The Wives

“Everything is just right, the way he likes it, and thus, the way I like it. It’s not that I don’t have a personality; it’s just that everything that I am is reserved for him. As it should be.”

Gender and the concept of the “good wife” are recurrent motifs throughout the novel. In the quote, Thursday claims that everything about her is reserved and dedicated to Seth. She has changed herself completely to meet his desires and fulfill his wishes. This quote establishes Thursday’s obsession with Seth and prepares readers for the later events of the novel.

“This is a woman’s curse. Be direct, but not too direct. Be strong, but not too strong. Ask questions, but not too many.”

Thursday has very strong beliefs about what it means to be a woman and how women should act. Thursday’s idea of womanhood and feminine power are wrapped in the concept of manipulation and deceit, a common motif within the genre of the domestic thriller. These ideas justify her own actions and allow her to fall deeper into her perceived reality.

“I love you all differently but equally.”

Seth, in an attempt to comfort Thursday, reminds her that he loves all of his “wives,” but he loves them differently. Seth plays into Thursday’s perceived reality and encourages what she refers to later as her “delusions.”

“[T]hat’s what love is, isn’t it? Working with what your partner came with. And mine came with two other women.”

Thursday is in a polyamorous relationship—she refers to it as a “polygamist relationship” because of Seth’s parents’ polygamist relationship—despite not being polyamorous herself. Throughout the novel, she attempts to grapple with the idea of how one man can love multiple women. This becomes a major point of contention for her and fuels her anger throughout the novel.

“Once I have information about her I can’t go back; it will be there imprinted in my mind forever.”

In this scene, Thursday makes a decision that changes the course of the novel: She decides to look away from her seemingly perfect reality and allow her jealousy-fueled curiosity to guide her. This foreshadows Thursday’s stalking of Hannah and Regina; she is unable to stop herself from obsessing after discovering that first bit of information about one of Seth’s other “wives.”

“No, I tell myself. You’re seeing things.”

When Thursday sees the bruises on Hannah’s arm, she can’t believe that Seth could be capable of harming his wife. Thursday, in a moment of verbal irony, believes she has to be seeing things because there is no way that Seth could do that. This piece of irony works in two ways. First, Thursday really is seeing things; her post-traumatic psychological state alters her understanding of reality. Second, the bruises she sees are actually real, and they are one of the only things that are not altered by her “delusions,” but she does not allow herself to believe they could be real.

“It feels like cheating and that thrills me.”

This quote is a piece of foreshadowing that illustrates Thursday’s real relationship with Seth. The way that the idea of cheating thrills her allows the reveal that Thursday is actually in an affair with Seth rather than married to him to be more believable and in character.

“I study my face. I look pale and washed out, and my eyes are puffy from last night’s crying. I dig in my bag for a lipstick and quickly mop it across my lips.”

In this novel, womanhood and power are tied to the concept of being “made-up” and presentable. In this quote, Thursday applies her lipstick as a way to regain the feminine power she’s lost.

“I study her eyes. They’re so perfectly blue they look painted, her lashes flicked up with expertly applied mascara. It’s all too perfect, I think. When things are that perfect, something is wrong.”

This quote works both as a piece of foreshadowing and a reference to the idea of perfection that runs through the novel. As foreshadowing, the idea that if something is perfect then something is wrong is a callback to an earlier moment in the novel when Thursday claims her life is “almost perfect.” It warns the reader that not everything is as it seems. As part of the perfection motif, it plays into the concept of what it means to be a woman and how perfection is ultimately weaponized against women.

“Hannah is not who she seems: the perfect house, the perfect face, the perfect outfit…and then those bruises. I wanted to know her, understand her, but every second spent with her makes me more confused.”

Hannah is the first “wife” that Thursday meets, and she is shocked by the way that her idea of Hannah does not fit the actual person. This concept of expectation versus reality is reflected later when she speaks with Lauren and meets Regina. This also foreshadows that Thursday may not be a reliable narrator and that things may not be as they seem.

“It’s strange how perception is altered by bitterness.”

Throughout the novel, Thursday makes small comments about perception and how easily it changes based on one’s emotional state. It is a moment of verbal irony where both the reader and the character do not understand the weight of those words until the big reveal later on in the story; it serves to foreshadow how Thursday’s own perception of reality has been altered by her own emotions.

“Our existence together is a shallow one. If not for children, what is there? Sex? Companionship? Is there anything more important than bringing life into the world?”

In this novel, pregnancy and children represent the height of feminine power; it is how women are able to gain control over men and prestige over other women. Thursday contemplates the validity of her relationship with Seth now that she is no longer able to have children. She feels insecure and worries that Seth is going to leave her now that she doesn’t have any power over him beyond sex.

“I am a sexual creature—he controls me with sex, and I control him with sex. It’s a merry-go-round of pleasure and servitude that I’ve always enjoyed. […] My mother once told me that a relationship could withstand almost any trial if the sex was good…now I see that’s exactly what has happened with Seth and me.”

