The Wife Upstairs

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021

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Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Parts 1-2

Parts 3-6

Parts 7-10

Part 11-Epilogue

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

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Character Analysis

Jane Bell

Twenty-three-year-old Jane Bell (born Helen Burns) is an outsider in Thornfield Estates. A native of Phoenix, Jane has escaped her turbulent childhood in search of a new life. Jane finds work in Thornfield Estates as a dog walker and becomes enamored of the stability and safety she believes exists in this wealthy community. However, Jane struggles to balance her own journey of self-development with the murder investigation haunting the community.

Jane is ambitious and resourceful, and she attempts to guarantee her own security by strategizing her marriage to the presumably widowed Eddie Rochester. Meanwhile, she navigates the threats of blackmail from John Rivers, an acquaintance from the past, and her paranoia surrounding her part in the death of her neglectful foster father. Jane’s keen instincts help her in these endeavors; although she performs naivete, Jane is quick to sense when something is amiss and eventually uncovers the truth about Bea Rochester’s disappearance.

At the end of the novel, Jane instinctively saves herself from the fire that kills Eddie and Bea. Afterward, she begins life as an independent woman. She finds freedom in the wealth she inherits and embarks on a journey into a hopeful future no longer tortured by the ghosts of her past.

Eddie Rochester

Eddie Rochester is a successful contractor and husband to Bea Rochester, a business mastermind worth $200 million. In the wake of Bea’s disappearance, Eddie meets Jane and feels an instant connection to her thanks to their shared experiences as outsiders in the Thornfield Estates community. He proposes to Jane quickly in an attempt to move forward from his prior marriage. Eddie supports Jane and aids her in her journey to break free from her traumatic childhood. He offers Jane a validation she has never experienced and is vital in helping Jane unlock an understanding of her own potential.

Jane’s sense that Eddie has a dark side gradually proves true, however. His initial interest in Bea stemmed partly from her money, and he engages in a flirtation with Blanche while married. These smaller revelations pave the way for Eddie’s biggest secret: After uncovering his wife’s murder of Blanche, Eddie hid Bea upstairs for months to protect her from the aftermath of her fatal ambition. When he himself ends up trapped in the panic room, he sets a fire in the hopes that Bea will save him. However, both he and Bea die in the fire, granting Jane freedom from her past through her inheritance.

Bea Rochester

A self-made mogul and the creator of Southern Manors, Bea Rochester began crafting a new life for herself from a young age. Bea overcame the neglect of her parents by funding her own education at an elite boarding school in Birmingham, where she met her lifelong friend, Blanche Ingraham. Bea and Blanche’s complex and often jealous relationship is at the center of the Thornfield Estates community. At the end of the novel, Hawkins reveals that Bea killed Blanche for threatening to expose Bea’s killer ambition. This act and the subsequent disappearance of Bea haunt Thornfield Estates and disrupt the new life Jane Bell hopes to begin with Bea’s husband, Eddie.

Bea serves as a foil for Jane. Although both women share tragic backgrounds that motivate them to create new lives for themselves, Bea demonstrates a near-total loss of humanity in this pursuit; her ambition drives her to brutal measures to protect her social status and wealth. However, Jane inspires Bea to reconnect with her humanity in her final moments by pointing out Eddie’s deep love for Bea. This revelation motivates Bea to take selfless action and rush to Eddie’s rescue as a fire consumes their home. The couple die together and find redemption in providing Jane a new beginning.