Miss Hendricks In Miriam Allen Deford's 'Mortmain'

Character Analysis People say money can’t buy you happiness, yet many still strive for it and will stoop to the lowest of levels to get more. In the short story Mortmain, written by Miriam Allen Deford, the female protagonist, Miss Hendricks, proves to be just another example of how one would drop all morals just for a little more money in their pocket. By analyzing Miss Hendricks personal history and motivations, the reader will understand the significance of her character to the overall story. Deford’s main character of this short story, Miss Hendricks, was a nurse who fell in love with a previous patient named Terry, who also happened to be a “professional bank-robber” (Deford 331). Although the author doesn’t really go into depth about who Miss Hendricks was, she did explain Miss Hendricks love for this man. “If she had never met Terry, the money would have lain in that safe forever… [but] slowly his influence conquered all the ideals and most of the virtues” that she had held (Deford 331). Eventually, Miss Hendricks was manipulated by Terry into believing that if they were to be

Miss Hendricks only had one interest when it came to Marsden’s money, and that was to support her fiance, “a model prisoner; with good behavior, [whose] term would be over now in three months” (Deford 331). Without enough money, she had no way of keeping her criminal lover from robbing banks again, so she took action. Miss Hendricks knew she had to kill Marsden and steal the money from the safe, well at least that's what Terry had convinced her to believe. What was most significant about her actions was that she tried her best to justify them. She knew killing Marsden was morally wrong, and yet she believed that “Marsden would never need that money. There wasn’t anyone for him to leave it to: his wife dead, he was childless and without brothers or sisters” (Deford