The Fury

Lana is a Hollywood movie star who became famous at an early age. Beyond her status as a movie star, she is a massive celebrity. After her husband’s death, she retired from acting at age 40 to devote her time to raising their son, Leo. Far from making her obsolete, her retirement only adds to her intrigue from Elliot’s perspective. According to Elliot, this is due to her charisma: “[T]here was some other quality about Lana—something intangible, the trace of a demigoddess; something mythical, magical—it made her endlessly, compulsively watchable” (9). This quote also illustrates Elliot’s idealization of Lana.

Elliot claims that he and Lana are best friends. However, through his idealization of her, and their manipulation of each other, Michaelides makes it clear that their friendship isn’t authentic. At one point in the narrative, Elliot himself admits this, observing, “Both of us performing for each other. It makes me so sad to write that. Sometimes I look back and wonder if that’s all it ever was—a performance?” (190) Lana is presented from Elliot’s perspective and colored by his idealization of her, resulting in a somewhat flat depiction of a stereotypical movie-star celebrity. Although the reader is told the details of her life, she remains two-dimensional until, in Act 5, the true story of her murder is revealed. Suddenly, with the reveal about Lana’s counterplan, she transcends Elliot’s flat representation of her and becomes the most real she has been. Elliot’s inability to see past his own assessment of her and recognize her capacity for agency is what makes her plan successful. Despite the presence of the counterplan and the hints of definitive truth throughout this final retelling of her murder, Elliot is still the narrator of Act 5, limiting the reader’s understanding of her character and of the other characters even in this final reveal.

Like Lana, Kate is an actor, but her experience is focused solely on the stage. She is loud, brash, and chaotic: “lots of jewelry, chains, bracelets, scarves, boots, big coats. It’s as if she were doing everything she could to be noticed” (16). Kate is also “always trying for a laugh—always looking for the joke in everything’ always arch and sarcastic” (33). This is again from Elliot’s perspective, who is directly comparing her to Lana, who he idealizes.

Elliot establishes and reinforces Kate’s position as Lana’s foil—they are opposite in everything from temperament to appearance, and though they have the same career, they approach it in quite different ways. Kate’s appearance, with dark hair and eyes, contrasts with Lana’s blond hair, while her chaotic energy is a counterpoint to Lana’s calmness. Elliot uses Kate’s contrast to Lana to emphasize Lana’s perfection and his idealization of her. However, he admits that if he hadn’t met Lana, he and Kate would’ve become good friends because she always makes him laugh. Kate also represents the different path Lana’s life might have taken if she hadn’t left acting, something that she is occasionally envious of. This envy, and the fact that Kate is Lana’s direct opposite, causes Jason’s affair with her to hit at the center of Lana’s insecurity.

The one way in which Kate and Lana are alike, according to Elliot, is that they are both romantics: “And that is precisely what she and Lana, so different in every other regard, had in common. They both believed in love” (210). This characteristic is one that Elliot doesn’t understand and couldn’t predict as he was scripting his plan. Kate and Lana’s behavior, completely human and unpredictable, undermines Elliot’s plan, which leads to his downfall.

Leo is Lana’s son with her first husband, Otto. He “look[s] like a younger male version of Lana—like a young Greek god” (54). Through this description, reinforced with his actual appearance—“[b]lond hair, blue eyes, athletic and lean” (54)—Elliot connects Leo with Lana, making him almost a shadow or extension of her, rather than a person in his own right. According to Elliot, he is like Lana in temperament as well: “a gentle soul, too, like his mother” (54). This resemblance is emphasized further by the close intimacy between Leo and his mother. Kate, upon finding out that Leo isn’t dating, wonders if it is because he is too “attached” to Lana, commenting, “Lana, Leo is besotted with you. He always has been” (55). In an echo of this adoration, Leo wants to be an actor, despite the fact that Lana objects.

Leo is, as Elliot points out, a “gentle soul.” He is vegan and plants a garden on the island, and he is upset by Jason’s hunting, protesting that “[i]t’s an act of violence. It’s disgusting and offensive. It’s gross” (66). His gentle nature and youth, however, don’t mean that he won’t take action—Leo takes a stand against Jason’s hunting by hiding his guns. In addition, Elliot worries about Leo’s acting abilities and whether he’ll be able to convincingly act like Lana is dead, but when the scene plays out, Elliot comments on Leo’s acting ability, telling Lana, “He gave a marvelous performance […] He’s inherited your talent” (236). This is truer than Elliot could realize at the time, as Leo is also deeply involved in Lana’s revenge plot against Elliot.

Jason is Lana’s second husband. She becomes involved with him and marries him just before Elliot proposes. The situation is complicated by the fact that Lana met Jason while on a date with Kate. Jason’s position between Lana and Kate continues as he carries on an affair with Kate while married to Lana. Elliot describes Jason as “handsome—well-built, with a strong jaw, clear blue eyes, dark hair” but also says that he is “deliberately brusque—that’s a polite word—and didn’t give a damn that he was being rude” (39). Nikos describes him, on his first visit to Aura, as “bad-tempered, in a suit and sunglasses, inspecting the island with a proprietorial air” (46). Jason is also keeping a secret from Lana—he is in financial trouble and needs her money to get him out of it.

Jason’s position as Lana’s husband sets him up as Elliot’s adversary, at least in Elliot’s mind. As such, Elliot isn’t able to muster the compassion for him that he feels for himself and others, as evidenced by Elliot’s narration: “I can’t see into the heart of the man—all the things he endured as a kid; the bad things, the indignities; the cruelties that made him believe the only way to succeed in life was to be selfish, ruthless, a liar, and a cheat” (63). Jason is also the only character who is kept in the dark about both Elliot’s and Lana’s plans.

Agathi is Lana’s housekeeper. She is 45 years old and has “a strong face, black eyes, sharp cheekbones—very Hellenic-looking” (41). She is Greek and first met Lana and Otto while serving at their favorite Mykonos restaurant. She has traveled and lived with the family ever since. According to Elliot, like everyone else, she loves Lana and believes herself to be Lana’s closest friend.

As someone whose ancestry is deeply connected to Aura and the surrounding islands, Agathi offers the reader a better perspective on the island. Her grandmother, who Agathi feels connected to as she goes about her duties on Aura, was seen locally as a witch. Agathi’s crystal is a reminder of that status, which Agathi carries as her descendant.

Agathi is extremely competent and professional at her job. Elliot describes her as having “precious little vanity, and even less free time, which she [doesn’t] waste on her appearance” (41). She has firm opinions about the people around Lana but doesn’t speak up. Elliot admits that he knows Agathi doesn’t like him, but she has never said so aloud. However, Agathi is also the person Lana depends on the most, and it is her approval that Lana seeks. Only after Agathi disapproves of Elliot’s plan does Lana decide they must stop, and when Agathi runs away from the scene, Lana follows her despite the fact that it puts the plan at risk.