Sex is tied to femininity and power; it is how Thursday keeps Seth interested in her, but it is also how Seth keeps Thursday from looking beyond her perceived reality.

“I’m all too familiar with that feeling, aren’t I? Not knowing if I should leave, trying to make things better—never quite being able to.”

In a moment of clarity starkly juxtaposed against the obsessive tone of the rest of Thursday’s thoughts, she contemplates her own inability to leave Seth despite knowing she should. Later on, once it is revealed that Thursday is not Seth’s wife but his mistress, this moment of introspection gains another meaning. It is as though Thursday is subconsciously aware of reality despite living within her own version of it.

“I stack myself against what I know about them, I measure our flaws, sieve through them.”

As Thursday becomes more obsessive, she begins to compare herself to what Seth’s other “wives” have to offer. She measures her own self-worth against her perception of them; when it doesn’t match and she finds herself at a deficit, it fuels her jealousy and encourages her perceived reality to become more dangerous.

“I must be mad, truly, going to dinner and a movie with my husband’s other wife. Some might call me a stalker, some might say I was off my rocker—but what did it matter? Love certainly makes people crazy, I think.”

Thursday is aware of the severity of her actions but leans into the idea that her actions are justified because they are done out of love. This is another moment of foreshadowing and irony that gains its context as the story unfolds; Thursday’s “delusions” were originally triggered by her fear of losing Seth after her miscarriage. In this context, it is her love for Seth that triggered her into creating an altered reality for herself.

“I feel my anger build as I watch him—the man I’d always thought to be so beautiful, a chiseled god. He looks a little melted, if I’m being honest—a discarded idol low on luster.”

As Thursday slowly faces the reality of her situation, she begins to slowly become disillusioned with the idea of Seth she’d constructed in her head. Her perception of Seth, one in which he’d been elevated to that of a deity, is crumbling as she comes to terms with who her “husband” might really be. This is the first time Thursday sees Seth as anything less than the perfect man; she sees him as human.

“My father would never come to a place like this. To see one of his daughters locked in a psych ward would mean that he had done something wrong as a parent, and my father likes to maintain the illusion of perfection.”

Thursday has inherited her idea of perfection and the desire for perfection from her family. However, she has become disillusioned with the idea of perfection as something attainable, as she grew up seeing these standards unfulfilled and how they cause problems. Despite her awareness of the impossibility of perfection, Thursday still strives for it and views others as being perfect; it is this cognitive dissonance that fuels Thursday’s jealousy and ultimately forms her perceived reality.

“[N]ow I see the truth: women are stuck in a cycle of insecurity perpetuated by the way men treat them, and we are constantly fighting to prove to ourselves and everyone else that we are okay. Sure, women occasionally lose their minds over men, but does that mean we’re all unstable […] [I]t takes a village to put someone in a mental institution.”

Thursday contemplates the role of women within heteronormative society. The phrase “it takes a village” is an allusion to the saying “It takes a village to raise a child.” The saying subverts expectations; if the village can’t raise a child, it can put someone in a mental institution. Metaphorically, the reference tells the reader that Thursday believes pregnancy is how a woman avoids being called “crazy.”

“Waiting…waiting…that’s what women do. We wait for him to get home, we wait for him to pay attention to us, wait to be treated fairly—or for our worth to be seen and acknowledged. Life is just a waiting game for women. I’m still playing the docile game and I’ll play it all the way off the property until I’m free.”

Thursday discusses the role of women in relationships. To her, women are subservient and wait for their partner. As Thursday realizes the situation she is in, she understands how unsatisfied she is, and she decides to use one of the powers she believes women have: manipulation.

“Something feels wrong, but I don’t know what. I dry my eyes for the final time and swipe lip gloss over my lips, a poor attempt to look like a woman not falling apart.”

Lip gloss and lipstick are used by Thursday as a way to reclaim her status as a woman. However, she slowly becomes disillusioned with the concept and is no longer able to feel comforted or empowered by the facade of makeup. The application of makeup can be seen as an allegory representing Thursday’s retreating into her perceived reality in the face of something that does not fit within it.

“It all started when I lost my baby. My life began to unravel, string by string. I may have been too consumed with grief to see the signs then, but I see them all now.”

This quote can be looked at in two different ways. First, it is Thursday attempting to understand how she ended up in this position. Second, it is a moment of introspection, in which Thursday breaks away from her denial and understands how she began to slip into her perceived reality.

“A woman’s greatest foe is sometimes her hope that she’s imagined it all. That she herself is crazy rather than the circumstances of her life. Funny the emotional responsibility a woman is willing to take on just to maintain an illusion.”

In perhaps the novel’s greatest moment of irony, Thursday contemplates the extent to which women would go to maintain their “perfect” lives. The quote subverts expectations, saying that women choose to believe they’re “crazy” rather than doubt the circumstances in which they’ve found themselves. Taking responsibility for their emotional difficulties is, paradoxically, a way to maintain the illusion of control.