The Wife Upstairs

Jane’s relationship with Eddie offers her financial stability and contributes to her growing self-worth and confidence. Jane begins to feel hopeful about the future after she moves in with Eddie. She finds validation in Eddie’s attraction to her, which makes her “feel beautiful, for once. And powerful” (128). The relationship also offers her entry into the exclusive and privileged world of Thornfield Estates. Jane becomes strategic in her plans to befriend the neighborhood women and elevate her social status. Despite her perceived naivete, Jane longs to be seen and admits, “I like being the subject of conversation” (138). This desire leads her to manipulate Eddie into proposing so that she can secure her position within Thornfield Estates society. Above all, this rising social status and financial stability offer her protection. John Rivers is a symbol of her humble past who threatens to disrupt this stability, which is why Eddie’s protection of her solidifies their relationship. Slowly, Jane’s connection to Eddie and the validation she receives through their relationship lead her to realize that, more than material possessions, what she desires is true human connection.

Bea represents all that Jane hopes to attain. Hawkins forges a connection between Bea and Jane not only through their relationships to Eddie but also through their parallel experiences of childhood trauma and their similarly ruthless determination. Hawkins constructs these two strong female characters as foils whose similarities play off of one another and whose differences highlight the major themes of the novel. Jane is aware of these echoes, comparing herself to Bea constantly, though often unfavorably: Bea’s image and memory haunt her as she adopts Bea’s position in Eddie’s home and Thornfield Estates. Eddie serves as another bridge between the two women, while also providing additional points of comparison for each. All three characters understand themselves to be outsiders who are navigating the performative world of Thornfield Estates while also maneuvering through their own struggles with self-worth. Like Jane, both Bea and Eddie grapple with tension between the image they project to the world and their internal desire for true human connection.

As Jane and Eddie grow closer, she recognizes a darkness in Eddie that foreshadows a secret that divides them. Jane has developed an intuition that helped her survive her traumatic childhood and now alerts her to the potential danger that Eddie represents. She notes the violence that tinges Eddie’s actions as she recognizes “something radiating off him, something dark and intense” (131). Jane also observes that Eddie is hiding his true self. She wonders “about Eddie’s past. He rarely talks about it, like he just sprang into the world, fully formed when he met Bea” (246). Jane recognizes this in Eddie because she also maintains a hidden self under her adopted name of Jane, never revealing the full traumatic history that forced her to run away from the West Coast. As a symbol of her past, John Rivers unnerves Jane and stirs a paranoia in her that gradually intensifies. This paranoia, paired with Jane’s growing fear of Eddie, leaves Jane desperate for answers.

Hawkins builds suspense through Jane’s growing anxiety and through her development of Bea and Blanche’s complex friendship, slowly revealing more details about the toxicity of the women’s relationship. In her journal, Bea reflects on Blanche’s growing jealousy, as “Blanche can’t stand it that Bea has come out on top after all these years” (206). This jealousy leads Blanche to flirt with Eddie. Bea grows suspicious and retaliates by having sex with Tripp. These details illustrate Bea’s impulsive nature and relentless ambition, complicating the truth of what happened the night of Blanche’s death.

Bea’s sexual encounter with Tripp also exemplifies the ways in which she uses sex to wield power. Hawkins calls back to the text that inspired her novel when Bea writes, “Reader, I fucked him” (287). In Brontë’s Jane Eyre, the line, “Reader, I married him” is a pivotal moment that unites Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester and provides Jane with what she always desired: love and happiness (Brontë, Charlotte. Jane Eyre. Penguin Classics, 2006, p. 517). In The Wife Upstairs, Hawkins transforms the line by focusing on the carnal sex that unites Bea and Eddie. Hawkins also removes Jane from this moment, paying homage to Jane Eyre while distinguishing her novel as a modern text free from the moral context of 19th-century England.