beta
They wanted us to like him but feel like something wasn’t quite right and now we get to see the “boys will be boys” side of him where he truly is a monster both literally and figuratively. He has a saviour complex and wants to be the one to save her so he creates fantasy worlds where others abuse her and he’s her one ticket out of hell and when he realises that won’t work, he shuts it down and restarts. The whole family thing too. It’s his obsession with her. Integrating himself into her life and her surroundings so she can’t escape. Some boys actually do this. I know I’ve experienced something similar where a boy in school would incite other kids to bully me just so he can swoop in and save me despite being the one who started it all. It’s sick and twisted but it’s a call out to the “boys will be boys” culture we have rn. When he’s all “grown up”, he’s mellowed out and he’s acting like it never happened and the times he’s forced to confront his horrible actions, he looks on them fondly because to him, it was him showing affection. When we see her POV, it’s him literally abusing her and making her feel unsafe even in her own home. The fact that he’s a shapeless monster means he could be ANYONE. Him going from classmate to childhood friend to brother and eventually husband kinda goes along with that narrative that it truly is an “every man until it’s no man” problem. Even the fact that his secretary and friend warned her but then still didn’t help her escape or the fact that the cat (a creature who is depicted as having eyes that can see the whole universe) refuses to look at her and bear witness to what she’s had to go through. Even her Stockholm syndrome and the way she laughs it off and her be try clear fawn response to whenever he scares her. It’s all there for us to see. The author really did a good job of showing all of that without making it overt.