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Why don't you pass the time by playing a little solitaire?
~ Mrs. Iselin.
I know you will never entirely comprehend this, Raymond, but you must believe I did not know it would be you. I served them. I fought for them. I'm on the point of winning for them the greatest foothold they would ever have in this country. And they paid me back by taking your soul away from you. I told them to build me an assassin. I wanted a killer from a world filled with killers and they chose you because they thought it would bind me closer to them. But now, we have come almost to the end. One last step. And then when I take power, they will be pulled down and ground into dirt for what they did to you... and what they did in so contemptuously underestimating me.
~ Mrs. Iselin rationalizing what she did to her son

Mrs. Iselin is the main antagonist in the novel and film The Manchurian Candidate and mother to Raymond Shaw.

In the 1962 version, she was portrayed by the late Angela Lansbury, who also played Mommy Fortuna in The Last Unicorn, Ruth in the 1983 film version of The Pirates of Penzance and Mrs. Lovett in the original Broadway production of Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. In the 2004 remake, she was renamed Eleanor Shaw and was played by Meryl Streep, who also portrayed The Witch in Into the Woods, Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada, Susan Orlean in Adaptation, Janie Orlean in Don't Look Up, the Chief Elder in The Giver, and Jessica Lovejoy in the The Simpsons episode "Bart's Girlfriend".

Personality[]

Mrs. Eleanor Iselin is a Communist secret agent plotting to take over the United States government.  She disguises this by creating a very patriotic public image, heading several conservative American organizations. She also marries the ultra-conservative Senator John Iselin, plotting to make him president so she can rule the country behind the scenes.  Her husband takes orders from her, and keeps up their image by spreading false rumors about Communist agents in the government, thus sowing disorder in the country.

She is intensely controlling and holds her son Raymond under her sway for years, though he openly hates her. It is also implied that their relationship is incestuous; while he is in his trance state, after explaining her plan to him, she kisses him passionately on the mouth. In the novel, it is strongly implied that they have sex while Raymond is hypnotized. It is also implied that she is a heroin addict.

In the novel and film[]

When Raymond falls in love with Jocie Jordan, the daughter of a liberal senator who opposes the Iselins, Mrs. Iselin forbeds Raymond to marry her. Eventually Raymond is drawn into her plot to take over America.  During the Korean War, Raymond and his unit are taken prisoners by Chinese agents and brainwashed.  Raymond slips into a hypnotic state when he sees the Queen of Diamonds, who reminds him of his mother.  In this state, he is used as an assassin.

Mrs. Iselin gets her husband nominated as the Republican candidate for Vice President.  She allows Raymond to marry Jocie, in the hopes of winning Senator Jordan's support.  When Jordan tells her he will fight Senator Iselin's nomination, she puts Raymond into his hypnotic state. In a trance, Raymond murders his now father-in-law, and his new wife under his mother's orders.

Mrs. Iselin's plan is to have Raymond assassinate the Presidential nominee during the Republican Convention, at which point her husband will make a prepared speech that will mark him in the media as a hero, and ensure his victory, putting them both in power as President and First Lady.  She confesses to Raymond that she did not mean him to become the assassin, and plans to take revenge on her former Communist masters when she is in power.

Unfortunately, Raymond's army friend Ben Marco manages to discover Mrs. Iselin's hold on him, and breaks it.  Instead of carrying out his orders at the convention, Raymond shoots Senator Iselin, then his mother, before killing himself.

Trivia[]

  • The American Film Institute named Mrs. Iselin, as portrayed by Lansbury, number 21 on its list of the 50 greatest film villains of all time.

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