“I began our next session, our fifth, with a game.
What kind of game, Mary said. She arrived again in a hostile mood. Her complexion had improved, however; she even appeared, to my eye, prettier than I’d ever given her credit for being. She admitted that she’d been to a tanning booth on a lark with her sister Regina, that she hadn’t worn underwear and thus didn’t have a tan line. She offered to show me this lack of tan line, and even stood up and began unbuttoning her jeans, expecting me to stop her. She slowed her fingers, watching me intently, waiting for me to object.
I did not object.
You’re such a pervert, Beaton, she said, rebuttoning her jeans and dropping back to the couch. What would your colleagues say? Encouraging a patient to undress in front of you. Next you’ll be begging for a striptease.” -Uses of Enchantment, Heidi Julavits (page 166)
SUMMARIZE:
From the doctor’s perspective we learn that Mary looks more attractive than usual during this particular session and wants to flaunt the results of her recent underwear-less tanning session with her sister by showing him her lack of tan lines. When he does not react or object to her lowering the zipper of her pants, she gets disgusted, rebuttons her jeans, and flops on the couch accusing him of being a pervert.
ANALYSIS:
The tone of the doctor in this passage seems amused. He’s checking her out, and going along with her wanting to expose herself to him. He says that she “offers” to show the lack of tan line, but that she “expects” him to stop her. She “slowed her fingers” and watching him “intently.” She wanted a reaction out of him. He knows that she is just doing it to toy with him and tease him, and I don’t think that he expected her to go through with it, any more than she planned to.
SYNTHESIS:
This passage shows Mary’s desire to be looked at sexually. She wants to be noticed as attractive and to have an outlet to express her sexuality. The safest place for her to do this, is with a doctor that she knows she supposed to have a professional relationship with. She was waiting for an objection, because she knows it is wrong to expose herself. However, her need for sexual attention is so great and has most likely been suppressed for so long that she uses this venue and lays blame on the doctor for not objecting, calling him a pervert and admonishing him for what his colleagues would think if he had a patient undress in front of him. Additionally, she projects her desire to striptease on him as if it is his. It’s easier for her to accuse him of wrongful thoughts and wishes than it is for her to acknowledge them as her own, because she has been taught for so long that they are unacceptable behavior.
Just a quick thought: your use of the term “expose herself” is intriguing. Therapy is supposedly the place in which one exposes her psyche/mind, and yet Mary continually attempts to expose her body (which Hammer consistently reads as symptomatic of her psychological state).
Not sure where that’s going, just a thought.