60 pages • 2 hours read
Ashley WinsteadThe Last Housewife
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Shay Evans (Deroy)
Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses death by suicide, sexual violence, trauma, self-harm, misogyny, gender essentialism, and cult activity.
Shay Evans, whose name is Shay Deroy for most of the novel, is the protagonist of the work. Shay is a writer who formerly worked for a publication called The Slice, writing what she regarded as low-level feminist journalism. The novel tracks Shay’s life, revealing portions of her childhood and early adulthood through interviews with Jamie Knight. Shay’s childhood experiences shaped her sense of herself as a sexual being, with Shay expressing an understanding of herself as a spectacle to men. Participating in pageants, Shay realized her desire for male attention, conflating the ways in which men objectify her with a kind of love. Being sexually assaulted by a popular classmate, Anderson Thomas, led her to reframe her perception of men’s behaviors, reevaluating her mother’s abuse at Mr. Trevors’s hands, and resulting in her decision to commit arson and attend Whitney College. At Whitney, Shay tried to protect Laurel, and, later, Clem, but she was unable to help them as she struggled with her own conflicting feelings for Don.
After leaving Don, Shay settles into a marriage with Cal, which she acknowledges resembles her relationship with Don in some ways, as Cal has the money and influence to protect her. Dissatisfaction with her suburban life combined with Laurel’s supposed death push Shay to return to Whitney, reunite with her childhood friend Jamie, and investigate Laurel’s death while reflecting on her own development.
As Shay navigates memories of her past, she consistently questions her own motivations and influences, noting how men’s attention, violence, and power affect her own choices. Her decision to kill Don at the end of the novel represents a strike against the patriarchy on behalf of all the women who have been hurt by it. Shay is overcoming the traumas of her life to remodel herself, a “sooty phoenix,” as a strong and independent woman.
Jamie Knight
Jamie is Shay’s childhood friend and the host of the true crime podcast Transgressions. Jamie’s childhood was normative and suburban, which Shay uses to portray Jamie as a nondescript man. However, Jamie pursued journalism in college, and he displays skills associated with advocacy and compassion, such as speaking in kinder tones to people in distress and asking people, especially Shay, to share their story before passing any kind of judgment on them. Jamie’s profession is only relevant in so far as he assists Shay in uncovering her own history through interviews, and the podcast is what ultimately alerts the authorities to the Pater Society. In the end, Jamie is present when Shay kills Don, and he tries to convince her to drop her axe. Throughout the novel, as in the ending scene, Jamie seems to have a limited understanding of how Shay sees the world, as well as of how men operate in society.
Jamie acts as confidante and assistant to Shay, as well as love interest, though the romantic aspect of their relationship is not fully explored in the novel. Jamie’s purpose in his role is to help Shay discover herself, as well as to show how men are often blind to the problems of a patriarchal society. Jamie sees that Anderson Thomas is a “bad” man, but he fails to understand why Shay would kill Don in the moment, and he often places blame on women, including Shay, for operating within their gender roles. In this sense, Jamie takes the place of men who may identify with some core tenets of feminism but who ultimately do not understand the challenges facing women. Jamie sees that gender roles are damaging, but he does not understand the weight and power of ideological indoctrination, because, as a man, he does not need to adhere to the kind of rigid structuring that women do.
Laurel Hargrove
Laurel Hargrove is one of Shay’s best friends from Whitney College, and she forms a kind of foil to Shay’s character. Laurel’s father died when she was 15 years old, forcing Laurel to become a caretaker for her mother during her late teen years. At Whitney College, Laurel was sexually assaulted by a man named Andrew, and Shay comforted her after the fact, encouraging her to go the police. Laurel never fully recovers from the assault, though, and her desire for protection from other men leads her to idolize Don. Her meek nature seems to align with traditional femininity, and she resents the way feminists like Shay and Clem pressure her to change herself. After college, Laurel reunites with Don at the Tongue-Cut Sparrow and begins the Pater Society with him.
Laurel is the opposite of Shay in many respects. Where Shay is assertive and outspoken, Laurel is quiet and reserved. Laurel’s past experience of losing her father and being sexually assaulted aligns her with Shay, but her response to this trauma leads her in the opposite direction. Shay’s response to male violence is indignation and anger, which leads her to kill Don, but Laurel’s response is a breakdown in self-esteem and self-efficacy, which leads her to latch on to Don. In the end, Laurel kills herself, motivated by Don’s urging, her own feelings of guilt and shame, and the fear that people outside the Pater Society will not understand her perspective. While Shay achieves redemption in the novel, Laurel is unable to overcome her trauma because of Don’s influence.
Don Rockwell
Don Rockwell, whose real name is Kurt Johnson and who also goes by Nico Stagiritis, is the founder of the Pater Society. His activities prior to bringing Shay, Laurel, and Clem into his home are unknown. He has a daughter, Rachel, but it is revealed later in the novel that they are not biologically related, making it unclear how and when Rachel and Don met. Don is the embodiment of patriarchal values—rich, charming, strong, and handsome. He is also a sadist and violent sex offender who desires to dominate and subdue women. The sources of his wealth are unknown, but he owns at least two large properties over the course of the novel, and he manages to build connections with politicians, educators, police, and financiers to create the Pater Society.
Don is a foil to Jamie in the sense that, rather than questioning the harmful gender expectations of society, Don has devoted himself to re-creating what he views as the golden age of masculinity in Greece and Rome. Where Jamie listens to Shay and tries to support her endeavors, Don preaches that women should have no “ego” of their own, instead living as an extension of a man. Women in Don’s home must wear what he tells them, do as he instructs, and risk violent and painful, sometimes public, punishment if they cross him. However, Don also offers a life without responsibility: He takes Laurel into his fold by offering her protection and freedom from navigating life on her own. Don’s character speaks to the danger and seductiveness of the patriarchy.
