60 pages • 2 hours read
Marie BenedictThe Only Woman in the Room
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaPart 1, Chapters 10-13Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 1
Chapter 10 Summary
Weeks have passed since the proposal and Hedy is dazed by the plans, though Fritz has taken over planning their entire wedding. He flies her and her mother to Paris for a dress fitting and watches Hedy as she models each dress for him. She finds one she loves, but he denies her and chooses a simple black and white geometric dress. Hedy must bury her anger to keep her fiancé happy.
As they walk around Paris together, Hedy eyes an extravagant set of rubies, sapphires, and emeralds in the window of Cartier. Fritz reminds her that it is nothing compared to her beauty while Hedy contemplates Fritz’s relationship to power and money. They begin discussing the wedding when Fritz suggests getting married at the Karlskirche, the most famous Christian church in Vienna. Gently, Hedy reminds Fritz that her family is Jewish and wouldn’t be allowed to marry there. Fritz reveals that his own father converted to Catholicism from Judaism and that she could do the same. It “won’t do for [him] to have a Jewish wife” (55), so he insists that she convert, and Hedy is compelled to agree. When Hedy returns to her hotel room, she finds the Cartier jewels waiting for her. She realizes they are payment for the surrender of her heritage.
Chapter 11 Summary
Fritz and Hedy marry and honeymoon in Venice. She relishes in her new husband’s skills as a lover and finds a tenderness in Fritz when they’re alone. In the afternoon, they get ready to go to the beach. When Fritz insists on which suit to wear and that she wear lipstick, Hedy realizes how particular he’s become about her appearance since the wedding. She obeys with little pushback. Once on the beach, they request lounge chairs and umbrellas from the cabana boy, but Fritz is enraged when the boy seats them in the back row of guests. He demands to speak to the boy’s boss and reveals his identity. The boy is visibly terrified. He retrieves the manager, who is mortified and offers a complimentary seafood lunch while the boy drags two chairs in front of the other guests. Smugly, Fritz reminds Hedy that “[m]oney and power always prevail” (61).
Chapter 12 Summary
After they finished their lunch, Fritz excuses himself while Hedy reads a magazine. A gust of wind takes the magazine out of her hand and a young Frenchman retrieves it for her. Fritz returns just as the Hedy is thanking the man. Fritz grabs Hedy forcefully and dismisses the man. That night, while they dance at the hotel’s jazz club, a man rudely demands to dance with Hedy, insulting Fritz in the process. Furious, Fritz drags Hedy back to the hotel room, pushes her against the wall and takes her without a word. From that moment, Hedy decides to “wall a part of [her]self off from him” forever (65).
Chapter 13 Summary
Five weeks later, Fritz brings Hedy to one of their beautiful homes, the Villa Fegenberg. Hedy marvels at the pristine architecture and the mountain range surrounding the windows, agreeing with Fritz that they will be happy here. Fritz pauses the tour to introduce Hedy to the staff, who are mostly respectful except for a young maid named Ada who stares at Hedy in a challenging manner. Not wanting to alarm Fritz to the possibility that she could not manage the staff, Hedy pulls him up to their room and they fall into bed together. At dinner that night, Hedy learns that Fritz plans to begin hosting parties in their grand dining room next week. Shocked, Hedy is anxious about hosting 40 people with no experience or exposure. She recovers herself, though, and insists that she meets with the staff to arrange a schedule. Fritz smiles patronizingly, asserting that he will take care of it all because her beauty is enough for her “delicate shoulders” to carry (70).
Part 1, Chapters 10-13 Analysis
Fritz’s inclination to control Hedy is the major focus of Chapter 10. This tendency is first alluded to when Hedy mentions that Fritz is planning the entire wedding. Unconventional as it is, it is more alarming because it indicates the merely ornamental role Fritz expects Hedy to play in their relationship. His underlying temper becomes apparent as Hedy argues for the dress she prefers, causing him to grab her roughly and choose the dress for her. This is a clear message that, in this relationship, Hedy is expected to obey.
The dynamic of their relationship is placed in a historical context when Fritz demands Hedy’s conversion. The theme of antisemitism has, until now, held a pervasive but distant presence. Fritz calmly ironing out Hedy’s Jewishness highlights how normalized antisemitism is in their society. Fritz’s insistence upon a Christian ceremony also implies his suspicions about the future of his political alliances; having a Jewish wife could hamper his ambitions. At the end of the chapter, the price of Hedy’s sacrifices for her safety is symbolized by the set of jewels; her career and identity have been bought by Fritz, and the exchange represents his ownership over her.
Chapters 11 and 12 catalogue the escalating toxicity in Hedy and Fritz’s relationship. Fritz’s desperation to control Hedy’s appearance is an effort to maintain control over her and reveals his belief that she is a part of his image. His desire to show her off has been evident from the beginning, evinced by him delighting in seeing other men watch her from afar. To Fritz, Hedy’s beauty is an emblem of his power. Power is also a major focus of Chapter 11; the interaction with the cabana boy represents the great international influence Fritz enjoys—as well as the terror he inspires. His belief that money and power prevail is illustrative of his political ambitions; he is not ideologically aligned with Mussolini or the Prince, but he works with them out of self-interest, knowing that keeping them in power earns him more money—and more money for him means more power.
Chapter 12 builds upon Fritz’s growing need to control Hedy and his image. The altercation on the dance floor is vastly different from the stares Hedy earned that Fritz always enjoyed. Fritz’s anger at being directly challenged means that he only wants Hedy to be desired by other men when they see her as his. Fritz’s fury and then subsequent sexual aggression towards Hedy conveys a type of fragile masculinity in which his ego is entirely dependent on the world’s perceiving him as the most powerful man in the room. When this is threatened because of Hedy, he takes it out on her by reasserting his ownership of her body. The ending of Chapter 12 is a dark contrast to the opening of Chapter 11 when the newlyweds are delighting in one another’s bodies for the first time; instead, sex in their relationship becomes a demonstration of authority from Fritz.
Chapter 13 uses the extravagance and beauty of the Villa to relate Fritz’s expectations of Hedy. As he guides her through the opulent home, he is showing her the life her sacrifices have bought, silently reminding her of what her good behavior has earned. Furthermore, his preference for tradition is highlighted as he demands that she sit at the far end of the table and reveals her hostess duties begin immediately. However, the revelation that her hostess duties simply entail showing up—and showing up beautiful—to dinner is a blatant reminder that Fritz chose Hedy for his wife simply for her looks. Like the baroque architecture and gold plates, Hedy is meant to be another ornament of Fritz’s wealth and power. Everything she once believed he loved about her is destabilized in this moment; instead, his condescension reveals an inherently misogynist standard impressed upon women for milieu—that because Hedy is beautiful she cannot also be intelligent or capable or interesting. This becomes a major consideration of the novel and a great obstacle to Hedy’s ambitions, allowing the text to explore the way the world actively belittles and limits women because of prejudice. For the time being, the chapter sets the tone for Fritz and Hedy’s relationship day to day; though Fritz wants Hedy to be seen, he will never see her for who she is.
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