Quote:
Originally Posted by gmw
THowever, if we accept Clare and Irene as standing separate to everyone else then the only way that other group will not see Irene push Clare will be if Irene is between Clare and the group, and has her back to the group, in which case it becomes difficult to read those paragraphs from Irene's perspective (she won't see "Brian stepping out" if her back is to the group), and that would be inconsistent with how the story has been told.
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On this point, I see that paragraph being from the omniscient narrator, not Irene.
I don't think the ending was intended to be ambiguous. Irene pushed Claire.
"... She couldn't have her free."
"What happened next, Irene Redfield never afterwards allowed herself to remember. Never clearly"."
"a sound not quite human, like a beast in agony. “Nig! My God! Nig!”"
"Irene wasn’t sorry. She was amazed, incredulous almost.
What would the others think? That Clare had fallen? That she had deliberately leaned backward? Certainly one or the other. Not—"
“It was an accident, a terrible accident,” she muttered fiercely. “It
was.”
"But there would be questions. She hadn’t thought of them, of afterwards, of this. She had thought of nothing in that sudden moment of action."
"What if Clare was not dead?"
Irene is trying to hide the truth from everyone, including herself. The fear that the thought that Clare might not be dead inspires is because a merely injured Clare could accuse her.
Clare is by the window, Irene in front of her, between Clare and everyone else. Bellow is nearest, between them and the rest of the group.
As for the rest, I don't feel qualified to comment.