The Woman in the Window

“I don’t know. The first profile I spotted was David’s. I instantly deleted my account.” 

Anna’s brief mention of a dating app foreshadows her sexual encounter with David, her tenant, later in the novel. David’s appetite for physical entanglements with women are well-documented by Anna, and his attractiveness to women also appears remarkable; in a different situation, Anna may have become involved with David after meeting him on Tinder.

“He’s tall indeed, baby-faced and blue-eyed, with a flap of sandy hair and a faint scar notching one eyebrow, trailing up his forehead. Maybe fifteen years old. He looks like a boy I once knew, once kissed—summer camp in Maine, a quarter century ago. I like him.” 

In this passage, Anna describes Ethan to the reader, and this introduction to Ethan is disarming. The fact that Anna, the narrator of the novel, likes Ethan and compares him to a memory of a boy she once liked gives reader a false sense of security, which heightens the drama of the big reveal at the end of book: Ethan is guilty of murder. Ethan’s scar is gently sinister, hinting at his capability for violence, while the link the Anna’s memory of a kiss foreshadows Ethan’s intention to rape her during the attack later in the novel.

“A moment later, up pops a second chat box. GrannyLizzie. I click on the name, skim the user profile. Age: seventy. Residence: Montana. Joined: two days ago.” 

The Agora is the online meeting place and support group for agoraphobes where Anna offers the insights of her profession to give relief to others and to make interpersonal connections. GrannyLizzie, who is later revealed to be Ethan, finds Anna here and gains access to personal information about Anna that makes her vulnerable. Ethan’s invasion of this space is ironic because the Agora is where Anna feels safe enough to work and to help others.

“The glass rattles as his foot taps it. ‘Flimsy. Branch falls on that, it’s gonna take out the whole window.’” 

At this moment, David gives Anna the information that she will later use to save her own life. While David checks the rooftop in search of an explanation for the mildew on Anna’s ceiling, he spies the shaky skylight. The skylight’s inability to support the weight of a person parallels the insecurity Anna feels in the outdoors. Ironically, the skylight, a point of access to the outside world that feels dangerous is what saves her and kills Ethan during the attack.

“Dr. Fielding is, as usual, correct: I’m on quite a few medications. I need two hands to count them all. And I know—I wince as I think it—I know I’m not taking them as or when I should, not always. The double doses, the skipped doses, the drunk doses…Dr. Fielding would be furious. I need to do better. Don’t want to lose my grip.” 

Anna reveals her self-awareness, as well as the reasons for her unreliability, in this passage. Her description of her habits foreshadows the detectives’ mistrust of her description of the murder she witnesses as well as her eventual loss of her “grip” that leads her to contemplate suicide. As well, this passage reveals Anna’s grudging regard for Dr. Fielding’s expertise and for their shared professional background.

“With a flourish, she scribbles her signature in one corner. ‘Ta-da. A Jane Russell original.’” 

Earlier, in Chapter 12, when Anna and Katie first meet, Anna identifies her as Jane, Alistair’s wife, but Katie neglects to correct Anna. In Chapter 18, as the two women visit, Katie willfully assumes the name of Ethan’s mother, and Anna has no reason to question the woman’s name. This missed opportunity for clarity is a trope of the thriller genre; in thrillers, an easy misunderstanding, white lie, or small detail passed over often has significant consequences.

“‘No I can’t stay.’ Shaking his head, tears skittering down his face. Twice this child has set foot in my house, and twice he’s cried.” 

After Anna hears a scream from the Russell’s house, Ethan appears at her door. She misinterprets his emotional state and believes that he is upset by an act of violence committed by his father, whom Anna believes may be capable of domestic abuse. Ethan allows Anna’s suspicions about his father deepen, which moves the plot forward as Anna tries to figure out the truth behind the scream. 

“thedoctorisin: You are NOT a freak. You are a victim of circumstance. What you’re going through is hard as hell. I’ve been housebound for ten m onths and I know as well as anyone how difficult this is. PLEASE don’t ever think of yourself as a freak or aloser or anything other than a tough and resourceful person who’s been bravev enough to ask for help. Your sons should be proud of you and you should be pruod of yourself.” 

