Comp. 105
03.30.01

The Struggle Between Stability and Success

Marilyn Monroe’s main goals in life were fame and a stable home life.  Almost forty years after her death, Marilyn Monroe is more legendary than ever.  Stability proved an somewhat elusive concept for her. Monroe made many decisions based on gaining constancy, but when things didn’t work out she would go back to her career for solace. The evidence of the conflict she bore is apparent in a closer look at her three marriages.

Monroe’s first marriage was an attempt to break the foster home pattern that dominated her early life. At age 16, Monroe married James Dougherty to achieve a sense of steadiness and belonging. As Biography reporter Linda Peterson recounts, after Dougherty joined the merchant marines, Monroe felt deserted. A chance discovery by a photographer led her to work at a modeling agency. This started her fascination with nearby Hollywood. Monroe made it her goal to attain fame and got a contract with Twentieth Century Fox, divorcing Dougherty to follow her dream of stardom (69).

Monroe’s second marriage was to sports legend Joe DiMaggio. This was a new attempt at a family life. This was also an apex in Monroe’s livelihood and popularity, though DiMaggio was extremely jealous of Monroe’s status as a sex symbol. Peterson reports that an argument over Monroe’s “billowing skirt scene” in The Seven Year Itch that led to a downward spiral for the couple (71). When DiMaggio wanted her to stop work at the height of her career to have children and be a housewife, Monroe ended their nine-month marriage to continue with her movie career.

Monroe married playwright Arthur Miller in 1956 in hopes of starting a family. She became pregnant twice, but was unable to conquer her habits of pills and alcohol, leading to two miscarriages. The HBO made-for-TV movie Norma Jean & Marilyn showed how this devastated Monroe and put a big strain on the marriage. After four and a half years, Miller and Monroe divorced. Monroe went to a rehab clinic and then dedicated herself to her career again.

Though Marilyn Monroe is often portrayed as a woman who had it all, it is evident that she really didn’t. Throughout her life, Marilyn searched for a family, for some tying bond. She once stated, “I knew I belonged to the public and to the world, not because I was talented or even beautiful, but because I had never belonged to anything or anyone else” (“Marilyn Quotes” par. 20). Through her three marriages, Monroe tried to create a family environment, but gave up to go back to the public, which willingly embraced her as she was.

Works Cited

“Marilyn Quotes” 2001. 26 Mar. 20001 http://www.marilynmonroe.com/quote.html.

Norma Jean and Marilyn. Dir. Tim Fywell. Perf. Ashley Judd and Mira Sorvino. 1996. Videocassette. HBO, 1996.

Peterson, Linda. “Marilyn Monroe: Fragile Bombshell.” Biography Sep. 2000: 66-74, 114, 116.

Word Count: 444