MARGE IS THE PERFECT WOMAN TO HAVE MARRIED HOMER SIMPSON

Marge is generally a stereotypical sitcom mother, and she also plays the "long-suffering wife" who puts up with the antics of her children and her oafish husband.^[2] While she usually takes her family's problems with good humor, in "Homer Alone" (season three, 1992), her workload and resultant stress caused her to have a mental breakdown. After spending time at "Rancho Relaxo", during which her family barely coped with her absence, she returned refreshed and everyone promised to help out more often.^[36] Marge often provides a grounding opinion for Homer and their marriage has often been shaky. Marge admits that she "put[s] up with a lot in [their] marriage," and has left Homer or thrown him out of the house on several occasions.^[37][38][39] One of the first such episodes to depict this is "Secrets of a Successful Marriage" (season five, 1994), where Homer starts teaching an adult education class on how to build a successful marriage. He is at first unsuccessful, but gains the interest of the class when he starts giving away family secrets, many of which concern Marge. Upon finding this out, Marge is incensed and throws him out of the house. The next day, Homer is dirty and disheveled, and begs Marge to take him back, saying the one thing he can offer her that nobody else can is "complete and utter dependence." At first, Marge does not see that as a benefit, but eventually admits that he "really [does] make a gal feel needed."^[37] Episodes that depict marital problems have become more frequent in recent seasons of the show. Through it all, Marge has remained faithful to Homer, despite temptations to the contrary such as the one in "Life on the Fast Lane" (season one, 1990), where she resists the charming Frenchman Jacques and instead chooses to remain with Homer.^[7]

Marge is a caring, understanding, and nurturing parent to Bart, but she refers to him as "a handful" and is often embarrassed by his antics.^[40] In "Marge Be Not Proud" (season seven, 1995), she felt she was mothering Bart too much and started acting more distant towards him after he was caught shoplifting. In the beginning of the episode, Bart protested her "over-mothering", but as she started acting more distant towards him, he felt guilty about it and made up with her.^[41] Marge has expressed understanding for her "special little guy" and has defended him on many occasions. She once said "I know Bart can be a handful, but I also know what he's like inside. He's got a spark. It's not a bad thing... Of course, it makes him do bad things."^[40] Marge has a good relationship with Lisa and the two are shown to get along quite well. Marge over-mothers Maggie, which causes her to become too clingy and dependent on Marge. In "Midnight Towboy" (season 19, 2007), Marge hires an expert to help make Maggie more independent. However, Maggie becomes so independent that she rarely needs Marge. Marge begins to miss Maggie, but at the end of the episode, Maggie starts to need her again.^[42] Marge maintains a good relationship with her mother Jacqueline and her sisters Patty and Selma. Patty and Selma disapprove of Homer and are not afraid to be vocal. Marge has tolerated their criticism, but has occasionally lost patience with them, once referring to them as "ghouls."^[43] Marge's father Clancy is rarely referred to in the series and has had speaking parts in only two episodes.^[3] It was revealed in "Fear of Flying" (season six, 1994) that Clancy told Marge that he was a pilot, but in reality he was a flight attendant. Marge discovered this one day and developed aerophobia.^[44] Clancy has not had a speaking appearance since. In "Jazzy and the Pussycats" (season 18, 2006), Homer casually mentions that they once attended his funeral.^[45]

Marge has higher morals than most other characters, once leading a family values crusade against the violent Itchy & Scratchy Show^[46] and being a prominent member of the "Citizens' Committee on Moral Hygiene."^[47] She often provides a voice of reason for the town itself, but many of the townspeople are frustrated or contemptuous of her frequent failure to recognize or react correctly to breaches of social norms.^[48] Marge is the only member of the family who encourages church attendance. In "Homer the Heretic" (season four, 1992), Homer starts skipping church and Marge tells him "don't make me choose between my man and my God, because you just can't win."^[49] In "Lisa the Skeptic" (season nine, 1997), an "angel skeleton" is discovered, much to the skepticism of Lisa. As Lisa rants about the people who believe it is an angel, Marge informs her that she also believes it is an angel. She tells Lisa, "There has to be more life than just what we see, everyone needs something to believe in."^[50] In spite of her morals, Marge struggles with vices such as a gambling addiction.^[48] While Marge has learned to cope with her addiction, it has never completely disappeared and remains an underlying problem that is referenced occasionally on the show.^[51]

Politically, Marge generally aligns with the Democratic Party, having supported the candidacy of her state's progressive governor Mary Bailey,^[52] and voting for Jimmy Carter in both of his presidential elections.^[9]