The Silent Wife

The motif of infidelity repeats throughout the text, characterizing nearly all the relationship in the novel and serving as a catalyst for its conflict. In addition to Todd himself, Dean Kovacs, several of Todd’s other friends, Miss Piggy, and the client Jodi refers to as “the judge” are all engaged in forms of cheating—not to mention Jodi’s own father. Throughout the narrative, characters ruminate on and rationalize cheating, setting parameters for what counts as “serious” cheating and what cheating can be overlooked. Miss Piggy, for example, “maintains that having a lover stimulates her appetites and keeps her marriage alive” (24). For the judge, Jodi believes, cheating with men fills a necessary role in his life: “he can no more give up his gay pursuits than forgo the security blanket of his home life. Both play a part in fulfilling his needs, and both are important to his sense of identity” (23). Similarly, Jodi considers Todd’s infidelity to be a part of his personality, a flaw that she can accept because it doesn’t interfere with their lives. She is hurt by the cheating, a fact that becomes obvious when she seeks revenge against him—stealing the building key from his keychain, for example, and feeding him all 11 of Natasha’s sleeping pills—but she accepts it to maintain the relationship. Indeed, infidelity emerges not as marriage-ending but as a necessary self-indulgence that does not threaten the primary relationship. Todd’s philosophy on cheating, Jodi’s tendency to quietly overlook it, and the presence of infidelity in other relationships presents a view of infidelity that does not moralize it, but rather addresses it as a common practice that is handled differently by each couple.