The Conditions of Will

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of rape, sexual and emotional abuse, anti-gay bias, child abandonment, substance use, addiction, and death.

Georgia Carter is the main character and first-person narrator of the novel. Her parents are Margaret and Will, and her siblings are Tennyson, Maryanne, and Oliver. Georgia is 24 years old in the narrative present and has lived in London, England, since she was 15. Georgia’s parents sent her away from their home in Okatie, South Carolina, after discovering her having sex with her sister’s high school boyfriend Beckett. (In reality, Beckett was raping Georgia, and she had no agency in this abusive situation.) Despite the fraught circumstances that led her to London, Georgia has made a home for herself there—developing relationships on her own terms for the first time, discovering her passion for psychology, and taking the first steps toward Confronting Personal Trauma and the Past.

Georgia is an introspective character deeply interested in the possibilities of human evolution. She realized these facets of her identity via her relationship with her “second-year psychology professor,” who not only “called [Georgia] out on a bunch of [her] shit” but also set Georgia “on this path of reading people” (73).