Woman Down

In Woman Down, Petra’s ambition to reclaim her literary relevance and complete a meaningful novel is initially portrayed as understandable, even sympathetic. The opening lines of the novel emphasize her anxiety about hearing her work discussed on the podcast and her dismay at her fans’ harsh treatment, linking it to a change in her relationship with writing and stymying her work. However, as Petra digs into the idea of lived experience as inspiration for her next novel, her artistic ambition takes over, and her actions become increasingly morally ambiguous. The novel ultimately argues that when ambition becomes untethered from ethical boundaries, it corrodes moral judgment and personal responsibility.

As Petra discusses her writing issues on her live broadcast with Nora and her fans, she becomes fixated on authentic writing and lived experience, an idea that she comes to believe is central to her return success as an author. The desire to fully inhabit her fictional world motivates her early interactions with Saint, particularly her request that he help her experience what Reya does in the book. However, what begins as research quickly becomes personal. Petra repeatedly justifies her questionable decisions about emotional intimacy and sexual involvement with Saint, and the secrets that result, as sacrifices required for her writing. Her ambition, focused on this new approach of lived experience, becomes a shield with which she rationalizes behavior that she would otherwise recognize as morally wrong.

This erosion becomes most apparent in Petra’s treatment of others, especially her husband, Shephard. He is a repeated source of support and comfort in Petra’s life. He reads her work and gives her honest feedback, cares for their children, and respects her retreats, remaining at home and taking care of their finances. Despite this, Petra lies to him repeatedly and is emotionally and sexually intimate with Saint without remorse. The juxtaposition between Shephard’s stability and Petra’s duality highlights how her artistic ambition is clouding her moral vision. She becomes more invested in producing a successful book than in preserving honesty or empathy within her marriage, even mentally replacing Shephard with Saint during intimate moments.

Saint’s manipulation further exposes how ambition distorts Petra’s moral compass. When she learns that Saint orchestrated the staged crime scene under the guise of helping her write, Petra recognizes the danger yet still feels drawn to him. When he kisses her after the revelation of his true identity, she thinks, “My intellect is screaming at me to protect myself, to run. But my nerves and the warmth building in my stomach are craving the opposite. My body still wants him to touch me, to kiss me, to fuck me” (268). She physically forces herself to pull away, fleeing the cabin and returning home. However, her fear competes with creative ambition, and ambition wins—she completes her novel Woman Down by using her experiences with Saint as creative fuel. This dynamic crystallizes in the moment that Petra, in the midst of an emotional crisis, finds the title for her book, highlighting her willingness to use even personal upheaval as artistic material.

By the novel’s end, Petra achieves what she wanted, as she publishes a critically praised book and gains renewed public attention. The cost is lasting guilt and unresolved entanglement, but it seems to be a price she is willing to pay. Her ambiguous response to the cabin reservation and final email suggests that she has found the compromise worthwhile, illustrating the dangerously corrosive effects of ambition on morality.