She's Come Undone

Bernice is Dolores’s mother and a central character and influence in Dolores’s life, even long after she is gone. Bernice’s life is challenging and complex, filled with grief and abuse. She delivers a stillborn son when Dolores is seven and sinks into a severe depression that leads to the neglect of her daughter, an obsession with a parrot, and the slow dishevelment of her life and family. Tony abuses Bernice, yelling at her, hitting her, and threatening her when she accuses him of cheating on her. Bernice apologizes to Tony when he becomes angry, as though she is responsible for his abusive nature—something that Dolores later mimics in her relationship with Dante. Dolores learns that she cannot depend on her mother anymore, and after Tony leaves the family forever, Dolores is left with her mother and grandmother, both of whom exhibit signs of trauma. Dolores responds to this by gaining weight and isolating herself. She harbors anger toward Bernice for becoming involved with Jack, for dying, and for contributing to her own mental decline. Dolores is not able to let go of this anger until years into her therapy with Dr. Shaw. When Bernice is admitted to the psychiatric hospital, she sends Dolores a painting she made of a leg flying with parrot’s wings. The painting becomes a symbol of the freedom to be oneself and have autonomy in life. Bernice dies when she is hit by a truck at work, and Dolores remembers her mother by keeping the painting.

Dolores’s maternal grandmother is a central character in the novel who is a major presence throughout Dolores’s life. Grandma is a dynamic character who has more depth than she initially lets on. She is first introduced as a strict, religious woman who harbors prejudice against anyone different from her. She is protective of her daughter and granddaughter and comes to their aid when their lives start to slip, but the type of help she provides seems to offer little assistance. Grandma’s repressive nature only serves to worsen Bernice’s condition and contribute to Dolores’s decline into isolation. The three of them share a miserable life together for several years.

When Dolores moves away, she writes to her grandma regularly, and Dolores’s grandma often expresses concern for Dolores and her happiness. She gives Dolores $2,000 when she gets married, which Dante ends up wasting on a new van. Dolores continually tells her grandmother she will come visit, but never does. Her grandmother then dies, and Dolores is left with the guilt and regret of not spending more time with her. She attempts to resolve this guilt by moving into her grandmother’s house and spending time with people like Roberta and Mr. Pucci as they age and need extra care. Dolores’s grandmother is the catalyst for the intergenerational trauma that passes through Dolores’s family.

Dante is Dolores’s first husband. He is a dynamic character as well as an antagonist, who starts out with the appearance of being innocent and kind, but who turns out to be just as abusive and disrespectful as the other men Dolores has spent her life trying to avoid. Dolores first encounters Dante through the letters he sends Kippy that Dolores intercepts. She is taken aback by the way he wants to wait for marriage to have sex, his devotion to his religion, and his bashful nature. She even takes the nude photographs that he mails to Kippy, staring at them for hours. Dolores writes back to Dante, pretending to be Kippy, but does not actually meet him until years later when a twist of fate brings them back together after Dolores develops some rolls of film at her photo lab job that include photographs of Dante.

At first, Dolores feels loved and appreciated and enjoys sex for the first time. When Dante’s inappropriate sexual relationship with his student comes to light at work, he starts coming home irritable and angry, and takes it out on Dolores. Over time, Dante grows more and more sarcastic and demeaning, saying things like “Oh, excuse me, great important one” (373) and correcting her speech. He manipulates Dolores into having sex when she isn’t in the mood. She eventually marries Dante, but he is soon fired from his job after being accused of being involved with a student. Dolores takes Dante’s word when he lies and says it isn’t true, and then Dante spends Dolores’s savings on a new van. In the fall, he finally admits to Dolores that he was fired, and she soon finds him half-naked with the same student in question. Dante is told to leave, and only comes back into Dolores’s life briefly again after her grandmother dies. It is then that she makes her final decision to divorce him and leave for good, as she sees the true nature of his character and his narcissism.

Dolores’s father, Tony Price, is a static character defined primarily by his abusive nature toward his wife, Bernice, and his extramarital affairs with people from his workplace. Dolores has few fond memories of Tony, most of them negative and bringing her nothing but pain and anger. She remembers the way her father would take her to spend hours while he sat and talked with his boss, how he would scream at and hit Bernice, and how he released Petey the parrot, to Bernice’s horror. Dolores sees her dad as a sort of villain, and this is only amplified by his decision to leave the family, leaving Dolores with her mother in a state of mental decline. Dolores also recalls the week before Tony left, when he installed a swimming pool and spent the week with Dolores, swimming and resting together. Dolores’s memories at this age are fuzzy, but she recalls Tony touching her through her bathing suit while they sat on the side of the pool one afternoon. Over the years, Tony tries to make amends with Dolores and edge his way back into her life, but Dolores denies him at every turn. He eventually dies of cancer, and Dolores feels little about his death. Ultimately, Tony teaches Dolores that men are abusive and domineering and that The Oppression of Imbalanced Power Dynamics is standard fare in relationships. She spends many years fumbling through dysfunctional relationships and a lack of self-worth as a result.

