Quote:
Originally Posted by Catlady
[...] Going back to the ending--I keep trying to find the ambiguity, but I just can't. Irene pushing Clare is the only interpretation that makes sense,[...]
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I think there is every chance that your interpretation is correct (as intended by the author) because there are many strong hints to suggest that Irene pushed Clare. But there are also the two glaring problems: how did she manage this without it being obvious to a room full of people that were watching them? And related but separate, where is Clare's scream? We're told so explicitly about the sounds that the absence of anything from Clare is strange - unless the "gasp of horror" is from Clare and that's all she feels like saying as her friend pushes her out the window.
I think it comes down to which parts you believe were intentional and which parts you believe were mistakes (or unlikely scenarios) by the author.
You pointed out at the the third-person telling could be more reliable than first-person, from which we might gather that we are expected to believe the hints we are given. But I'm not convinced that this inexperienced writer made the third-person choice deliberately for that purpose - as the distinction is quite subtle.
Whereas I (perhaps inappropriately) gave the writer credit for making me distrust Irene's PoV very early on, which means I was already set up to distrust the hints at the end. As a result I see the "glaring problems" mentioned in the first paragraph as being the way the author has given us to see past Irene's misleading hints. I don't even think there was an affair between Clare and Brian. (Is this any less subtle than the third-person thing? I think so, but
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I am now more confused than I was when I first read it, because I now see that suicide is the only thing that makes sense out of their being no scream, but I never saw Clare as suicidal. So if the author made an error in this aspect, or expects us to believe Clare fell with no vocal objection, then maybe she also expects us to believe that Irene could have pushed Clare with no one noticing (even though they were all watching). Just how forgiving do I have to be, and of what?