66 pages • 2 hours read
Liane MoriartyThe Husband's Secret
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2013A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Complex Nature of Motherhood
Motherhood and the act of mothering hold a prime position in this novel. Moriarty often works with themes of women’s relationships, and the one between a mother and child holds prime significance. Many women are confronted with making choices between their own desires and the needs of their children. The maternal instinct is shown as a complicated one—natural but not easy.
These complex relationships are often multi-generational. Tess struggles to be both a daughter and a mother when she and Liam temporarily lodge with her mother. Cecilia and Rachel both demonstrate how fraught the relationships between women and their mothers-in-law can be, particularly when young children are involved. Rachel’s judgment of Lauren’s mothering, for example, highlights the ways in which women are judged (and often found wanting) for their mothering styles and abilities.
Differing Views on Marriage
Tess claims that marriage is “a form of insanity; love hovering permanently on the edge of aggravation” (433). This complex interplay of love, anger, guilt, and obligation is shown throughout each woman’s reflection on her own life. For Rachel, marriage is a changing institution that no longer reflects the traditional values of her time; she’s uncomfortable with the way married people seem to relate to each other and to their children. She’s uncomfortable, for example, with the fact that Lauren makes more money than Rob—she’d likely be similarly uncomfortable if she realized the extent to which Cecilia out-earns John-Paul.
For both Cecilia and Tess, marriage is hopelessly entangled with the well-being of the children. Both women choose to stay with husbands whom they might otherwise have left, strictly because of the needs of the children. This ties motherhood to marriage in significant ways. Throughout the novel, marriage appears as something that requires ongoing maintenance and negotiation. Married people are able, though not usually encouraged, to keep secrets from each other. Married people also tend to work collaboratively to shield and serve their children.
Body Image and Shaming
The early framing device of The Biggest Loser emphasizes the importance of body image and body shaming in the novel. The size and shape of Felicity’s body receives the most attention and directs much of Tess’s self-reflection throughout the novel. As a fat woman, Felicity was accustomed to being invisible or seen as inferior to other women, even her own cousin. Tess comes to realize that, despite her outward support of Felicity, she’s been guilty of the same shaming and dismissal that other people in Felicity’s life used against her openly.
Cecilia’s concern with image seems, early in the book, to reflect positive attitudes about body image in particular. This possibility is quickly undermined by her observations about pudgy midsections and thick thighs in skinny jeans. Though Cecilia may be consciously concerned with body positivity, she is subconsciously moved by the same forces of judgment and value as the rest of society.
Polly’s amputation fits into this larger conversation about body image and acceptance. Though it takes a different form than the weight-based discussion elsewhere in the text, Cecilia’s response to her daughter’s loss of an arm demonstrates the degree to which Cecilia herself is steeped in standards of beauty and what is considered normal. Alongside her relief that her daughter is alive is a profound anger and grief at the fact that Polly will no longer be a normal little girl and that when people look at her, it will no longer be because of her striking beauty.
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By Liane Moriarty