Anna’s message to GrannyLizzie contains typos that reveal her drunkenness. She is not so drunk that she is unaware of her errors, but she is drunk enough to justify her mistakes to herself by describing every word as “true” in the sentences that immediately follow this message. Lizzie’s apparent gratitude for Anna’s heartfelt support disarms Anna, who later tells Lizzie the story of her own trauma and agoraphobia; at this point in time, Anna does not yet realize that Lizzie is Ethan.

“Once more Jane enters the frame—but walking slowly, strangely. Staggering. A dark patch of crimson has stained the top of her blouse; even as I watch, it spreads to her stomach. Her hands scrabble at her chest. Something slender and silver has lodged there, like a hilt.” 

Anna witnesses the murder of the woman whom she believes is Jane Russell. This murder marks the climax of the novel; the scream in Chapter 25 foreshadows this moment. Anna’s belief that she has made friends with the woman heightens her emotional response to the stabbing, and she is nearly incoherent when she calls the police. Anna’s overwrought state contributes to her unreliability as her detectives interpret her emotions as a sign of a tendency to melodrama, another trope of the thriller genre.

“He and the woman speak to each other across the roof of the car. My ears sieve theirs words—stabbing, confused, doctor—as I sink underwater, close my eyes, nestle into the crook of the passenger seat; the air goes calm and still. Shoals flicker past—psychologist, house, family, alone—and I drift away.” 

While Anna waits for the detective to take her home from the hospital, Detective Little and Detective Norelli discuss Anna’s panic attack and resulting hospitalization. Anna tries to cope with being outside of her house by dissociating from their voices. The underwater imagery suggests drowning, demonstrating the painful and overwhelming effect that being outdoors has on Anna.

“‘How much did you have to drink?’ she asks, wincing, as though I might strike her.” 

Bina, Anna’s friend and physical therapist, sits with Anna in the room of her house Anna calls “Ed’s library.” After Anna tells Bina what she had seen, Bina is skeptical, and she feels guilty for doubting Anna’s account of the murder. Bina’s skepticism gives the reader permission to feel skeptical. If Bina, a trusted friend of Anna’s, doubts her, so can we.

“A belt of condom packets is looped around a floor lamp. An earring beams on the nightstand.” 

Anna snoops in her tenant David’s basement apartment, looking for evidence that he might have something to do with Jane’s murder. While she scans his rooms for anything that might offer her information about his link to Jane, she spies an earring on his bedside table that triggers a memory. This earring is the one of the pair that Anna had complimented the day Jane came over to Anna’s house to play chess and drink wine. This finding encourages Anna to suspect that David has something to do with the murder.

“We stand there, eyes downcast, like two teenagers at a dance.” 

When David discovers Anna in his space, he grows furious. Later, he apologizes to Anna for his strong reaction and reveals to Anna that he was recently in jail. David and Anna have a shared understanding of what it means to be confined against their will, and an awareness of this knowledge bonds them. The metaphor of “teenagers at a dance” also suggests that there is underlying sexual tension between David and Anna, which foreshadows the sexual encounter that takes place soon after this exchange.

“Not sure if I should be saying thanks or sorry.” 

After David and Anna spend the night together, Anna is surprised to find herself alone when she wakes. David and Anna speak briefly when she finds him in the kitchen, and David’s words to Anna reveals his awareness that he may have overstepped a boundary. In reality, Anna’s reflections on her night with David cause her to feel a sense of anxiety that she spent a night with a man who might be a murderer.

“Is Alex calling Alistair right now? Would he or she describe my voice? Could he dial my landline, even my cell phone? I stare at the cell on the desk, watch it for a moment, as though it’s a sleeping animal; I wait for it to stir, my heart thrumming against my ribs.” 

When Anna calls Alistair’s assistant, a young man named Alex, at the Boston office, she pushes Alex too far and he becomes suspicious of her questions. Impulsively, Anna hangs up on Alex, and she wonders if she will be caught snooping. The physical detail of Anna’s increased heart rate enables the reader to feel complicit in Anna’s actions, as both Anna and the reader wait to find out if her cell phone will ring with an accusation.