Thayer is Dolores’s second husband and the man who proves to be the person she was looking for all along. She sketches a portrait of Thayer on her Etch-a-Sketch years before ever meeting him, knowing for certain that he was the man she was meant to be with. Dolores meets Thayer while working at a bakery after moving into her grandmother’s house and divorcing Dante. She judges Thayer at first based on his weight and timid demeanor, but her boss urges Dolores to give him a chance. Thayer is interested in Dolores and asks her out several times, eventually staging a rap with his teenage son to win her over. Dolores finds Thayer easy to talk to, understanding, and non-judgmental. She tells him about her past right away, unlike the way she kept it all from Dante. Thayer is confused when Dolores asks him to help her have a child but refrain from being involved in its life; he wants to marry Dolores and start a life together. When Mr. Pucci is dying, he urges Dolores to marry Thayer and stop squandering her chance at happiness. She does just that, and she and Thayer spend years trying to conceive a child to no avail. Knowing Dolores’s connection between whales and healing, Thayer takes Dolores to Cape Cod to see them in the ocean. He thereby gives Dolores one of the most prized experiences of her life when she witnesses the whale breaching. Dolores affectionately describes Thayer as “part human, part whale” (462)—just like her.

Jack is an antagonist who comes into Dolores’s life at first as a neighbor, but later as a predator. He moves into the apartment above Dolores’s grandmother’s with his wife when Dolores is in middle school, and both Dolores and her mother develop crushes on Jack. Jack begins an affair with Bernice, which Dolores clues into and develops resentment toward her mother about. Jack also takes an interest in Dolores, offering to take her to school, complaining to her about his personal problems, and touching her feet and legs. Jack attempts to groom Dolores into a relationship with him, but she is nowhere near ready to be interested in sex and is only 13 years old. Dolores tries to send Jack hints in this regard, but he keeps pushing until his actions culminate in rape. He tells her she is half-responsible for what happened. When Jack’s wife miscarries a few days later, Dolores blames herself and Jack for the loss. Jack’s actions toward Dolores poison her view toward sex for decades, and it is not until she meets Thayer that she finally fully heals from the experience and finds out what it is like to be loved properly.

Mr. Pucci is Dolores’s counselor during high school and later becomes a close friend. He is an archetypal guide or teacher figure who encourages Dolores to push herself toward her potential. Mr. Pucci is the first mental health worker that Dolores gets along with and likes talking to, and she feels as though he understands her until he starts encouraging her to apply for college. Mr. Pucci sees potential in Dolores that she does not see in herself—a sentiment shared by Bernice, who starts pushing Dolores to go to college as well. Dolores shows up to Mr. Pucci’s house unannounced one day while he isn’t home and is let inside by his partner, Gary. Dolores watches Gary suspiciously, harboring homophobia instilled by her grandmother and by the culture of her generation. She admires Mr. Pucci’s jukebox as well. When Mr. Pucci arrives, he seems disturbed to see Dolores in his home, even more so when she asks him if he and Gary are gay.

Mr. Pucci later appears at Dolores’s grandmother’s funeral, which is where the two of them reconnect. He feels a lifelong connection to Dolores and expresses this to her there. When Dolores finds herself at Mr. Pucci’s house on a delivery months later, she discovers that Gary is dying of AIDS along with Mr. Pucci’s spirit for living. After Gary dies, Mr. Pucci grieves deeply, and Dolores keeps him company on many lonely nights. Mr. Pucci soon develops AIDS himself, and before he dies, he encourages Dolores to change her life one last time by marrying Thayer and expresses his disappointment in “the way people wasted their lives, squandered their chances like paychecks” (460).

Roberta is a friend of Dolores’s that she first meets when she is living with her grandmother as a child. At the time, Roberta ran the tattoo parlor across the street, and in her rebellion from her family, Dolores would often retreat to Roberta’s parlor and listen to her stories. Dolores feels comfortable and not judged around Roberta, despite Roberta being much older than her. Roberta comes back into Dolores’s life in mid-adulthood when Dolores moves back into her grandmother’s house after she dies. Dolores and Roberta quickly become close friends, and Dolores does what she can to help Roberta as she copes with her Parkinson’s and arthritis. Roberta is a fierce, independent woman, and wants Dolores to be the same way. When Dolores uses her divorce money to buy a television and satellite instead of a car, Roberta yells at Dolores, angry with her for choosing isolation over the outside world. Roberta falls during the argument and is hospitalized for two weeks, adding to the list of Dolores’s guilts. Dolores and Roberta take a road trip together and get a delivery job together, and Roberta continues to live with Dolores and Thayer after they are married, becoming a part of the family. Although Roberta’s personality does not change, her friendship with Dolores becomes deeper over time.

Dottie is the caretaker at the dorms where Dolores first attends college. She is a flat character defined by her attraction to Dolores and the power that she attempts to have over her. She lets Dolores into the building a week early, seeming generous and well-meaning at first, but also showing a more abrasive side by calling Dolores fat almost immediately upon seeing her. Dolores befriends Dottie and spends the week cleaning the dorms with her before the other students arrive. The two women bond over their shared isolation from the world and indifference toward their deteriorating bodies. Dolores senses sexual attention from Dottie but thinks little of it until Dottie kisses her. Dolores avoids Dottie, not wanting to become involved with her in that way, but after Dolores is molested at the Halloween party, she has no one else to call. Dottie takes her home, where she encourages Dolores to drink and manipulates her into sex. Dottie tells Dolores, “Two fatties like us. What’s the difference?” (230), demeaning Dolores and minimizing sex. She reflects on the situation as Dottie sleeps and feels disgusted with Dottie and herself and poisons Dottie’s fish before leaving for good.