Life After Life Marriage

If love and marriage go together like a horse and carriage, then during the course of Life After Life, the horse has Equine Encephalomyelitis and the carriage has a broken axle. Love hardly ever factors into marriage at this time, and instead, it's about money, loneliness, or gratitude. Ursula is the only person in history to be married twice without getting a divorce, becoming a widow, or participating in polygamy. She experiences different types of marriages in her different lives.

Questions About Marriage

1. Compare and contrast Ursula's husbands, Derek and Jurgen. How do they meet? Does Ursula love them? Go to town on these two, and turn to the text often.
2. Do you think Sylvie is having affairs? Why or why not?
3. Why does Izzie decide to get married? What is her marriage like?
4. Why doesn't Ursula want to marry Crighton, even in the life where they live together?

Chew on This

None of the women seem to really know their husbands when they get married—and sometimes, like with Ursula and Derek, that leads to disastrous results.

It really seems that Ursula must choose marriage or a career. She never has both, in any of her lives.