The Conditions of Will

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of rape, anti-gay bias, and emotional abuse.

Hastings uses Georgia’s father’s will as a symbol of the Complexities of Familial Relationships. After their father’s death, the reading of his will becomes a source of tension for the Carter siblings, as each believes that his last wishes will reveal the truth of how he saw each of them. Their anxiety is rooted in intergenerational prejudice. When their grandfather died, he left each of his grandchildren over $6 million but excluded Oliver, because he didn’t approve of him being gay. In the lead-up to reading their father’s will, the siblings worry that he will similarly discriminate against Oliver.

The reading of the will leads the Carter siblings to discover who their father truly was. In the will, he stipulates that Margaret will receive the primary and vacation homes and 10 percent of his company; Tennyson will receive 90 percent of the company and his car; Maryanne will get his yacht; Georgia will get a plot of land in New Hampshire; Alexis Beauchêne will get the lake house, and Oliver will receive the remaining $16 million in his personal bank account. The will clarifies that their father had a longtime lover, Alexis.