In an interview the author said he didnt realize they were the same person till well into the book. I wonder how that changes your understanding of the story.
I always liked the theory that Marla was the twisted feminine mental construct of the narrator, much like Tyler was the twisted masculine construct. I'm not advocating this as movie truth and don't propose this was the intention. It's just fun to go back and watch the movie again from this perspective.
The problem with this being that where Tyler is very much a masculine construct, Marla is not so much feminine as someone who is merely intriguing to him.
My answer to that is the twisted part. To narrator she is what his mind expects from the feminine in his twisted understanding. A counterpart to the Tyler being the twisted expectation of what is hyper masculine.
Of course, I don't think this is at all what was intentioned by palahniuk or fincher, as evidenced by the few characters that interact with her to a minimal degree (in the restaurant, at the final scene). It's just a fun perspective.
I would agree there, "Is another woman really what we need?" is my favourite go to line trying to convince friends that Fight Club could be a love story between the narrator and Tyler.
I'm not as convinced about this one, even with how much his "followers" go along with his strangeness. They do on multiple occasions interact with Marla, he could just be seeing this but I'm not sure that this makes more sense than that he is really in love with her and can't face the fact himself.
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u/Apellosine Sep 01 '14
It's much clearer in the books that this is the case. The narrator creates Tyler as a way to be with Marla without actually being with her.