Desperate Housewives: Mary Alice Young - Type 2w1

Mary Alice is nurturing, secretive and caring. She is warm and personable with her friends and neighbours but has much more sinister secrets beneath the surface.

At her best, Mary Alice is genuinely altruistic and compassionate. She goes out of her way to welcome the women as they arrive on Wisteria Lane and she wants to help them in any way she can. She is supportive and willing to go the extra mile to be there for her family and friends. This is to the point where people may try to take advantage of her generous spirit as seen with Martha Huber’s attempts to blackmail her.

At her worst, Mary Alice becomes reactive, judgmental and selfish. This can be seen with how she handles Deidre coming back to take Zach (Dana). She doesn’t want to consider that Deidre has changed and becomes hysterical at the thought of losing her son. Through her monologues we can also see some of her more judgmental side when describing the other women on the lane.

Mary Alice has a strong desire to help those in need and worked as a nurse before moving to Wisteria Lane. She spends a lot of her time and energy being the best nurse she can be and puts her own challenges and needs to the side as a way of focusing on others. Even when she moves to the lane and is no longer a practicing nurse it can be seen through her actions towards the residents and people of Fairview that she continues to have this attitude. This is seen with how she supports Eli Briggs and becomes his biggest supporter when he is down on his luck and trying to get business.

Mary Alice has always wanted to be a mother and as seen through flashbacks she has been trying to start a family with Paul. She has a lot of love to share, is in a loving and stable relationship with Paul and wants to have the opportunity to build her own family. This is what ultimately leads to her decision to take Dana and raise him as her son. She truly believes that he will be better off with her and she will be able to offer him a better life. Due to this thought process and her desperation she follows through and moves to Wisteria Lane.

Mary Alice has a wing 1 as she has a strong moral compass and uses this to influence her decisions. She is also more reserved and keeps her feelings to herself than a wing 3 might be.

Tri-type: 2w1 - 1w2 - 6w7

Some quotes to describe Mary Alice’s motivation:

“When the truth is ugly, people try to keep it hidden, because they know if revealed the damage it will do, so they conceal it within sturdy walls, or they place it behind closed doors, or they obscure it with clever disguises, the truth no matter how ugly always emerges, and someone we care about always ends up getting hurt, and someone else will revel in their pain, and that’s the ugliest truth of all.”

“Whenever we make mistakes, we need to apologize and then we need to move on. We must try to accept the changes in our lives or choose to trust an old enemy or learn to stop fighting our children’s battles. But, sometimes the pain we caused is so great, there is no moving on.”

“There comes a time when we must expose our weaknesses. When our secrets can no longer remain private, when our solitude can no longer be denied, when our pain can no longer be ignored, but sometimes we feel so alone that a weaknesses we thought we’d overcome suddenly becomes too long to fight.”

“Family. There is nothing more important. They’re the ones who show up when we are in trouble. The ones who push us to succeed. The ones who help keep our secrets. But what of those who have no family to rely on? What happens to those poor souls who have no loved ones to help them in their hour of need? Well, most learn to walk life’s road by themselves. But a sad few of us, simply stop trying.”

“This is the street where I used to live and these were the people with whom I shared my life. I met them the day they moved in. And I saw what they brought with them. Beautiful dreams for the future. And quiet hopes for a better life. Not just for themselves, but for their children, too. If I could, would I tell them what lies ahead? Would I warn them of the sorrow and betrayal that lie in store? No. From where I stand now, I see enough of the road to understand how it must be traveled. The trip is to keep moving forward, to let go of the fear and the regret that slow us down and keep us from enjoying a journey that will be over too soon. Yes, there will be unexpected bends in the road, shocking surprises we didn’t see coming, but that’s really the point. Don’t you think?”

“Good deeds aren’t always done for the purest of reasons. We may be trying to impress. We may be acting out of guilt. We may be expecting something in return, but occasionally a good deed comes straight from the heart.”

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