Cal Lesson Plan

Despite starting a romantic relationship with Marcella, Cal seems to prefer watching and desiring her from a distance. Why might this be the case?

Knowing full well that there will never be a future for him and Marcella, Cal thus feels justified in violating her boundaries and living out their relationship within the space of his own fantasies. For instance, he goes into her bedroom while she is at work to look through her undergarments and read her old journal, thinking that he might as well “ravish the things which surrounded her.”

This is a pattern Cal also lives out when he repeatedly spies on Marcella from afar. Again, with Cal’s desires being unreachable in real...