Marcie - Personality

Personality

Marcie is close friends with Peppermint Patty, constantly addressing her as "sir" (she called her "sir" in her first line in the strip). Originally, Peppermint Patty kept telling Marcie to quit, but eventually grew accustomed to the name. Initially, Peppermint Patty addressed Marcie as "dorky" and, when talking to others, "my weird friend from camp".

Marcie is essentially the complete opposite of Peppermint Patty; where Peppermint Patty is more comfortable playing sports, the well-read Marcie prefers a quieter, more studious existence. Although Marcie repeatedly professes her dislike of sports, particularly baseball, she will occasionally take part in whatever sport Peppermint Patty is involved in at the time, though more often than not Marcie, upon showing her lack of athletic prowess and lack of knowledge of the game, usually only succeeds in frustrating Peppermint Patty.

Like Peppermint Patty, Marcie also has an unrequited crush on Charlie Brown (whom she usually calls "Charles", or occasionally "Chuck", like Peppermint Patty does); she once confessed a fondness for Charlie Brown and would be willing to marry him if he asked her. While Peppermint Patty is more likely to flirt with Charlie Brown and play mind games with him, Marcie is more frank in her admissions of her feelings, and often asks Charlie Brown in plain language if he likes her. As he does with Peppermint Patty, Charlie Brown often responds to Marcie's inquiries by trying to evade the issue, though it seems as if Charlie has feelings for her, which more than once has made Marcie so angry that she kicked him in the shins in frustration. She has on more than one occasion kissed Charlie Brown on the cheek. The first time was in the 1973 special There's No Time for Love, Charlie Brown, but she only did it so Charlie Brown could pretend that it was a goodnight kiss from Peppermint Patty. She also kissed him in the specials Happy New Year, Charlie Brown! (1986) and He's A Bully, Charlie Brown (2006), and in "The Wright Brother's" episode of This Is America, Charlie Brown. She also kissed him in the strip in the "Lost Ballfield" story arc in 1982.

Marcie and Peppermint Patty also shared a crush on a boy named Pierre in the animated movie Bon Voyage, Charlie Brown (And Don't Come Back!!). Although Marcie was the one in whom Pierre seemed to express interest, Peppermint Patty misread the signs and seemed convinced that Pierre liked her instead.

Though Marcie is usually slow to anger, she can occasionally lose her temper when provoked. Case in point, in a sequence from July-August 1973, when she reluctantly joins Peppermint Patty's baseball team, she becomes the target of a male teammate named Thibault (pronounced TEE-bo), who constantly follows Marcie around tormenting her with chauvinistic insults until she ultimately slaps him senseless. Ironically, Thibault completely ignored the fact that Peppermint Patty was also a girl.

Another example from the Spring of 1974 was when Peppermint Patty, in protest, refused to go to school, holding vigil on top of Snoopy's doghouse (which Patty still referred to as Chuck's guest cottage). Eventually Marcie's anger again got the better of her and, while pulling Peppermint Patty down, destroyed the doghouse. In so doing, Marcie also made Peppermint Patty face the reality that Snoopy was a beagle, and not the "funny-looking kid with the big nose" that Peppermint Patty often referred to him as.