38 pages • 1 hour read
Bret Easton EllisAmerican Psycho
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1991A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Character Analysis
Patrick Bateman
Patrick Bateman is the narrator and protagonist of the novel. He is part of the upper class and works as a stockbroker in New York City.
After his first date with his secretary Jean, Bateman observes her observing him. As he says, “she is searching for a rational analysis of who I am, which is, of course, an impossibility: there… is… no… key” (253). Bateman observes: “there is no real me […] myself is fabricated […] my personality is sketchy and unformed” (362). He realizes that his character is opaque. He is not only mysterious to the other characters in the novel, none of whom come close to understanding him, but to the reader. Ironically, for a character whose narrative is so narcissistic and self-obsessed, the reader learns relatively little about who Patrick Bateman is or why he commits murder. Indeed, toward the novel’s end the reader is encouraged to doubt whether many of the events he describes even happened.
Bateman’s romantic relationships are defined either by superficiality or abuse. His family relations and past are only obtusely hinted at. For example, he recalls “how my brother and I once rode horses together, played tennis” (348). It is also suggested that his father may have died by suicide. Yet these hints are too minimal to give any broader sense of character. If there is a “key” to Bateman’s character it lies with the idea of imitation and performance. Not required to work, he plays the role of the successful 1980s stockbroker and builds his personality around the brands associated with that image. He embodies the archetype of the amoral, money obsessed, 80s businessman and consumer.
Evelyn
Evelyn is Bateman’s fiancée. She is superficial and obsessed with image. When Bateman breaks up with her, she cries. However, as Bateman points out, “she’s been careful not to let the tears, which actually, I’ve just noticed are very few, affect her makeup” (329). Thus, Evelyn is portrayed in a relentlessly negative light. Even in one possible moment of pathos, the reader’s sympathy for her is negated by the fact that she is performing. She is using her tears to manipulate. Like every other aspect of her personality, behavior, and appearance, they are simply one other tool to get what she wants. As Bateman says, “to me she looks like a big black ant” (324). That is, she is predatory, calculating, and cold.
She is also cast as supremely shallow. This is symbolized by her willingness to eat a urinal cake because it came in an expensive-looking designer box. When Bateman and Evelyn escape to the Hamptons, “Evelyn soon started talking only about spas and cosmetic surgery” (270). She is obsessed with surface appearances and has no interest in anything deeper or more meaningful. However, Easton Ellis does encourage the reader to question how accurate Bateman’s portrayal of Evelyn is. The reader learns toward the novel’s end, from another character, that it may have been Evelyn who broke things off with Patrick and not vice-versa. This raises the possibility that Bateman’s characterization of Evelyn may be false. Evelyn is an almost comically unsympathetic character, a caricature. Bateman may have exaggerated or even invented her vices to rationalize and justify his own shortcomings.
Jean
At the novel’s start, Bateman refers to his secretary, Jean, as someone “who is in love with me and who I will probably end up marrying” (61). Despite his apparent inability to feel, Bateman seems certain of what Jean wants and of who he is. After their date, he considers what books she reads: “[T]itles race through my mind: How to make a man fall in love with you. How to keep a man in love with you forever. How to close a deal: get married. How to be married one year from today” (254). Just as Evelyn represents a stereotypical vision of the manipulative, superficial girlfriend, Jean, for Patrick, is the archetype of the naïve, romance- obsessed potential wife. Her role as his secretary makes her ideal for this. She is under his control and direction and idealizes him as someone of a higher social status and position.
Ironically this idealization puts her, not Bateman, in control. As he says, when they meet in the park, “she’s making the decision about who I am” (364). Jean’s love for Patrick and her ability to see a more fragile, shy, and human side to him allows him to feel something new. If he can’t reciprocate her love, he can accept it. With Jean there are glimpses of hope and humanity for Bateman. This does not involve sex, which for Patrick is so often bound with violence. At the same time this hope remains embryonic. The limited time he spends with Jean in the novel, and the many counteracting destructive influences, means that her ability to save Patrick remains unclear.
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