The Wives

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019

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Summary

Background

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-6

Chapters 7-12

Chapters 13-18

Chapters 19-24

Chapters 25-30

Chapters 31-36

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

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Discussion Questions

Chapters 19-24Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapter 19 Summary

When Seth arrives, Dr. Steinbridge asks him to clear up the confusion around his relationship with Thursday and his other wives. Seth tells the doctor that it isn’t true and that he divorced Regina three years ago. Seth says that he left Regina for Thursday, and when Thursday says that he is lying, he tells her that he is only married to one woman.

The doctor tells Seth that Thursday believes he has two other wives, and Seth becomes flustered, explaining that it is a game the two of them play, a joke between the two of them about the time Seth spent away from her. He says he didn’t know she took it that far. The doctor explains that Thursday has a history of “delusions.” Unwilling to listen to what the doctor is saying, Thursday yells for everyone to leave the room. She tries to calm down and takes a short nap.

Seth comes back with her favorite takeout, and she asks why he didn’t tell the truth. He explains that the truth is that Thursday is very sick and that she needs help. He continues, telling her that after their baby died, she changed, and even though she doesn’t want to talk about it, she needs to. Distressed, Thursday throws the takeout onto the floor, but Seth continues saying that it wasn’t her fault that the baby died. The only way for things to get better is for her to stop lying to herself. Thursday realizes that she is screaming, as several nurses frantically enter the room. They hold Thursday down and sedate her.

Chapter 20 Summary

When Thursday wakes up, she immediately worries about Hannah. A nurse enters the room and informs Thursday that they will be moving her into the psych ward. Before her nurse can leave, Thursday asks him if she can make a call to her husband; he tells her that there isn’t a husband listed on her chart and leaves.

When the doctor comes, he explains to Thursday that she is experiencing extreme “delusions” and violent outbursts, so she needs to be treated in the psych ward. As he leaves, she reminds herself that she isn’t “crazy” and to remember that even when she feels like she is.

The next week, Thursday’s mother comes to visit her. When her mother walks over to her, she attempts to explain why Thursday’s father didn’t come, but Thursday knows her father won’t come to visit her in a psych ward because it would mean admitting he wasn’t a perfect parent. She tells her mother that she isn’t “crazy” and tries to explain the truth about her relationship with Seth. Thursday’s mother looks at her sadly, not believing what Thursday tells her. Her mother leaves disappointed, but Thursday is glad that she came by.

Chapter 21 Summary

Thursday decides to convince Dr. Steinbridge that she has “come to her senses” and that she is no longer “delusional.” She gradually pretends to come to terms with the situation, agreeing that Seth only has one wife. The doctor tells her that she did not deal with the trauma from losing her child and the stress on her relationship with Seth in a healthy way, so her brain created a different version of reality.

They discuss Thursday’s parents and how her upbringing led to the way that she chooses to express love and manage her expectations of it. She thinks about her inability to have children, remembering the events that led to her miscarriage. Thursday and Seth had been on a road trip. Seth had given her tea from his mother and some of her favorite snacks. While on the road, Thursday began to feel sick, and she noticed blood pooling on the seat under her. In the hospital, after losing the baby, Thursday attempted suicide.

Dr. Steinbridge explains that it was Thursday’s unresolved grief that led to the creation of her “delusion” about Seth and his three wives. Thursday feels pathetic but continues to pretend to believe the doctor so that she can be discharged from the psych ward. Later, a nurse comes to get Thursday because she has a visitor: Thursday is surprised to see Lauren sitting in the waiting room.

Lauren called Thursday’s mother to check on her, and her mother told Lauren that Thursday was in the psych ward. Lauren asks Thursday why she is there, and Thursday tries to explain that she confronted Seth about his wives, and now he is saying that she is making everything up. Lauren is horrified and asks Thursday if there is anything she can do to help. Thursday asks her to try to get into contact with Hannah and gives her the information to both Hannah’s and Regina’s social media accounts. Lauren agrees to help her before leaving.

Chapter 22 Summary

Lauren returns two days later and tells Thursday that Hannah Ovark does not exist anywhere online. Thursday asks if Lauren found the photo of both Hannah and Regina on Regina’s dating profile. Lauren pulls a printed version of the photo from her purse and shows Thursday. In the photo, Thursday recognizes Regina, but she is now with a woman with dark hair instead of Hannah.

Lauren asks if the woman in the picture is Hannah, and Thursday tells her that she is not. Thursday reminds herself that she is not “crazy” and asks Lauren if she believes her. Lauren tells her that the house Thursday had her look up—Hannah’s house—is registered under Thursday’s name. Thursday, unable to process this new information, thanks Lauren for looking into it before quickly walking away.

Back in her room, Thursday converses with her roommate, Susan, a young woman who was admitted for having a mental breakdown after discovering her husband was having an affair; Susan had begun to pull all of her hair out. Thursday asks if Susan has been to a psych ward before, and after the woman answers that she has, she asks how she convinced the doctors to discharge her. Susan tells Thursday that she convinced the doctors to believe she’d stopped being suicidal by saying the right things. Thursday tells Susan that her husband isn’t deserving of her and thinks about how Seth doesn’t deserve Thursday either.

