The Glass Hotel: Chapter 4: A Fairy Tale Summary & Analysis

Claire’s comments about Vincent being a “girl” are meant to ridicule the absurdity of Vincent being married to a man nearly 40 years her senior. Claire’s promise to behave civilly toward Vincent conceals Claire’s inner discomfort about her father being married to someone so close to her own age. It suggests that Claire, like her father, realizes the importance of keeping up appearances. 

“Renascence,” the Millay poem to which Vincent refers, is about a woman’s life, suffering, death, and rebirth, and it seems to reflect some of Vincent’s mother’s anxieties and desires for her own life. Vincent’s mother’s admiration for St. Vincent Millay stems from the poet’s success in drastically changing her life’s circumstances, which Vincent takes to mean that her mother is unsatisfied with the domesticity and predictability of her own life. This adds another layer of complexity to Vincent’s grief over her mother’s death: at this point it’s been stated that Vincent’s mother died by drowning, but would she have drowned herself intentionally? Was she so unhappy with marriage and childrearing that she took her own life? If this is the case, Vincent might feel somehow responsible for her mother’s death, as it was Vincent’s very existence that imposed so many limitations on her formerly free-spirited, transient mother.

Vincent is ashamed of what her mother might think of her relationship with Jonathan because it’s the exact opposite of what Vincent’s mother admired in Millay: Vincent isn’t changing her life by her own efforts, but by glomming onto an older, richer man. She’s not fiercely independent, like her mother wanted to be; instead, she’s become meek, subdued, and wholly dependent on Jonathan.  Vincent’s thoughts about her mother imply that she regrets becoming so dependent and helpless. That Claire doesn’t know her father’s marriage is fake shows how false and impersonal their relationship is.

The ease with which Vincent concocts a false story about her and Jonathan’s wedding shows how accustomed to deceit she’s become in her short time as Jonathan’s “wife.” It also gives the reader more insight into the responsibilities Vincent has in the relationship: she’s supposed to make polite, harmless chit-chat around investors, giving the impression that Jonathan is a loving man who’s invested in his relationship with his wife.

Self-fashioning isn’t new for Vincent: she’s used to making people feel at ease from her years in the service industry. In fact, it was a willingness to lie and ingratiate herself with others that made her relationship with Jonathan possible in the first place. So far, the novel has depicted Vincent as someone who’s had a hard life and who’s often been down on her luck, but her willingness to lie and pretend in order to live a life of financial privilege with Jonathan shows that she’s just as susceptible to greed and self-serving behaviors as anyone else.

That Suzanne is referred to as Jonathan’s “real wife” suggests that their emotional relationship was authentic and intimate, unlike Jonathan’s relationship with Vincent, which is defined by its superficiality. That Vincent doesn’t tell Jonathan about her mother’s death underscores this superficiality: though she might disclose to Jonathan vague details about her past, she’s very careful not to offer anything that would put her in a position to be honest or vulnerable around him.

Vincent’s habit of imagining alternate worlds seems to be a metaphor for the way she thinks about her own life: things could be completely different had she not met, courted, and allowed herself to be swept away by Jonathan Alkaitis. That Vincent is so preoccupied by how things might have been implies that she’s not fully satisfied with the reality of her current situation. 

Vincent seems to have taken Grandma Caroline’s suggestion that the camera “lens can function as a shield between [Vincent] and the world” to heart: it’s only through her videos that she’s honest and unburdened by artifice. In her videos, she sees and interacts with the world in an authentic way; in all other settings, though most notably in her marriage to Jonathan, she is a performer, appearing and behaving as others expect her to behave. When Vincent must interact with Jonathan’s social circle, she has to play the part of the perfect, glamorous wife; when she’s alone with her camera, she can be herself.

This section offers some clarifying information about Kaspersky and Alkaitis’s prickly relationship. Given what the reader knows about Alkaitis’s future behind bars, it’s plausible that there’s some truth to Kaspersky’s claims about the fraudulent activity involved in Jonathan’s investing firm’s returns. Jonathan and Vincent’s relationship is built almost entirely on performance and inauthenticity, so it’s also plausible that both of them are lying here: Jonathan is lying to Vincent about the legitimacy of his investment firm, and Vincent is lying to Jonathan when she states her belief that Jonathan’s perfect returns are evidence of his skill. In reality, Jonathan could be involved in illegal activities, and Vincent might be more inclined to believe Kaspersky’s side of the story. If Vincent really does suspect Jonathan of fraud, things become more complicated, as keeping this information to herself makes her indirectly complicit in whatever illegal activities exist.

