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Margot is a flawed protagonist whose choices cause her to tolerate a sexual encounter that she does not want but feels she cannot avoid. Her uncertainty about Robert’s feelings for her clashes with her desire to be cherished like a “delicate, precious thing.” She wants both to be protected and to assert control, to steer the relationship to the outcome she wants and to enjoy her status as a pretty young woman. During sex with Robert, in fact, the only pleasure Margot takes happens when she imagines him looking up at her and thinking that he has never had sex with a more beautiful woman. Robert’s rough and impersonal treatment of her shatters this fantasy, however, and causes Margot to understand that she is not much more than a tool for his sexual gratification.
Culturally conditioned to try to please her date, Margot spends so much time curating and managing what she thinks are Robert’s concerns, fears, and worries that she loses sight of her own needs and hopes. These surface in the form of fantasies that both threaten her—as with the murder scenarios—and protect her, as with the “future boyfriend” she imagines during sex with Robert. These contradictory desires and expectations, some authentically hers and others culturally inculcated, frustrate Margot. She asks “why this was all so hard” and feels sick over the situation she blames herself for having gotten into. Yet her flaws and youthful vanity also make her human and vulnerable, traits that tend to resonate with many readers, particularly millennial women, as per the widespread social media response when the story was published.