“The rock face, in the glare, was flat and faultless. Nowhere to jam my fingers, nothing to seize, not a weed or a branch, not a lip of rock—just soil and scree, forbidding as a wall.” 

After the car accident in the mountains of Vermont, Anna observes her austere surroundings and finds that they offer her no opportunity to escape and seek help. The “forbidding” nature of the rock face is a personification of nature that implies that nature is punishing Anna for her actions. Anna’s guilt over causing the accident that kills her family and her exposure to the elements explain her fear of the outdoors.

“And I didn’t take that photo. I couldn’t have taken it. I’m—Something is happening, and you’re not helping.” 

In this scene, Anna realizes that no one believes her, and she weakens under the stress of her realization. The concrete pieces of evidence that, to Anna, attest to the existence of Jane Russell, as Anna knows her, are not concrete to anyone else. The people she trusts to help her, the police, do not find her believable, which leaves her isolated and anguished.

“Elizabeth Hughes says she was with him in Darien last night from midnight until ten.” 

The night that Anna sees a murder take place, David is spending the night in Connecticut with a woman named Elizabeth Hughes. She confirms his presence in her home to the police, and David’s promiscuity proves to be his alibi. Anna reacts to this alibi with unfounded skepticism; David has given neither Anna nor the reader any real reason to suspect a murder.

“Yet Norelli has done it, broken the spell, said the unsayable: Your husband and your daughter are dead.” 

After Detective Norelli speaks the truth about Ed and Olivia, Anna reflects on the many euphemisms she heard in the days and weeks after the accident. Though these words were spoken with the intention to comfort Anna, they facilitated Anna’s ability to deny the deaths of her loved ones. Only when the truthful words are presented to Anna can she accept the facts.

“That night, I regretted every moment we spent together: the mornings in the hotel around the corner, shy light peeking through the curtains; the evenings we’d swap messages on our phones for hours. The day it all began, with that glass of wine in your office.” 

When Dr. Wesley Brill, Anna’s former colleague and lover, returns her call, she flashes back to the night of the accident. Her four-month affair had ruined her marriage, and in effect, killed her husband and daughter. Anna tries to tell Wesley about his role in the tragedy, but he cuts her off, revealing that he no longer has feelings for her. Anna reveals strength and resolve as she realizes that her feelings for him have similarly evaporated, but the emptiness she feels afterwards contributes to her decision to take her own life.

“‘You gave my son the key to your apartment.’ He holds it up. ‘I’m returning it.’ The key chinks as he drops it on the island. ‘Even if you weren’t out of your…goddamn mind, I wouldn’t want him spending time with a grown woman.’” 

Alistair appears in Anna’s house, terrifying her with his drunkenness, and he drops a hint about Ethan’s true self to Anna. She is too distracted by her fear to notice Alistair’s mention of “grown women,” and only later, when Ethan enters Anna’s home intending to murder her, does Anna find out what Alistair meant by this comment: back in Boston, Ethan had an inappropriate and ominous interest in Alistair’s boss’s wife, which foreshadows his interest in Anna.

“Because it was no dream. (This is no dream! This is really happening!—Mia Farrow, Rosemary’s Baby.)” 

When Anna sees Alistair in her home, and he grabs her by the throat, she becomes convinced that he is guilty of the murder. Her response to her fear and paranoia takes on the phrasing of characters in movies that are familiar to her, like Rosemary in Rosemary’s Baby. The intensifying connection between Anna and the characters in these films has two effects: it tinges her experience with tried and true stories of suspense while also linking it to fictionalized depictions of violence. Anna’s connection to the films makes her less reliable, even as she tries to use the language to relay her own experience.

“She said she didn’t. She said that you called her by my mom’s name, and she couldn’t think of an excuse fast enough. She wasn’t supposed to be there, remember.”

Ethan clears up the mystery that surrounds the true identity of the murder victim when he explains that his biological mother, a woman named Katie, had admitted to him that she had let Anna believe her name was Jane Russell. These sentences confirm that Anna is neither delusional nor unreliable; she was misled.