Elaine Marley

Elaine Marley is one of the primary characters in the Monkey Island series of adventure games developed by LucasArts. She is the granddaughter of Captain Horatio Torquemada Marley, who searched for the legendary treasure of Big Whoop. Elaine is also the governor of the Tri-Island Area.

Background
Elaine has attracted many suitors during her tenure as governess. One of these suitors was the fearsome pirate captain LeChuck, a vicious, arrogant, foul-smelling man with an evil heart. The "short version" of the Elaine-LeChuck history, as related by a pirate in The Secret of Monkey Island, says that Elaine told him to "drop dead", so he did. The longer version states that in an effort to impress her, LeChuck sought to discover the secret of Monkey Island; near the island, a typhoon sank his ship, destroying his crew, save for his first mate Largo LeGrande. In both versions, however, death does not stop LeChuck from attempting to win Elaine's hand in marriage – by force if necessary.

The Secret of Monkey Island
The series' protagonist, a hapless teenaged pirate wannabe named Guybrush Threepwood, first meets Elaine Marley while attempting to rob her. In an attempt to prove himself a pirate, Guybrush is striving to complete three trials. One of these trials is to steal The Idol of Many Hands, a statue displayed in the governor's mansion. Mêlée Island Sheriff Fester Shinetop attempts to arrest Guybrush for the theft, but Elaine intervenes and dismisses the sheriff. During a short conversation, Elaine tells Guybrush that she has heard about him and was immediately intrigued by his name. She says that he doesn't look like a pirate, however; his face is much too "sweet". Awestruck by her beauty, Guybrush is unable to say anything intelligible during this "conversation".

Elaine reappears soon after Guybrush narrowly escapes death at Sheriff Shinetop's hands again. She confesses to being deeply attracted to Guybrush, and they bestow a bizarre series of terms of endearment on each other ("Plunder bunny!"). They can't be seen together in public, though; she has told many pirates that she promised her father she'd never fall in love with a pirate. Elaine promises that as soon as Guybrush finishes his three trials, she will be waiting for him in her mansion. This scene does not happen if Guybrush does this trial last.

Naturally, she is kidnapped by LeChuck and his ghostly crew as soon as Guybrush completes the trials. The well-intentioned Threepwood attempts to rescue her, seemingly interrupting the wedding ceremony just in time. In actuality, he ruins Elaine's plan to spray LeChuck with an antighost potion, although she does consider the rescue attempt "sweet".

Guybrush manages to defeat LeChuck on his own, and the game closes with the happy couple snuggling and watching the "fireworks" as the evil pirate's ghost form explodes.

Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge
Although Elaine's role is much smaller in the second game, the majority of the story is related to her by Guybrush. As the game opens, Guybrush is dangling from a rope in a huge pit. Elaine appears and offers to help, but only if he can explain how he got there. Approximately 90% of the game is actually Guybrush relating to Elaine what has supposedly already happened. The narrative can only be "interrupted" at one point if the player's actions cause Guybrush to die. Elaine, patiently listening to the story, smoothly points out that Guybrush couldn't have died if he's still talking to her, and the player is given another chance to escape the deadly situation.

In the "flashback", Elaine is furious at Guybrush for mercifully vague reasons. She has relocated to her mansion on Booty Island, where she owns a lazy, dim-witted dog she calls Guybrush. When the human Guybrush appears, she initially presumes that he has come to apologize to her; in fact, he's looking for a portion of a treasure map belonging to her great grandfather, Captain. This infuriates her further, and she refuses to speak to him afterwards.

When Guybrush finally brings Elaine up to the current moment, his rope breaks and he falls into the pit. Elaine has only one brief appearance afterwards; during the ending credits, she wonders aloud, with little apparent concern, if Guybrush has fallen under an evil spell.

The Curse of Monkey Island
By the beginning of the next game, Elaine seems to have largely reconciled with her would-be suitor. After she saves his life (again), Guybrush proposes to Elaine using a cursed diamond ring he found in LeChuck's ship. The ring immediately transforms her into a statue of solid gold. She remains in this state, frozen in mid-swing with a sneer of anger on her face, for the majority of the game. When he finally manages to undo the curse, she eventually forgives him and they marry in the game's ending cutscene.

In C.M.I., Elaine and Guybrush interact almost exclusively during non-interactive cutscenes rather than in normal gameplay. This is the game in which her active role is smallest; however, she does appear as a statue in many scenes.

Escape from Monkey Island
In Escape from Monkey Island, Elaine and Guybrush return to Mêlée Island from their lengthy honeymoon to find that she has been declared legally dead. A technicality forces her to run for election once again against an insidious new opponent: Charles L. Charles, who is LeChuck in disguise. Guybrush is left to single-handedly find the components of The Ultimate Insult to defeat LeChuck while Elaine campaigns just in case Guybrush can't unmask him in time. When her long-lost grandfather, Horatio Torquemada Marley, resurfaces, Elaine asks him to take over the position of governor so she and Guybrush can undo the damage Ozzie Mandrill has done to the Caribbean.

Inconsistency
Escape from Monkey Island was infamous among fans for introducing contradictions into the established Monkey Island storyline. While the most apparent is the identity of Herman Toothrot, Elaine's age at the time of the games is also thrown into doubt. In EMI, she mentions that her grandfather Horatio disappeared twenty years earlier, and that she was already governor of Mêlée Island by then (and being pursued romantically by LeChuck). However, Guybrush is only twenty-one years old according to the game, suggesting that there is a substantial age difference between them. This is widely presumed to be an oversight, since Elaine appears to be roughly the same age as Guybrush. There is little to support the idea that Captain Marley disappeared two decades beforehand except the dialogue in EMI.

Note, however, that the Monkey Island games are presented more as humor than as serious fiction. The series contains numerous contradictions, anachronisms and oversights, so the setting is not promising for sticklers for consistency or canonicity.

Trivia

 * Elaine Marley's name is almost certainly a reference to Bob Marley. Much of the series' music is reggae-flavored, another of several homages to the Caribbean area in general.
 * The Secret of Monkey Island featured close-up portraits of several characters' faces while engaging in conversation with Threepwood. The portrait of Elaine is rumored to have been based on Avril Harrison, an artist at LucasFilm Games (the previous name of LucasArts).
 * At the end of the first game, if the player chooses a certain line of dialogue, Elaine replies that Guybrush's comment 'sounds like something [her] husband would say'. This is generally assumed to be simply a funny punchline rather than an actual canonical revelation, drawing humor from the fact that Guybrush fell in love and threw himself into all this rescue adventure without even knowing if Elaine was available! However, this "husband" was never mentioned before and is never mentioned in any of the subsequent games (although Elaine could have been divorced or widowed), so it is merely one of many humorous moments that must be considered non-canonical.
 * Ron Gilbert has commented that the relationship between Guybrush and Elaine, as written in The Secret of Monkey Island and LeChuck's Revenge would not have resulted in marriage since Elaine views Guybrush as more "little brother" than marriage partner. Gilbert was not involved in the production of either The Curse of Monkey Island or Escape from Monkey Island.
 * Elaine's voice is provided by Alexandra Boyd (British) in The Curse of Monkey Island and Charity James (American) in Escape from Monkey Island. (This makes Elaine the only major character who was not voiced by the same actress in the last two games.)
 * In the Phatt Island library in LeChuck's Revenge one can find several romance novels with stereotypical titles by 'Melanie Leary', an anagram of Elaine Marley, indicating that the governor may be writing under a pseudonym after her and Guybrush's breakup. Interestingly enough there is another "romance" in the library under her own name, detailing her disappointing relationship with Guybrush.