Throughout The Marriage Plot, we are given the impression that Madeleine has

certain notions about how things ought to be, or what her reality should look like.
Having come from a family where
As such, she tends not to admit the truth to herself, adjusting her perception of
reality to fit with a more pleasing version of her appearance. What this leads to is
an aversion to confronting realities she finds uncomfortable, or exploring avenues
of thought which might force her to do so.
We are given examples of this in her interactions with Mitchell and Dabney,
where she avoids acknowledging more distasteful truths about her choices.
Because Madeleine disapproved of the idea of meaningless, extremely
satisfying sex, rather than admit their relationship was purely physical, she
exaggerated Dabneys mental abilities in order to not feel shallow for wanting his
body., going so far as to convince herself she that she was in love with him. (p.
36) In need of male attention, Madeleine flirts with Mitchell without entirely
admitting it to herself, and uses the gel incident as a pretext for getting Mitchell
out of her bedroom and for covering up the fact that shed been flirting with him in
the first place (p. 15). In these two examples we see Madeleine trying to fit into a
mold she has constructed for herself, remain consistent with an image she likes
anything that is not consistent with what she believes to be proper is delicately
discounted.
At the very beginning of the novel, we are presented with a scene in which
Madeleine seeks to ignore the cause and effect of her night out prior to
graduation day:
Madeleine was hoping to ignore the room and everything in it. She was hoping to drift
back down into the oblivion where shed been safely couched for the last three hours.
Any higher level of wakefulness would force her to come to grips with certain
disagreeable facts: for instance, the amount and variety of alcohol shed imbibed last
night, and the fact that shed gone to sleep with her contacts in. Thinking about specifics
would, in turn, call to mind the reasons shed drunk so much in the first place, which she
definitely didnt want to do. And so Madeleine adjusted her pillow, blocking out the
morning light, and tried to fall back to sleep. (p 4).

Exposed by the daylight, Madeleine seeks to avoid the reality of her actions, their
causes, and the inevitable but unpalatable fact that graduation looms regardless
of her lack of future plans. By the time graduation weekend rolled around,
Madeleine was doing her best to ignore it (p. 81)
Here we note another characteristic emerging: Madeleine is fairly directionless.
Having been provided with every opportunity by her parents, Madeleine
essentially falls into her field of study, pursuing a thesis not because she has any
conviction or motivation to do so, but rather because she has no real reason not
to do so. English was what people who didnt know what to major in majored in.

(p.21) She avoids confronting notions concerning the future, neglecting to check
her mailbox for acceptance letters and failing to call and enquire about her
application status at Yale because Im scared to find out that Ive been rejected.
Rather than independently forge forward into the future, Madeleine rejects the
teaching position in China she is offered, taking no action to solve her problems.
Perhaps, because that solution is not a desirable one. The one plan she did
have, to live with Leonard, was really not her plan at all. She lives in denial,
shoving the boxes she had packed to go to Pilgrim Lake into the corner where
they no longer present evidence of her total lack of a plan or direction.
In times of uncertainty, we inevitably gravitate towards what we know, finding
comfort in the familiar. Teetering on the brink of college graduation, Madeleine
finds herself in a position of total uncertainty, where she must place herself on a
new trajectory. So, Madeleine seeks refuge in what is known to her: the marriage
plot.
Madeleine is surrounded by and immersed in the marriage plot. Whether it
concerns her mother, who gave up her dreams of acting to become a wife and
mother, or her sister who traded spunkiness and sass in preparing herself to be
someones wife (p. 185), or the very fact that she has spent her college
education crafting a thesis around this concept, the marriage plot is undoubtedly
what Madeleine knows. From beginning to end, she has seen the trajectory of
this plot and can pinpoint the landing point with exact precision. In this way, we
may understand the appeal: here is something that counters the fear of the
unknown, the vast and ambiguous sea of possibilities the future presents. Here is
a path Madeleine may set herself upon knowing exactly where it will lead. Here is
a direction, a purpose, and an appearance that has been shown to Madeleine as
an acceptable outcome.

She idealizes him to the point that it seems that if she could just have that one
thing, all her problems would be bearable (p. 10). Whereas before, Madeleine
presents a mostly directionless front, upon hearing that Leonard has been
hospitalized