Friendship and Loyalty in Mad Mabel

The Thematic Claim: Friendship as Oxygen

From her first appearance, elderly Elsie Mabel Fitzpatrick insists that her story—despite “blood and guts and murder”—is a love story about platonic female friendship. “Friends are like oxygen,” she says in Chapter 1. This claim frames the entire narrative: the bond between women, specifically Elsie and her lifelong confidante Daphne Barton, is presented as essential for life itself. Loyalty is not merely a virtue; it is a survival instinct that justifies any action.

Tracing the Bond Across Three Plot Stages

1. The Pinkie Swear and the Bosom Friend

Young Mabel Waller meets Daphne in a hospital ward in Chapter 20. Both are patients; Daphne arrives in a hot-pink cardigan, pulls up a chair, and offers immediate, unreserved friendship. She extends her pinkie: “you can’t break a pinkie swear. Not ever.” This initial contract of absolute loyalty is later deepened by a ceremony borrowed from Anne of Green Gables. In the library, the two girls clasp hands and vow to be faithful “as long as the sun and moon shall endure.” The section from the evidence describes Mabel’s joy: “it was the happiest moment of my life.” The diary Mabel keeps at her aunt’s house records her longing for such a connection, inspired by watching Cecily “Cess” Fitzpatrick and her friend Ness move through the world in silent understanding.

2. Loyalty in the Face of Public Hatred

When Billy Harris spreads the nickname “Mad Mabel” and accuses Mabel of killing her baby sister, the community ostracises her. Daphne becomes a vocal defender. The evidence from Chapter 34 shows Daphne “practically leap[ing] out of her skin in her desperation to defend me.” She interrogates classmates, refuses to let Mabel face the gossip alone. This loyalty is active, aggressive, and unwavering. Mabel later reflects that without Daphne she would have been consumed by the rage that rises on the beach—the moment she feels “the rage that is black in color rather than red.” Daphne’s presence is the anchor that keeps Mabel from fully embracing the “Mad Mabel” identity society has assigned her.

3. Present-Day Crisis and the Unspoken Duty

In the present timeline, Elsie receives a threatening newspaper clipping that exposes her hidden past. Her immediate thought is to protect Daphne. The opening chapter explicitly states: “I would do anything for Daphne.” This foreshadows the investigation into neighbour Ishaan’s death, which the novel later concludes was a vitamin overdose—but Elsie’s own history and her willingness to act make readers wonder whether she took lethal action on behalf of her friend. The blue silk bathrobe (owned by Daphne?) and Nugget the Chihuahua (Mr. Loukas’s dog) are minor symbols of comfort and odd companionship that echo the larger theme of chosen family. Ultimately, the toxicology results exonerate Elsie, but the question of what she would have done lingers.

Character and Symbol Connections

Daphne Barton is the “magenta line” running through Elsie’s life—unmissable, vivid, constant. Her girlhood promise of being “buried-the-body-without-asking loyal” becomes the ethical hinge of the entire story. She is both real in the past and, as Chapter 80 hints, possibly reconstructed in the present: Daisy tells Persephone that Elsie called her Daphne, suggesting that in old age Elsie transferred the name and role onto a new person. This ambiguity deepens the theme: the need for a Daphne may have become so essential that Elsie’s mind creates one.

Cess and Ness provide a living example of adult friendship that young Mabel studies with aching envy. Their ability to complete each other’s sentences and move as one convinces Mabel that such bonds are real and attainable. Her diary records this longing and becomes a tool for understanding her own emotional world.

Persephone, the seven-year-old neighbour, represents the power of being chosen. She declares to Elsie: “I choose you!”—a statement that echoes Daphne’s initial selection of Mabel. The intergenerational friendship proves that loyalty does not depend on shared age or history.

The Anne of Green Gables book is the literary touchstone. Mabel and Daphne re-enact the bosom-friend ceremony from the novel, linking their bond to a tradition of devoted female companionship that predates and outlasts romantic love.

Complexity and Contradiction

The friendship’s purity is complicated by the suspicion of violence. If Elsie did kill Ishaan—or if she is capable of killing to protect Daphne—then loyalty becomes morally ambiguous. The narrator’s claim that this is “a love story” sits uneasily alongside “blood and guts.” Furthermore, the possibility that present-day Daphne is a figment or a role assigned to Daisy raises questions about the reality of a lifelong friendship. Is it the actual person that matters, or the function she serves? Elsie’s desperate need for oxygen—for a friend—may have led her to superimpose Daphne onto anyone willing to play the part. This contradiction does not diminish the theme; it makes it more human.

Study Questions and Answers

1. In Chapter 1, Elsie says “friends are like oxygen.” How does this metaphor shape our understanding of her actions throughout the novel?
   Answer: The metaphor frames friendship as essential for survival, not optional. It suggests that without Daphne, Elsie would have no reason to live—and therefore any action, including murder, might be rationalised as necessary to preserve the friendship. The metaphor also explains why Elsie might create a Daphne figure if the real one were lost.

2. Compare the friendship ceremony Mabel and Daphne perform in the library with the one from Anne of Green Gables. Why does Sally Hepworth borrow this scene?
   Answer: The borrowed ceremony elevates Mabel and Daphne’s bond to a literary ideal, showing that Mabel wants a perfect, storybook friendship. It also connects their story to a canon of female friendship literature, reinforcing the novel’s claim that platonic love can be as profound as any romance.

3. How does the character of Persephone challenge or reinforce Elsie’s belief that she is unworthy of friendship?
   Answer: Persephone’s declaration “I choose you!” directly contradicts Elsie’s lifelong sense of being unlikable. Despite the age gap, Persephone actively selects Elsie, proving that friendship is a matter of choice, not worthiness. This reinforces the theme and gives Elsie hope that her story is not over.

4. What evidence suggests that the present-day Daphne might be an imaginary or reconstructed friend?
   Answer: In Chapter 80, Persephone’s friend Daisy says that Elsie called her “Daphne.” Since Elsie’s original Daphne died (implied by Elsie’s grief), the remark indicates that Elsie projected the name onto Daisy to preserve the comfort of her lifelong bond. The present-day “Daphne” we see throughout the novel may therefore be a blend of memory and invention.

5. The novel is framed as a love story about platonic female friendship. How does the inclusion of murder complicate that definition?
   Answer: The inclusion of murder challenges the association of love with kindness and morality. Elsie’s love for Daphne is so consuming that it overrides ethical boundaries, suggesting that intense loyalty can coexist with violence. The novel forces readers to ask whether a love story can be true even when it leads to harm, and whether friendship itself can become a dangerous justification.