An Anonymous Girl: A Novel

Content Warning: This section of the guide discusses suicide, in addition to strong psychological manipulation.

Jessica Farris is the novel’s protagonist and one of its narrators. In contrast with Dr. Shields, Jessica’s narrative style is more casual and emotional. In the story’s exposition, Jessica introduces The Nature of Morality as a key theme and urges the reader not to judge her without knowing the full story. During her initial session, Jessica admits to questionable but benign moral choices: She has slept with married men, lies to get into the study, and keeps a big secret from her parents about Becky’s accident. As a freelance makeup artist in New York, Jessica is also driven by her need for money, both to survive herself and to help her family. Jessica also harbors guilt for not telling her parents that she locked Becky in her room: “I didn’t know the omission would continue to swell and gain in strength with every passing year” (87). Jessica is lured into Dr. Shields’s study at the prospect of large payouts and finds herself Confronting Uncomfortable Inner Truths.

During the experiment, Jessica admits a great deal about herself to Dr. Shields. For a time, she also comes to admire and emulate Dr. Shields, dressing like her and wearing the gifts she is given. She soon starts suspecting that Dr. Shields has nefarious motives, however, and lies to her while also colluding with Thomas to expose Dr. Shields’s actions against April. In order to do this, Jessica must break and enter, lie to April’s mother, and more. She eventually comes clean to her parents about Becky and manages to escape Dr. Shields’s grasp by exposing her part in April’s death. Jessica proves herself to be brave, resourceful, and intelligent but remains until the end a character capable of making morally ambiguous decisions, as she blackmails Thomas after Dr. Shields’s death.

Dr. Lydia Shields is the deuteragonist and antagonist of the story. She narrates with a clinical and emotionally distant tone. She is first introduced as an ominous figure who replies to Jessica through a screen during an experiment but soon becomes intrigued by Jessica’s willingness to sleep with married men and her likeness to April. She invites Jessica to participate in a real-world study in which the nature of morality will be tested. Dr. Shields manipulates Jessica, faking empathy and learning as much as she can about her. Jessica simultaneously becomes enamored with Dr. Shields, wanting to be like her and constantly thinking about what Dr. Shields might think. Dr. Shields’s narrative style is unique in that she uses the second person, writing notes that are directed right at Jessica and that often comment on Jessica’s appearance, her body language, and what Dr. Shields assumes she is thinking.

Dr. Shields’s biggest weakness is her husband, Thomas, and her major preoccupation is finding out if his infidelity was predestined or not through an interrogation of The Nature of Morality. Dr. Shields succumbs to The Stronghold of Obsession in relation to both Thomas and Jessica and, previously, April as well. It is later revealed that she is responsible for April’s death. She claims to have done this all for Thomas, but there is clearly more to her motives, as she became irate with April after April revealed sleeping with a married man. Over the weeks that Jessica knows Dr. Shields, she comes to realize that Dr. Shields may be trying to do the same thing to her, and she and Thomas work together to expose the therapist. Dr. Shields’s experiment is one that she views through a selfish and clinical lens; she treats Jessica and Thomas as objects and uses them to advance her own goals. Dr. Shields often philosophizes about morality, lies, infidelity, and the decisions that shape a life while behaving in a contradictory or hypocritical manner. Her own decision to lock her sister out when they were teenagers indirectly led to her sister’s death, and her decision to hurt April led to her marriage disintegrating. In the end, Dr. Shields’s final decision is to end her own life the same way April did, but not before saving Thomas’s reputation and professing her love one final time.

Thomas is Dr. Shields’s husband and the object of her intensive psychological experiment. He is a dynamic character who at first appears to be a selfish man who cheats on his wife but later reveals “a core of goodness in him” when he defends Jessica and tries to keep her safe (415). Thomas is a psychologist like his wife and always seems to be on edge. Thomas had a one-night affair with one of his patients, April, who was 23 at the time. April became obsessed with Thomas, much like Dr. Shields herself. Thomas faked an affair with another woman to try and divorce Dr. Shields, who otherwise would not let him go. The affair served only to gain him a separation, and the following months saw the couple in therapy and attempting to reconcile. Thomas fakes his love for Dr. Shields because he knows she’s dangerous and he has no real way to escape her.

Jessica becomes involved when Dr. Shields needs a pawn for her experiment to test Thomas’s loyalty, and Jessica ends up meeting Thomas by chance. The two sleep together but manage to hide this from Dr. Shields. Still, Thomas and Jessica work together to expose Dr. Shields, and Thomas proves himself to be a loyal comrade, though he is partially motivated by his desire to preserve his license and practice. He tells Jessica about April’s suicide, warns her about Dr. Shields, and lies on behalf of Jessica to get her away from his wife. Despite his favors, she still decides to blackmail him a month after Dr. Shields’s death.