Chapter 23 Summary

As Dr. Steinbridge hands Thursday her discharge paperwork, he tells her that Seth called every day to check on her progress. As she approaches Seth, she decides to pretend to be docile and wait for her chance to run. She notices how he looks different than normal, and she contemplates whether Seth looks different for each of his wives. She hugs him and they walk to the car together.

As he enters the car, Seth apologizes to Thursday for not visiting, explaining that he blames himself for what happened to her. She listens to him, thinking that she needs to wait to act until she has evidence against him. Thursday quietly says that she understands; Seth seems pleased by that response. They decide to head home.

Seth tells Thursday that he is going to stay with her for a while. Thursday asks about work, and Seth responds by saying that Thursday is more important than work. Seth takes her hands, and Thursday notices that they feel different and awkward in hers. He apologizes to her again and says that he wants to fix their relationship. Seth returns to the living room, and Thursday realizes that things are returning to normal between them. Thursday sits down on the floor and decides she needs to leave.

Chapter 24 Summary

Four days later, Thursday’s mother stops by to bring them soup and asks if her father had explained why she wasn’t there when he picked Thursday up from the psych ward. Confused, Thursday says that her father doesn’t speak to her. Thursday’s mother looks at her oddly, and she comments that her father is trying.

When her mother visits next, she brings Thursday’s father with her; Thursday asks what he is doing there. Thursday’s mother tells her she is being ungrateful. Thursday asks if Seth asked them to come, and her parents tell her she needs to put all of the “Seth business” behind her. Thursday tells her parents that she is very tired, and they quickly leave.

Thursday decides to leave the condo. As she is looking for her phone, Seth enters the bedroom and asks what she is doing. Thursday tells him she is looking for a rash cream because her skin is itchy. Thursday tries to tell Seth that her parents had visited, but he interrupts her by saying that her mother will be back tomorrow, and that, until she is better, someone will be at the condo staying with her. Thursday frantically thinks about needing to leave.

Seth gives Thursday her phone back on her fifth day home. Thursday realizes all of her texts and voicemails have been deleted along with Hannah’s phone number. Seth denies deleting anything off of her phone. The next night, Thursday crushes one of her sleeping pills into the food she makes for Seth and waits for him to fall asleep on the couch.

Thursday springs into action, grabbing Seth’s phone and looking through his contacts. Thursday is shocked to find no mention of Hannah or Regina in Seth’s phone. She looks through his texts and only finds some from her sister and mother, checking to see how she is doing. Thursday finds the spare key she keeps in her drawer and takes the five hundred dollars Seth keeps in the bread box. Thursday leaves her condo and hurries to the elevator. She wonders what Seth is going to do next and realizes he can track her location on her phone. As Thursday steps out of the elevator, she drops her phone and runs to her car.

Chapters 19-24 Analysis

This section charts Thursday’s desperate attempts to maintain her illusion of reality now that her real situation has come to light. In the hospital, Dr. Steinbridge attempts to explain the extent of her post-traumatic state: “‘Thursday, you have a history of delusion…Sometimes when a trauma…’ His voice continues, but I block it all out. I don’t want to hear it” (176). This moment is significant because it illustrates the extent to which Thursday will go to maintain her perceived reality. Given Thursday’s ability to “block out” things that challenge her perception of reality, many of Thursday’s other interactions are called into question. For example, her voice mail from Hannah, in which she can’t quite make out what she’s saying, takes on other potential meanings. It is in this scene with Dr. Steinbridge that the novel establishes Thursday as an unreliable narrator, and this sets up the plot twists the next section reveals.

Thursday’s relationship with her father comes to the fore in this section. Thursday’s beliefs about her father echo her own obsessions with perfection: “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” (186). This comment illustrates how deep the desire to maintain appearances runs within her family. Through her efforts to find the truth about Hannah and Regina, Thursday has begun to realize that the concept of perfection is truly an illusion, and she struggles to understand what that means in terms of her relationship to Seth. 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’s grown 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 drives her need to live in a constructed reality.

Thursday becomes a mouthpiece for the novel’s social critique as the reality of her situation dawns on her: “Now 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” (191). The inability for women to be open about their flaws leads to women becoming increasingly insecure and causes them to place the needs and desires of the men they’re trying to appease over their own. This idea is the assumption behind the theory of the “feminine mystique,” a term coined by American author Betty Friedan in 1963. In The Feminine Mystique, Friedan writes about women’s dissatisfaction with performing the roles of housewife and mother that American society prescribed for them, calling their pain “the problem that has no name.” Though Fisher’s novel takes place in the 21st century, Thursday struggles with the same ideas of perfection, domesticity, and motherhood established centuries earlier.

In addition to voicing feminist themes, Thursday explicates the novel’s idea that mental illness is a social rather than an individual problem: “The way people perceive you is the really mentally thwarting thing in life. If everyone is against you, you start to question things about yourself” (204). She is alluding to gaslighting, a tactic of psychological manipulation in which someone convinces an individual that their perception of reality is wrong. Gaslighting is often used by abusers in domestic relationships as a form of controlling the other person. Allegorically, Thursday’s statement can be interpreted as representing the way that women have been made to doubt themselves so severely by the constant judgment of men. In this sense, society gaslights women into believing they are never enough and must achieve an unreachable standard of perfection to have self-worth. Thursday is an extreme example of this perspective. While the novel does not excuse her violence or obsessive behavior, it points out that Thursday’s distorted perspective did not form in a vacuum.