The Perfect Couple

Benji constitutes one part of the perfect couple that every character in the novel admires, the other being his fiancé, Celeste. Benji ticks all the boxes in the eligible bachelor checklist, being wealthy, gainfully employed, and chivalrous, but Benji’s eligibility also extends to genuine niceness. Celeste notes that Benji, who works on the corporate social responsibility of the global bank Nomura Holdings, is grounded and thoughtful despite his enormous privilege. Benji initially appears to Celeste like a knight in shining armor, gallantly rescuing her from a group of heckling teenagers at the zoo. He also offers to pay for the treatment of Celeste’s mother, Karen. Benji is close to his parents, Greer and Tag Winbury, and he takes pride in the happy normalcy he believes his family embodies. His best friend, Shooter, reveals that Benji has always been kind and selfless, at least toward him.

Because of Benji’s obvious niceness, characters tend to romanticize and belittle him in equal measure. Karen thinks of him as a real-life Prince Charming, while Benji’s older brother Thomas scoffs at Benji for being an “altar boy” (358). While Benji is largely a positive character, he is also highly privileged and purposefully ignorant of what his privilege represents, highlighting the theme of The Privilege and Limitations of Wealth and Status. In unguarded moments, Benji often reveals the snobbery he shares with his mother Greer, such as when he tells Celeste to only “bring the candle Abby gave you if you want a candle” (300). It is not lost on Celeste that the most expensive candle she owns is the only one Benji thinks is worth taking to their new home. Benji’s attitude toward Celeste is also problematic. He admits to himself that he thinks of Celeste as an exotic butterfly that he has managed to net, thus revealing a possessive and covetous streak. Like Celeste, Benji also grows up over the course of the novel. When Benji learns of Tag’s infidelity, he is shocked and even disgusted. Unlike the corrupt Thomas, idealistic Benji cannot take the infidelity in stride. He is tempted to wash his hands of his family. Yet Benji realizes that he cannot conveniently abandon his family when he so chooses. He relies on the privilege his family has given him, and that privilege and the family’s corruption are inextricable. Benji decides to accept the corruption, and he chooses the side of the quotidian, resolving his inner struggle. Because of these changes, Benji is also a dynamic character.

Since Merritt’s point-of-view perspective arrives very late in the novel, her character is constructed mostly through the eyes of others. This is a significant narrative choice, as it symbolizes that Merritt is misunderstood and also that her pursuit of appearances proves harmful to her. Merritt’s character, in this sense, is especially important to the theme of The Dichotomy Between Public and Private Personas. Since the novel opens with Merritt’s death, she is immediately established as a tragic character. The inherent tragedy of her death is in stark contrast to the ways in which certain characters view her, with Abby Winbury making the loaded statement that Merritt has dated a lot. When Karen Otis first meets Merritt, she notes Merritt is “dangerous-looking” (30) and refers to her as “Scarlet Letter” (30). Tag also calls Merritt dangerous, akin to a black widow spider. The descriptions show that Merritt expresses her sexuality and beauty freely, which makes many characters reduce her to her sex appeal. Because Merritt is a young woman who expresses her sexuality, societal double standards find her shameful. Tag, on the other hand, a known flirt and womanizer, is treated as charming and virile.

While other characters view Merritt solely in terms of the glamor she represents, Celeste, Merritt’s best friend, sees Merritt’s private side. Celeste recognizes that Merritt is tender-hearted, emotional, and hungry for love and approval. Estranged from her family, Merritt wants the security of wealth and true love. The desperation to achieve these ends lands Merritt in a dangerous position. The Dichotomy Between Public and Private Personas is evident in these aspects of her character too. As an influencer who loves fashion and glamor, Merritt’s public persona is happy, zippy, and indefatigable. Privately, she is besieged by heartbreak and worried about her pregnancy. Unable to recognize that wealth does not equal security, and images do not substitute reality, Merritt suffers a tragic death. Merritt’s death symbolizes how the brutal class system preys on those at the margins. Being a single woman without wealth or familial support, Merritt is punished by the quotidian world the novel’s rich inhabit.

