Fates and Furies

The paradox of marriage is that it is simultaneously a shared and individual experience. Groff’s intent in subverting the stereotypical marriage of the great American novel is to showcase the oft neglected perspective of the female experience in contemporary fictional marriages. By establishing Lotto’s narrative of a dreamy creative partnership in “The Fates,” the puncturing of the male perspective is all the more shocking from Mathilde’s deconstructed point of view because of the pre-established empathy for Lotto, when, in fact, the events in “The Fates” function collectively as a sort of red herring.

Lotto’s unreflective, idealistic worldview, compared to Mathilde’s ultra-analytical one, offers the idea that no matter how physically and emotionally close people can be connected to one another, psychologically there wilI always be a gap. Groff presents the idea that the intimacy in marriage isn’t the physical relationship and proximity but rather it is the rituals, traditions, and small private moments that establish a lasting connection and shared memories.

Lotto charm and idealism is tarnished by the fact that he’s ungrateful for his success. If Lotto was not born wealthy, he would not have had the confidence or means to pursue acting, nor the flexibility and time to become a successful writer. Without the support of his loved ones, the idea that he is slotted for greatness would never have likely been a moot point. Lotto does not possess the self-determination, motivation, or work ethic to achieve what he does without both Antionette and Mathilde. His unexamined life as an affluent WASP is revealed through his skewed views on feminism. Examples of him as a false feminist that are really examples of privilege include having sex with any woman under the guise of egalitarianism, rather than seeing his compulsion as objectification, and his idea that a woman’s value derives from biological creation while men contribute through intellectual creation.

Framing the story through two different point of views provides layers of opinion that create contextually diverse (and often juxtaposed)perspectives of identical timelines and events. This technique allows readers to get to intimately know (or believe themselves to know) characters and then get to know them all over again from a different perspective. These dual perspectives raise the question of what is fact and demonstrate that history is different to each person, as their interpretation is deeply personal. For example, Lotto thinks Mathilde is a saintly virgin, yet Mathilde reveals she was paid escort. Lotto assumes Mathilde is a virgin because it fits his perception that his wife is a good and righteous woman. Lotto doesn’t know about Mathilde’s sordid past because he trusts it was virtuous, just as he trusts her. Mathilde knows she’s in part responsible for the breakup of her family and fixates on seeing herself as inherently bad because of this.

The cyclical notions each has about Mathilde’s true self color their judgment of her character. Because Lotto thinks she is good he often fails to recognize clues to the contrary, such as Mathilde’s excuses to keep him apart from his mother. And because Mathilde feels she is bad she fails to recognize the good in her. Information is not shared between the two because Lotto implicitly trusts Mathilde. He loves his idealized perspective of her due to his own loving upbringing while Mathilde does not trust Lotto to love her because she thinks there is something wrong with her, due to her tragic past.