Fates and Furies

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2015

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 1, Chapters 1-3

Part 1, Chapters 4-6

Part 1, Chapters 7-10

Part 2, Chapters 1-3

Part 2, Chapters 4-6

Part 2, Chapters 7-9

Part 2, Chapters 10-12

Part 2, Chapters 13-15

Part 2, Chapters 16-18

Part 2, Chapters 19-22

Part 2, Chapters 23-25

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Part 2, Chapters 7-9Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “The Furies”

Part 2, Chapter 7 Summary

Mathilde drowns her sorrows in any man she can gets her hands on. Around the area she lives in, she “makes a name for herself without saying anything at all” (242). Her bitten-through tongue still isn’t all the way healed.

One night, after she’s shaved her head “to velveteen (242)” in the pool, she picks up the local bus driver and they go to a motel room. In a rare exchange of vulnerability, she confesses she sleeps around to find out what she’d missed by being monogamous for so long and concludes most men besides Lotto are terrible at sex.

After she leaves the crying man, Mathilde recalls her role as the brutal advocate of Lotto’s art—a necessary evil to keep their household financially afloat. She is caught by Lotto once during one of his previews for “reaming out a script supervisor with such vicious skill that the poor boy’s knees went out from under him” (245). After this, Mathilde is stealthier about her draconian ways regarding business matters.

Mathilde then recalls the other time Lotto’s absence—aside from his death—had made her feel so lost. This was when he went to the artist colony. Mathilde had stalked him and then returned home in a fever of apathy. When Lotto cancels the Thanksgiving visit, Mathilde’s jealousy that Leo will steal her husband’s affections infiltrates every aspect of her being, including her dreams.

With Lotto still at the artist colony, and driven crazy with deprivation both of Lotto and in taking care of her basic needs for survival, Mathilde flees to the Phi Phi Islands of Thailand. However, the devastation of loneliness follows her and after an unenjoyable stay, she pulls herself together and gives herself a pep talk about returning home and fighting for her rights as a wife.

Lotto returns downtrodden from the colony; Mathilde pounces on him with a zealous passion, hoping to make up for lost time and do away with any competition. They are able to make up and erase the distance between them in the wake of the news that Elizabeth, Rachel’s wife, is to have with another child. Lotto and Mathilde share their sorrow regarding their own barren partnership.

Part 2, Chapter 8 Summary

Aurelie (that is, Mathilde as a youth) adjusts to her new transplanted life with her stern uncle and his kind driver, as well as having to relearn English through television in a lonely converted farmhouse in Pennsylvania.

Aurelie dislikes the American school food and way she is bullied by her peers. In order to rid herself of her former life, Aurelie reinvents her identity, taking on the persona of a girl she used to admire in France. Thus, Aurelie becomes Mathilde.

As she distinguishes herself from the meek Aurelie to become the empowered Mathilde, she dreams of an imaginary life full of laughter and sisters. She does away with her accent by mimicking actors on soap operas and does all she can in order to not have to socialize in school.

Mathilde’s uncle adopts her at 14 with the warning she has to figure out her life at 18. She’s given access to his library and her uncle takes her out for dinner, buying her a red dress and heels to wear on their night out. This is the first and only meal the two share, as her uncle states that his lack of intervention in her care will improve her independence, which in turn will help her grow as a person and be stronger.

Part 2, Chapter 9 Summary

Rachel refuses to give up and continues to feed Mathilde. Mathilde starts to appreciate her similarities to Lotto, even while she thinks Rachel’s love is misplaced in a stranger version of Mathilde that doesn’t really know her true self.

A young man, Land, arrives to pay his respects while Mathilde lounges by the pool. Thinking he is just another run-of-the-mill, failed-actor mourner, she is surprised by the affect he has on her and how likable she finds him.

Land explains his connection Lotto, having worked on the revival plays of Grimiore and One-Eyed King. Mathilde reminisces about Lotto’s failed acting career before his success as a writer. She brings Land inside and has her way with him.

Land worries that he will get her pregnant and tries to be a gentleman about it. Mathilde assures him it's impossible as she was sterilized when she was younger. She leaves out that it was by choice.

Land leaves the house before Mathilde wakes up, but the note he leaves soothes her.

Part 2, Chapters 7-9 Analysis

In assuming the role of Mathilde, rather than owning up to being Aurelie, Mathilde is able to protect herself via this new identity. Her childhood neglect at the hands of her uncle, done to make her more independent, ultimately backfires, as Mathilde becomes dependent on Lotto for her emotionally well-being. Because Lotto wasn’t just Mathilde’s first love, but also her first true friend, her first taste of social interaction and emotional connection begins and ends with the well-being of their relationship status. Thus, her unhealthy obsession and jealousy causes an unhealthy relationship to grow without trust.

When Lotto flirts with a creative and emotional affair with Leo Sen, Mathilde is confident in her physical prowess against her competition, but remains insecure about Lotto cheating because she only feels sexually comfortable with him. After Lotto’s death, and even though she has access to a stable of willing partners to fulfill her physical needs, she lacks enthusiasm, as she comes to realize the emotional connection was what made love-making with Lotto so fantastic. So, when Land arrives and shows her an ounce of care, she enjoys the experience because it rekindles a bit of an emotional connection. Though she does not realize, at the time, Land’s true identity, and the reason why he cares about Mathilde, it is the fact that he shows a level of care that strikes her as memorable.