The Woman Upstairs Reading Guide & Discussion Questions

Book Club Discussion Questions

Print PDF

For supplemental discussion material see our Beyond the Book article, Ibsen's A Doll's House and our BookBrowse Review of The Woman Upstairs.

Please be aware that this discussion guide will contain spoilers!

1. Note Claire Messud's epigraphs for the novel—quotes from some very persuasive, and very powerful, male writers. How do these words set up expectations for the reader? How do these choices look to you upon finishing The Woman Upstairs? And what about the other male writers (such as Dostoyevsky and Chekhov) whose work is alluded to in Messud's text? Do they reveal anything about the author's own understanding of Nora's reliability, sense of self and potential literary legacy?
   


2. Nora introduces herself by saying: "My name is Nora Marie Eldridge and I'm forty-two years old. . . . Until last summer, I taught third grade at Appleton Elementary School in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and maybe I'll go back and do it again, I just don't know. Maybe, instead, I'll set the world on fire. I just might" (p. 5). Which choice seems more likely for Nora? How might she set the world on fire? Is the book itself an act of revenge?
   


3. At the beginning of the novel, Nora says: "I've finally come to understand that life itself is the Fun House. All you want is that door marked EXIT, the escape to a place where Real Life will be; and you can never find it" [p. 4]. Why does Nora feel that life is a Fun House? What does the Fun House represent for her? Why does she feel it's impossible to escape? Why is Nora so drawn to each of the Shahids? What do they seem to offer her, and how do her memories inform her attraction to them?
   

Unless otherwise stated, this discussion guide is reprinted with the permission of Vintage. Any page references refer to a USA edition of the book, usually the trade paperback version, and may vary in other editions.