The Woman in the Window (A. J. Finn)

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1. What is the genre?

Global — Thriller > Psychological

Secondary — Worldview > Revelation

2. What are the conventions and obligatory scenes for the genre?

Conventions

MacGuffin (This is the Villain’s Object of Desire, what he or she wants): Ethan is a psychopath. He wants to fool Anna and get her to trust him so he can watch her, study her, get to know her without her catching on. And also get away with murdering his real mother, Katie.

Investigative Red Herrings (seemingly revelatory false clues that mislead the Protagonist): There are many red herrings in this story. Some of the false clues that mislead Anna are the earring she finds in her tenant, David’s, room that resembles the earring the murdered woman wore. David also admits to being an ex-con who did prison time for assault which makes him look like a potential killer. There’s Allistair Russell who has a bad temper and strangles Anna. Ethan makes up many stories including how his father killed his birth mother and his parents buried her body. Anna also finds a photo of herself sleeping and a hand drawn picture of herself both which she believes are proof that someone is messing with her, but the police believe she took the photo and drew the picture all on her own.

Making it Personal (The Villain needs the Hero to get the MacGuffin and thus must victimize the Hero to get what he or she wants):  Ethan enjoys that Anna’s profession is a child psychologist and he has outwitted her. By getting her to trust him, he has gotten away with a murder she witnessed.

Clock (There is a limited time for the Hero to act; failing to act burns precious time): There’s not much of a ticking clock until the last few chapters. Throughout the story, nothing is pressing Anna to find out the truth about “Jane,” the woman she believes she saw murdered, except that everyone, including herself, eventually questions her sanity. But once she finds a photo of “Jane” the clock starts ticking for Anna to prove she’s sane and to uncover who killed her.

Obligatory Scenes

An Inciting Crime indicative of a master Villain. There must be victims: Inciting Crime is when Anna sees “Jane/Katie” get murdered. The crime is indicative of a master Villain because Anna cannot see who killed “Jane” and the Russells and the police all gaslight Anna because she has PTSD and is on a ton of medication and alcohol. Ethan is a master Villain who is an expert manipulator. There are many victims in this story due to the psychopath Ethan: Katie who is murdered, Anna who is gaslighted as insane, Ethan’s father who has to lie for him, Ethan’s mother who doesn’t know the truth and even Ethan because he never gets the right kind of therapy to help him with his psychopathic tendencies.

Speech in Praise of the Villain: speech by a character, or a revelation, that praises the cunning/brilliance of the villain: In the Ending Payoff, Ethan praises himself for how smart he was at misleading Anna by manipulating her with lies. He posed as an old lady on the Agora website, he changed her passcodes on her phone and computer, he created a fake email account on her own computer because he stole her house key and snuck into her home many nights. He even goes further as to call her stupid and say that she’s the worst psychologist because she didn’t realize he was a psychopath.

The Hero/Protagonist becomes the Victim. A scene reveals that the Villain makes his crimes personal to the Hero and the Hero becomes the primary Victim: Anna she realizes she’s a victim when she wakes up in the middle of the night wondering how Ethan knew her cat was injured when he hadn’t seen the cat. Ethan reveals himself to be in her home right then because he has been sneaking in and watching her almost every night. And on that last night he’s going to kill her and make it look like an accident.

The Hero at the Mercy of the Villain. The core event of the Thriller, the All is Lost Moment when the Hero unleashes his or her gift: This is the scene when Anna runs from Ethan and ends up on the rooftop despite her agoraphobia. She uses her gift as a psychologist to get him to talk about his emotions while using her knowledge of the weakening skylight to lure him closer. She finally pushes him onto the skylight. When it breaks, he falls through to his death.

False Ending (there must be two endings):

Ending 1 – Ethan tells Anna that his parents murdered and buried his real mom and he can’t hold onto the lie anymore. He promises he will them to turn themselves in to the police. Anna believes this will bring an end to resolving the murder and prove her sanity.

 Ending 2 – Ethan shows up in Anna’s house in the middle of the night confessing he killed Katie/Jane and that he’s a psychopath. He’s been watching Anna at night and intends to kill her making it look like an accident. But she gets him on the rooftop and eventually pushes him through her weak skylight resolving ending # 2.

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3. What is the point of view?

First person, present tense.

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4. What are the objects of desire?

External/Conscious: Anna wants to solve the murder she believes she saw.

Internal/Subconscious: Anna needs to admit her husband and daughter are dead and that she can’t stop living. What her friend Bina says in the last chapter is: “If you don’t want to die, then you’d better start living.”

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5. What is the controlling idea / theme?

Life is preserved when the protagonist unleashes their special gift.

The protagonist, who is victimized by the villain, regains their life when they have the courage to face their darkest moments and choose to fight so they can continue to live.

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6. What is the beginning hook, middle build and ending payoff?

Beginning Hook: Agoraphobic Anna becomes interested in spying on her new neighbors, the Russells. When she befriends Ethan Russell and his mother Jane, Anna begins to finally start interacting with people again. But when she hears a scream from their home one night, she becomes suspicious. When Anna sees Jane get stabbed, she reports the murder to the police and has to decide whether or not to leave her house to help Jane. She does but passes out eventually waking in a hospital facing questions by a Detective and a Doctor about her behavior.

Middle Build: Anna is forced to apologize to her neighbors including Jane Rusell, who turns out to be a different woman than who she met. But she is proven to be unreliable due to her alcohol abuse and hallucination inducing medication causing the Detectives and her neighbors to disregard anything she says. Anna reports more worrisome discoveries blaming the Russells forcing Detective Little to reveal the truth about the death of Anna’s husband and daughter. Proven to once again be unreliable, the Russells are cleared while Anna admits it’s true. She finally leaves the Russells alone.       

Ending Payoff: When discovers photographic evidence that the woman she believed she saw murdered really did exist, she begs Ethan to tell her the truth. Ethan spills information that his parents killed the woman she saw in the window and he promises to get them to turn themselves in. But the twist is revealed that Ethan sneaks into Anna’s house one more time to reveal he has been manipulating Anna all along and that he murdered “Jane”/Katie, his biological mother and now he must make Anna’s death look like an accident. If Anna is going to live, she must face her agoraphobia or die at Ethan’s hand. She chooses to fight, leading Ethan to the rooftop where she pushes him onto the weakened skylight, killing him. After facing her darkest moments and her deepest fears, Anna is finally able to take steps to go on living.

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