Madwoman

Jane is a complex character who functions as a foil, parallel, and catalyst for Clove’s development as a protagonist. As the narrative unfolds, Jane transforms from a figure of salvation for Clove into a manipulator, with the narrative’s moral ambiguity maintained throughout each recontextualization. The author constructs Jane’s character through careful layers of deception that mirror the protagonist’s strategies of survival and reinvention.

The physical transformation of Celine into Jane through plastic surgery serves as a literal manifestation of the novel’s theme of The Struggle for Personal Identity Amid Trauma. In this context, her wig, casually revealed to Clove by Nova, becomes a symbol of the artificial identities that both women have constructed. Like Clove, Jane’s multiple identities—childhood friend, escort, feminist lawyer, and nanny—reflect the complexity of survival after trauma; her transformations carry the additional weight of navigating around the original identity that Clove appropriated when she fled to San Francisco from Hawaii. Due to the manipulative way she reenters Clove’s life, Jane’s speech patterns and behaviors reveal her dual nature. Her seemingly casual references to Clove’s mother and strategic sharing of information demonstrate a calculated approach to manipulation that paradoxically stems from genuine concern. When, at the end of the narrative, Bieker reveals that she is a survivor of Munchausen syndrome by proxy at the hands of her mother, Jane becomes both a survivor and a perpetrator in her narrative of victimization.

Bieker develops Jane’s moral ambiguity through her relationships with other characters as well as Clove. For instance, her genuine care for Clove’s children exists alongside a willingness to use them as tools for manipulation. However, by contrast, her protection of Clove from Tootsie demonstrates authentic concern even within her broader scheme of forced revelation of Clove’s past. Even Jane’s desire for motherhood functions as a mirror to Clove’s maternal experiences. Her inability to bear children and her manipulation of others in pursuit of this goal reflect how trauma can shape one’s desires in significant ways.

Jane’s occupation and living situations support her characterization. Her temporary housing in Mike’s abandoned Chevy and her work at Earthside present a carefully constructed image of precarity that masks her true purpose and capabilities. This construction of artificial vulnerability both parallels and contrasts Clove’s carefully maintained façade of suburban stability. This pattern of both paralleling and contrasting Clove continues in their interactions. Her actions ultimately force Clove toward necessary confrontations with truth, yet her methods are morally ambiguous. The revelation of her true identity transforms her from a seemingly flat character—the helpful nanny—into a round one whose motivations encompass benevolence as well as rage and revenge.

The butcher is a former romantic partner of Clove, who provided her with housing when she turned 18. The butcher functions as a foil for Clove, representing an alternative path of healing that Clove eventually decides to reject. The butcher remains unnamed throughout the narrative, collapsing the distinction between his identity and his profession. To that end, the butcher ends up characterized by his profession itself. As a butcher, he works to transform raw material into usable food, mirroring his role in Clove’s life as someone who helps her process raw trauma into a more manageable form.

The butcher emerges as a round character, both willing and able to support Clove emotionally—in both past and present timelines. However, in doing so in the past, he channeled the sort of pity that Clove despised. His genuine care for Clove manifested in practical support—offering housing, emotional stability, and understanding—while his pity became the very thing that drove her away. In the present, he is supportive and helpful, as he tells her that she told him about her role in her father’s death and tips her off to Jane/Celine volunteering at the women’s prison. 

His character serves as a counterpoint to both Clove’s father and husband. Unlike Clove’s father’s violent masculinity and her husband’s intentionally calm (yet boring) personality, the butcher performs a nurturing form of masculinity. Clove feels a lingering attraction to him, evident in the fact that she imagines herself having sex with him instead of her husband once and kisses him when they reconnect. Despite this, he serves a platonic and supportive function in the narrative present, reassuring Clove that she is brave and that she protected her mother from her father’s abuse. Much like when he and Clove dated, his careful attention to her consent, boundaries, and emotional needs characterizes him as a healing, caring figure.

In the narrative present, Clove’s mother is incarcerated in Central California Women’s Facility, having been convicted of murdering her husband, Clove’s father. Like the significant male characters in the novel, Clove’s mother remains mostly unnamed throughout, except for brief mentions that her name is Alma. However, neither Clove nor the narrative consistently refers to her by that name. The novel portrays Clove’s mother as a complex character; she is both a survivor and an inadvertent perpetrator of trauma, as she continued to subject Clove to her husband’s abuse by struggling to leave him. However, the narrative acknowledges that her husband’s near-constant physical and emotional abuse distanced her from her career, friends, and family members—making her feel isolated, trapped, and not strong enough to leave (despite her numerous attempts). 

Her willingness to lie to take the blame for her husband’s death positions her as a foil to Clove, who strategically deploys mistruths. Despite her imprisonment, Clove’s mother undergoes a significant character transformation. In her initial letters to Clove, her mother is portrayed as being self-centered, as she fails to enquire about her daughter’s life despite the many years of absence from it. However, her later communications show a growing self-awareness and understanding of her role in her daughter’s trauma. Overall, her willingness to serve a life sentence to protect Clove reveals her dedication to maternal protection, a facet of her personality that Clove often fails to recognize.

Clove’s mother is further characterized by her attempted control over the smaller elements of her life as a desperate attempt to maintain her autonomy. The bottled water, morning vodka and Coke, and physical scars serve as external markers of internal damage. Throughout the novel, she moves from passive acceptance of abuse to active sacrifice for her daughter, though this transformation occurs too late to prevent Clove’s emotional and physical flight.

Clove’s father is an antagonist and archetypical villain in the novel. Deceased in the narrative present, his violence is ever-present in the past timeline and continues to impact Clove presently. He was cruel, violent, and physically abusive to both Clove and Clove’s mother, frequently inflicting injuries on his wife such as broken bones, bruises, and a ruptured bowel. He was also emotionally abusive and often threatened to die by suicide after saying that he would murder his wife and daughter. Additionally, he was calculated and callous, as he intentionally isolated Clove’s mother from her career, friends, and other family members—trapping her in a dangerous and ever-escalating abusive environment. He had an alcohol addiction and often fell into a violent rage while intoxicated. He was self-centered and mean and failed to care for or protect Clove, such as when his coworker sexually assaulted her at a barbeque. 

His death is central to the plot, as it caused Clove’s mother to go to prison and Clove to distance herself from the reality that she pushed him over the balcony. Little is known about Clove’s father’s motivations, as Clove narrates details about him through flashbacks to her abusive childhood. He is a static character, undergoing no change throughout the novel. His actions play a central role in Intergenerational Patterns of Female Survival, as the abuse he inflicted on Clove and her mother continues to influence them even after his death.