In “A Perfect Day for Bananafish” Muriel is seen by some as selfish and conceited, however she should be seen as a woman of pure ignorance which prohibited her from seeing the struggles Seymour faced. Her lifestyle is very glamourous and slow paced. In the beginning of the story we see Muriel waiting by the phone for her mother and wasting her time by painting her finger nails, tweezing hairs, taking a spot out of her skirt, and cleaning a brush (Salinger 1). Later Sybil asks Seymour where Muriel is in which Seymour replies, “That’s hard to say, Sybil. She may be in any one of a thousand places. At the hairdresser’s. Having her hair dyed mink. Or making dolls for poor children, in her room” (Salinger 6). It seems that anything Muriel is doing is slightly petty and apart of fixing her appearance. But, maybe she doesn’t know how to live life otherwise. We can assume that Muriel has had an easy life filled with happiness and getting joy from little things such as people’s clothing. When she is talking to her mom we can see how well off they are in the fact that her mother offers to send her on a cruise just so she can be by herself for a little while. I believe that the fact that she’s never seen unhappiness blinds her from being able to actually understand and see what Seymour is going through. This isn’t selfishness it is in fact ignorance and denial. She’s never gone through her own struggles. People like this often believe that nothing bad could ever happen to themselves or those they love around them. This is where denial comes in. Muriel is so ignorant to the fact that bad things do happen that she clouds herself in denial to keep her perfect world spinning without trouble as it usually does. 

Muriel is living and consumed by denial that she fails to be able to realize that Seymour really is struggling. “Denial is the refusal to accept reality or fact, acting as if a painful event, thought, or feeling did not exist” (Grohol 1). It can generally strive from someone trying to cover up a flaw in a relationship, financial instability, or personal issues (Grohol 1). Muriel’s denial comes straight from the flaw in her own relationship with Seymour. We see this in the text when Muriel’s mother is trying to tell her that something is wrong with Seymour. Her mother brings up the fact that his driving is unsteady, he calls Muriel crude names, and the fact that the psychiatrist Muriel met sees something wrong. However, Muriel skirts around the subject saying that Seymour drove nicely with the cars, how the names Seymour calls her are funny, and she didn’t care much about the psychiatrist except to have drinks with him (Salinger 1-2). Muriel barely acknowledges the fact that anything is wrong and instead makes up excuses or reasons as to why Seymour is okay. “Many people use denial in their everyday lives to avoid dealing with painful feelings or areas of their life they don’t wish to admit” (Grohol 1). Muriel doesn’t want the pain of seeing Seymour suffer so her subconscious mind makes it where she will never have to see it. Her mind has made her believe everything is okay as a defense mechanism against being hurt.

Some still may say however that she is spoilt and honestly only cares about herself. Her self-absorbedness makes it impossible for her to see Seymour. Narcissism and self-absorbance are very different than denial. If Muriel was narcissistic she would see Seymour’s issues but then wonder what she had done to marry someone with so many problems (Namka 1). You can tell that’s not the case with Muriel. She doesn’t dread being around Seymour, but instead makes excuses for his behavior so others will like him. We see this when Muriel states, “He did, And don’t get excited. He drove very nicely. I was amazed.” And then, “All right, all right. He calls me Miss Spiritual Tramp of 1948,” the girl said, and giggled” (Salinger 1-2). She said all of this in hopes that her mother would like Seymour. If Muriel was a narcissist and only thought about herself she would loathe the things that Seymour called her, she would agree with her mother about how terrible he is and how she deserves better, and she most definitely would’ve taken her mother up on the offer of a free cruise. No self-absorbed person would give up an opportunity of a luxurious vacation by themselves to instead choose to spend time with someone who verbally abuses them. Yes, Muriel does spend a lot of time by herself on the vacation than with Seymour. However, people in denial try to avoid the problem. Her problem that her subconscious is suppressing is Seymour. Therefore Seymour is unconsciously being avoided by her.

In conclusion I believe Muriel should be given some credit as to not appear as a villain in the story but for others to see her struggles that are overshadowed by Seymour’s. Muriel is often seen as stuck up, but in this case her mind honestly can’t help what it is doing. Her denial was soon shattered at the end of the story, but we never get to see her response to Seymour’s suicide. Once her denial is broken we can only assume by evidence that she would be heart broken and confused. She would soon realize that the walls she put up to protect herself ended up killing the one she cared about because she couldn’t come to terms with Seymour’s situation quickly enough. It was a tragic story for everyone, not just Seymour.