Described as so good-looking that his handsomeness “is a matter of fact, not opinion” (172), Shooter is the third party of the love triangle at the center of the book’s plot. A glamorous, larger-than-life figure, 28-year-old Shooter is a successful entrepreneur who has made his way to the top despite unfortunate beginnings. While Shooter’s father was a tycoon, his mother was never married to his father. Shooter’s stepsiblings cut him out of their father’s will, while Shooter’s mother died of a drug overdose. Shooter has had to fund himself, a rarity in the circle he inhabits, and establish his own business. Because of his dual position as an outsider and insider to wealth, Shooter is comfortable in the world of both Benji and Celeste. This aspect of his personality, coupled with his movie-star good looks, make Celeste fall in love with him.

Shooter’s romantic overtures toward Celeste, his best friend’s girlfriend, paint him as a grey character, as does his habit of treating real life like gambling. While Celeste actively tries to resist her attraction to Shooter out of a sense of loyalty to Benji, Shooter does not display similar qualms. He suggests to Celeste that they elope on the morning of her wedding with Benji. Later, however, Shooter comes to understand this request as cowardly and thoughtless. Realizing the immaturity of his actions, Shooter decides to keep his feelings about Celeste a secret from Benji for now and comfort Benji through his break-up with Celeste. He also decides to curb his innate impatience and give Celeste space. These decisions show Shooter is a dynamic character, capable of making internal changes.

A key character in the novel, Greer is a popular writer of murder mysteries, the wife of Tag Winbury, and the mother of Thomas and Benji. Greer is described as having pale blond hair and deep brown eyes. She is always dressed tastefully in expensive but understated clothes and is careful about her public persona. Greer represents the status quo, old money, privilege, and compromise in the novel, serving as a key character to the theme of The Privilege and Limitations of Wealth and Status. While Greer is well aware that her husband Tag has affairs outside of their marriage, she never questions the possibility of leaving the relationship. Greer has accepted that male infidelity is part of marriage and the price she must pay for enjoying the safety and privilege that the appearance of a wealthy, intact family brings. Although she prides herself on her perception, Greer does not question her privilege or her outdated notions about marriage, status, and gender dynamics. The fact that her views are increasingly out of touch with an evolving world is reflected in her publisher’s reaction to her new manuscript. The publisher finds Greer’s description of Greece thin, based on an antiquated image of the location, rather than on a real sense of its multicultural reality.

Despite these unsympathetic traits, Greer has many positive qualities as well. She is loyal to her family, warm and thoughtful despite her snobbery, and hardworking and competent. Greer functions as the glue that holds the Winbury family together. When she finds out Abby’s role in Merritt’s death, she decides to keep it a secret, determined to protect her family. Greer emerges as a character with greater integrity than Tag, and it is gendered expectations that make her believe she cannot do without him. Even though Greer is a successful author and the Winbury wealth largely belongs to her, Greer lives an anxious life being “vigilant” (16) about Tag’s fidelity. The pressure to maintain the status quo weighs heavily on Greer. However, because Greer holds onto the same views at the end of the novel as she did before, she is largely a static character. 

Described by his wife, Greer, as a man so charismatic women are drawn to him as a matter of principle, Tag Winbury is the closest character the novel has to an antagonist. While Tag is loyal to his family and warm and hospitable to his guests, his treatment of Merritt and Greer casts him in an unflattering light. Though Tag frames his affair with Merritt as stemming from Merritt’s overtures, his vocabulary about Merritt betrays his intentions. Tag sexualizes Merritt and labels her a conventional femme fatale, or the dangerous beauty, instead of realizing that she is a real, complicated person just like him. Tag’s thoughtlessness toward Merritt is symbolized by his gift of a ring. Celeste shrewdly notes that while Tag intends the gift as a mere token of affection, Merritt is bound to view it as a promise of sorts. Tag willfully ignores this reality because he can; his privilege as a wealthy man makes him immune to consequence. Since he does emerge from the affair with Merritt relatively unscathed, while Merritt tragically dies, it can be concluded that Tag was right about his privilege. So great is his faith in this privilege that Tag notes that Benji and Thomas will support him despite his infidelity to their mother because of who he is. Tag represents white, wealthy male privilege in the novel and is a static character.