Marie St. Jacques

Character Analysis

Marie St. Jacques is a high-powered economist with the Canadian government. She's beautiful, competent, and unlike Jason Bourne, she doesn't have amnesia, so she actually knows who she is. "I respect observable data and I can spot inaccuracies," she says (9.66). So there you go: she knows what's in her head, and what's in her head is observable, solid data. Bourne may be everyman and nobody, but Marie is one very definite woman.

The St. Jacques Identity

Or so you're supposed to believe.

Yes, Marie has a history (she grew up on a farm in Canada), and she's a financial wizard who helps Bourne get through many of his adventures. Partly because of those things, though, it's hard to make sense of her choices. She's a strong, assertive, intelligent, practical, independent woman—and she falls head over heels in love with the guy who kidnaps her, hits her, and not only threatens her life but—as we know from Bourne's internal monologue (6.115)—is actually willing to kill her?

Yes, Bourne does rescue her when Carlos's goon is raping her, but the only reason she's in danger from Carlos's goons in the first place is because Borne put her right square in Carlos's sights to begin with. If she's as smart as she's supposed to be, she can surely figure that out.

Part of the problem, maybe, is that we don't ever really get to see Marie doing or thinking about anything except Bourne. The novel even says that they talk about "him more than them, for he was the irrational reason for their being together" (10.44). He's desperately trying to find his past, and he's still trying to kill Carlos, even though he's forgotten his mission and everything about his life.

Marie, on the other hand, seems ready to chuck her high-powered job, her patriotism, and her past, all for this guy she barely knows. She doesn't even really seem put off when he tells her he used to be an assassin. She just shrugs and is like, oh well, you're a good person now; I can tell because you rescued me after kidnapping me first. "I'm no wild-eyed flower child; I've seen my share of the world," she assures us (23.54). But it's hard to square that assurance with what she actually does.

It's also possible that Marie stands in for the element of irrationality and chance in the novel. If her love is real, then yeah, there's nothing rational about it. There's also nothing rational about Bourne's entire situation—and yet he wins out in the end. Maybe Marie has seen enough of the world to be able to understand that rationality is right 9 times out of 10, but there's still that irrational 1 time out of 10 that puts things in a different perspective.

We certainly wouldn't take the chances Marie does, but hey, as far as the novel goes, she's right. You'll have to decide what you think of her and her choices.

The Movie Was Better?

Marie's character is almost completely changed in the 2002 film version. There, she's not a high-powered economist; she's a young German woman in financial difficulties. Bourne doesn't kidnap her; he pays her for the use of her car. And though she quite likes him (hey, he looks like Matt Damon!), when she finds out he's an assassin, she freaks out.

The fact that she's less competent and less certain actually makes her seem more independent and just generally more believable. She has less to lose, and Bourne is also less of a risk—definitely less of a jerk—but she's still more hesitant in the film than in the book. Seriously, folks, this is one freaking scary guy, and even if he saved your life, you'd probably have at least a few doubts about him. Are we right?

In the book, though, Marie has hardly any doubts, which can make it hard to swallow when the narrative insists that she's totally smarter than you are. Her love for Bourne defines her, which means that if you're not convinced by that love, she ends up being fuzzy around the edges—as much as cipher, in her own way, as Bourne himself. Which version of the character—from the movie or from the book—do you think you would find more convincing?