Hidden Identities

The exploration of each character’s hidden identity plays a central role throughout the novel, examining the idea that we have a public persona which differs from who we are behind closed doors.

Of all the characters, Ben Hadley has the most deceptive public persona. On the surface, he appears to be amiable, kind, innocuous and ineffectual. He has let his life happen to him and appears to everyone around him as very inactive and unable to take control of his own destiny. Although this is true to some extent as he does blame the outside world for his circumstances, he takes action when his inheritance is threatened. The murder of his mother and Jane not only reveals a twisted, cruel person beneath the exterior, it also reveals a person that is able to act and take control, be that in a very maladaptive way...