Someone just seems like they have to be exploiting someone here. But who, and how? He her, financially, sexually. Or she him, financially, emotionally. It can be exploitative to give money; also to take it. Money overall a very exploitative substance, creating it seems fresh kinds of exploitation in every form of relationality through which it passes. Greasing with exploitation the wheels of human interaction generally.
Peter attempts to discern the lines of power imbalance between himself and Naomi. While he sees himself as a progressive person, he also struggles to align his righteousness with his actions. This quote also reveals the class stratification present in his relationship with Naomi. Sex, love, and money all present different tensions that impact not just Peter's relationship, but all of society.
It was obvious then that it was not going to be enough that he was too young and going through a bereavement. Those were solid sensible ideas, powerful enough for the surface of daily life, but not powerful enough for the hidden life of desire shared between two people.
Margaret momentarily transcends the social constraints that shape her choices. After her separation from her ex-husband (which already set her apart in her community), Margaret simply sought the peace and quiet of her own solitude. Her desire for Ivan catches her completely off guard. Though their age difference continues to bother her over the course of their relationship, Margaret chooses to honor her authentic desires. Here, she departs from taking a socially sanctioned path following her divorce. The fleeting nature of life forces her to contend with where her hidden desires conflict with social norms.
Eyes lowered she says: I really need it. Everything in him aching to give it to her. Animal stupidity of desire. Get on the bed, he says. She lies down and he kneels up, still dressed, looking down at her. Graze stinging pink on her knee he sees where she washed it clean. Sound of her high breathing as if only to be near him. You can do whatever you want with me, she says. Anything you want, you can do.
This scene highlights Naomi's vulnerability despite the fact that she consents to, and even pleads for, objectification. This occurs after Peter bails Naomi out of jail, having been evicted and arrested. When Naomi says, "I really need it," "it" could refer to sex but also to financial support. Naomi's perspective is never voiced in the novel. Readers only have access to her through Peter's eyes.
I actually hate you. I’ve hated you my entire life. Without stirring, without looking around to see whether the other diners or the staff are watching them, Peter just answers: I know.
A friendly dinner degrades into a strained argument that reveals the brothers' underlying tensions. Ivan has always felt belittled by Peter, and so Peter's criticism of Margaret hits a nerve. Unbeknownst to Ivan, Peter is also involved in an age-gap romantic relationship. Even without knowing this controversial truth, Ivan's resentment of Peter reaches a crescendo and results in this public outburst. Peter's response speaks to how he was always aware of this dynamic and how he felt unsupported by everyone in the family.
Still there is something, just a little hard nub of something, underneath it all, which can never be smoothed away. They are what they are, and he is what he is. Work they get from friends while he has to look out for himself. Unwritten dress codes, rules of speech. Oh, we have a house out there, lovely part of the world. And where did you go to school. Living at home in Ranelagh while he pays half his earnings in rent. What they were born to, he has to work for. Taste, manners, culture.
Class stratification and power imbalances impact even Peter, who is likely one of the most financially well-off characters in the novel. He also benefits from a professional identity that affords him social standing. Even so, he privately feels inadequate compared to his colleagues and friends who were born into higher social classes.
It goes to show, Ivan thinks, that the difference between truth and lying is complicated. You think you’re fitting language onto the world in a certain way, like a child fitting the right-shaped toy into the right-shaped slot. But at times you realise that that’s a false picture too. Language doesn’t fit onto reality like a toy fitting into a slot. Reality is actually one thing and language something else. You just have to agree with yourself not to think about it too much.
Rooney focuses on how language and meaning can morph, distort, and fail to contain lived experience. The mutability of language has moral implications, as seen in this quote. Ivan's consideration of what constitutes truth is motivated by a logic puzzle that Sylvia poses: if a liar who always lies says, "All my hats are green," can a person conclude that the liar has some hats or none at all? Ivan proceeds to explain the concept of vacuous truth, which is a conditional statement that is true because its premise is false.
Why even think about that now. The suffering of another person. Which he failed to stop. False show of competence only disguising the fact of his uselessness, his failure to do anything, to make anything better, to make any difference at all.
Despite being a human rights lawyer acutely aware of social justice, ethics, and privilege, Peter struggles to bear witness to others' pain. His rationality and need for correctness sabotage his capacity for intimacy. This leads to alienation and depression.
Sometimes you need people to be perfect and they can’t be and you hate them forever for not being even though it isn’t their fault and it’s not yours either. You just needed something they didn’t have in them to give you. And then in other people’s lives you do the same thing, you’re the person who lets everyone down, who fails to make anything better, and you hate yourself so much you wish you were dead.
Peter contextualizes his disappointment with his father after voicing it in the heat of an argument with Ivan. As an adult, Peter intellectually understands that his father could not meet all his needs. Peter also grasps the fact that he himself has let people down. However, that does not lessen the emotional pain that accompanies unmet emotional needs.
Who would defend her now, speak up for her, take her side? Of all those who had relied on her, complained to her about their own sorrows and received her sympathy in return, her family, her friends, who among them now would come to her defence? What loyalty had she purchased with her lifetime of good behaviour and self-sacrifice? None, nothing.
Margaret realizes that making life decisions according to social standards will not ultimately guarantee her happiness or fulfilling relationships. The questions she poses in this quote indicate her readiness to embrace authenticity. The verb "purchased" suggests that conforming is an attempt to gain social currency, but ultimately it fails.
Stay and suffer. You have to.
Naomi and Sylvia tether Peter to his life when he contemplates suicide. Though neither woman voices these exact words, Peter hears them in their statements. He understands their care for him as an insistence that he stay alive at all. This offers Peter redemption and a renewed sense of meaning in his life.
