Meaning & Analysis
To either create something successfully or to ruin it completely; to bring about either total success or total failure.
Insights
Decisive Action and Finality
The phrase represents a critical, decisive moment where the outcome is absolute and binary. It suggests a situation with no middle ground, where an action will lead to either complete success or utter ruin.
High-Stakes Risk
It metaphorically describes a high-risk venture or a gamble where the stakes are ultimate. The potential for great reward is directly balanced by the possibility of catastrophic loss, embodying an 'all or nothing' scenario.
Determining Fate
The proverb can refer to the ultimate determination of one's fate or fortune. A single event, choice, or influence has the power to define a person's entire life, career, or reputation for better or worse.
Literary and Dramatic Power
Common in Early Modern English, the phrase reflects a worldview emphasizing decisive, high-stakes actions. Its use by authors like Shakespeare in pivotal dramatic moments, such as in 'Othello' ('It makes us, or it mars us'), underscores its power to convey ultimate, irreversible consequences.
Psychology of High-Stakes Decisions
The proverb captures the psychological tension of a critical juncture, forcing a binary perspective of total success or total failure. It highlights the human tendency to frame high-stakes situations in absolute, all-or-nothing terms, ignoring nuance.
Pivotal Moments
This phrase encapsulates the concept of a 'point of no return' or a crucial, singular action upon which everything depends. It speaks to moments of profound risk where the outcome will irrevocably determine the future.
Rhetorical Devices
Antithesis
The core of the proverb is the direct contrast between 'make' (to create) and 'mar' (to destroy), creating a powerful and memorable expression of binary outcomes.
Alliteration
The repetition of the initial 'm' sound in 'make' and 'mar' creates a phonetic link between the two opposing concepts, enhancing the phrase's rhythm and memorability.
Conciseness
The extreme brevity of the phrase, consisting of just two opposing verbs, gives it a forceful, impactful quality that makes it a potent and versatile expression.
Transcription
Quotations
Longyng to here whether made or mard My message shall return by my seruannt.
Declaring that he was utterly myrded to put al in hasarde to make or marre.
He forgyd lawes for bribes, and made, and marrd, and altryd all.
Make or mar I wyll, so saist thou euer: But thou doost euer marre, thou makst neuer.
He that maketh not, marreth not, who marreth, amendeth.
He is in the making and marring.
He's upon making or marring.
I am made or marr'd.
Be made or marr'd.
Shakespeare Citations
Nay, it makes nothing, sir. —If it mar nothing neither.
I am not taught to make anything. —What mar you then, sir?
It makes us, or it mars us.
Related Proverbs
Original Scan
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