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Originally Posted by gmw
Irene was ostensibly Clare's friend. It would have been odd not to go to her side. And that quoted paragraph is quite peculiar. We have "terror tinged with ferocity" and declarations like "couldn’t have her free", but we also have "laid a hand on Clare’s bare arm". Say what? I'm so angry with you I'm going to lay my hand on your arm? Scary.
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Irene stops her thoughts at the point of laying her hand on Clare's arm; it doesn't mean that was the end of her actions. Irene refuses to go beyond that point--and clearly SOMETHING happened beyond that, something that should have been obvious to Irene--Clare pulling away to commit suicide, or tripping backward, or, as I am convinced, being pushed by Irene. Which of those would Irene so sternly repress?
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Those sorts of think-one-thing-but-do-or-say-another contradictions exist in a lot of what Irene does throughout the book. I don't like her, I don't trust her, and I don't want to be her friend. But I'm not convinced she tossed Clare out the window. I think Irene would like to think she was capable; she may even believe she was responsible (perhaps Clare did step back, not to commit suicide, but in surprise or to regain personal space, forgetting how close she was to the window), and this would be enough to explain all those careful phrases/thoughts from Irene at the end.
For all that, I am not trying to convince you that Irene didn't do it; I'm just trying to justify why I didn't read it the same way despite the leading hints. I did see them, but I didn't believe them.
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You say you don't trust Irene, yet you rely on her fragmented account of the events at the party--e.g., her failure to report a scream, her rage-filled dash across the room ending in a gentle touch on Clare's arm.
I think Irene's unreliability is most apparent in the final scenes, and yet those are the ones in which you seem to take her at her word.