife never goes
downstairs, and I have the
only lock and key to that box.”

● Mr. Braling 2 => Mr.
Braling
- “Braling Two said, 'I'm going to
put you in the box, lock it, and
lose the key. Then I'll buy
another Rio ticket for your
wife.”
Mr. Braling 2 decided to “totally”
replace Mr. Braling by himself. He
stopped to listen to real Braling’s
words as he was supposed to do as a
marionette.

Escape - “ I just want her to relax her Mr. Smith was overdosed with his
● Mr. Smith grip a little bit.” wife’s form of love especially last
month and he just wanted to escape of
it for a bit.

● Mr. Braling - “... In the meantime another Mr. Braling always wanted to go to Rio
gentleman will be in Rio after but due to his marriage he couldn’t do
ten years of waiting...” it. So, with Marionettes, Inc’ s help he
was trying to change this situation.

Note 5

Fantasy is a genre that features some elements that do not exist in the real world. It
includes supernatural and magical elements and has no basis in scientific fact. For example,
Iconic series such as J. K. Rowling’s Harry Potter or R. R. Martin’s A Game of Thrones.
Whereas Science-fiction is a form of fiction that features technology and natural or
technological scenarios that are currently possible or may realistically become possible in
the future. For instance, “Burning Chrome” by William Gibson, “Interstellar” by Christopher
Nolan and Jonathan Nolan.

The Marionette, Inc is a science-fiction because technology is the main theme of this story..
We can see machines which can be somebody to the hairiest detail like absolutely
identical. Also, people do not need to take a good care of these marionettes.

Basic human interactions are essential for everyone. Empathy and especially verbal
communication are the most important of them. For example, in the Marionette, Inc. we can
see two types of relationships: between Mr. Smith and Nettie and between the Mr. Braling
and his wife.
In the first couple Nettie overdoses all the communication with her husband. She talks
baby talk and sits on his lap for two hours every evening, so Mr. Smith thinks that she is a
little simple-minded.
Another situation: the second couple has a lack of adequate basic human interactions. Mr
Braling had to marry his wife, he doesn’t love her. Their marriage hasn’t exactly been
roses. And because of that they don’t have good communication, so Mr Braling was
unhappy.
And as we can see by the two different examples in the Marionettes, Inc. it is very important
to find the golden mean in the human interactions to live happily.

After reading a story it is quite obvious that Mr Smith found himself in a really harsh situation.
His wife left him, his heart broke and the terror and the loneliness engulfed him. I suppose
him to go and find her. Maybe Nettie just wanted to unwind or needed to change her pace
of life and if it is the reason why she left him, he would probably find her.