Jonathan’s argument about not wanting to attract negative attention seems rather weak and might make Vincent (and the reader) more suspicious about the nature of Jonathan’s business—about whether Kaspersky’s accusations are warranted. Jonathan’s comments about reputation mattering also speak to the larger philosophy around which he orders his life—that a person’s success depends upon an outward appearance of success and positivity. As Jonathan’s trophy wife, Vincent contributes to this illusion of success. 

In sharing this detail about the origins of Kaspersky’s money, Jonathan seeks to discredit Kaspersky’s allegations against him. In Jonathan’s logic, Kaspersky’s “unhinged” allegations are grounded more in emotion than fact.  Jonathan’s decision to tell Vincent about these allegations could be his attempt to gauge her loyalty to him: had Vincent responded to Jonathan’s story with anything but sympathy for his supposed plight, it might threaten her position in his life. When looked at from this angle, Vincent’s outward faith in the legitimacy of Jonathan’s firm becomes somewhat suspicious: does she mean it when she says that Kaspersky is jealous of Jonathan’s success, or is she simply telling Jonathan what he wants to hear, knowing that her own financial stability depends on her ability to stay in Jonathan’s good graces? That Vincent follows this odd interaction with Jonathan with a recording session implies that she needs to disconnect from society and be alone with her thoughts for a while, which supports the idea that her support of Jonathan was feigned.   Vincent’s anxieties about living an ambitionless life also hint at the idea that Vincent is becoming disillusioned by the disconnected, artificial quality of her life with Jonathan.

The asset management team’s “standoffish” behavior might be another clue that there’s something fishy going on with Alkaitis’s business. Jonathan’s comment about these people “work[ing] on a different floor” might suggest that there’s something different—and perhaps illegitimate—about this sector of the business, though this is mostly speculation.  

Vincent seems conflicted about her existence as a trophy wife: on the one hand, she feels somewhat oppressed by Jonathan’s expectations for her, which is why she reacts with inward disdain about his comment about her being “poised.” On the other hand, Vincent’s admission that she really does like Jonathan seems to suggest that she acknowledges—if subconsciously—that being in this performative relationship is a decision she has made for herself, and that she’s somewhat complicit in her own oppression. She seems conflicted about the ways in which being in this relationship has forced her to settle, personally and morally. Vincent’s musings about love pose a larger question about authenticity in relationships: does love make a relationship more real, or are people always pretending, to various degrees?

Vincent must feel particularly out of place at the Winter Formal since all the people Jonathan knows there knew his first wife, Suzanne, but Vincent aptly disguises her unease, aware of the expectations of the role she must play as part of her arrangement with Jonathan. In Mirella, Vincent seems to sense an internal unrest similar to her own, and this might be why she gravitates toward her. 

Vincent’s question about what it’s like to have a bodyguard underscores the novel’s larger theme of the clarity of mind a person can achieve when they are alone, especially in contrast to the stifling, distracting effects society has on a person. Mirella’s response that she’s gotten used to being followed underscores the idea that being a part of society and larger systems can prevent a person from examining themselves and the world around them. Mirella’s comment about hating to be a person “to whom other people are invisible” suggests that she’s ashamed of the ways in which her privilege has made her complicit in larger systems of oppression. Still, she chooses to remain in the system. Mirella and Vincent are in similar situations: both women have achieved a higher level of privilege due to the relationships they have with rich, older men.

That Faisal’s investments with Alkaitis have redeemed him in his family’s eyes illustrates one of the allures of wealth. It might be tempting to pass off Alkaitis and his investors as greedy, immoral people, but the novel illustrates that people have drastically different ways of seeking to acquire more wealth, and that everyone is capable of letting greed and social acceptance inform their decisions.

Mirella’s comments about the unchanging quality of her life abroad suggest the limitations of money in changing a person’s identity. That neither Mirella nor Vincent come from a privileged background helps explain why they remain invested in their relationships to their respective older men—both women know what it’s like to have nothing, which makes them all the more terrified of losing everything. Vincent’s thoughts about the absence of love in her relationship compared to Mirella’s shows how dissatisfied she is with her relationship with Jonathan—it seems likely that Vincent won’t be able to ignore these feelings of regret and disappointment through material indulgences, lavish vacations, and spending sprees indefinitely. Despite the fact that having money makes things easy and fun, Vincent seems to desire an authentic, meaningful life that can’t be bought.   

The juxtaposition of Lenny’s expensive suit with his intentionally messy hair shows just how much thought and effort he puts into his external appearance. This description suggests that Lenny is shallow and artificial, which also might mean that he’s untrustworthy. Given that he’s Alkaitis’s “most important investor,” it seems plausible that he might develop into an important character.

Vincent’s feelings of discomfort in response to Lenny’s comment about “recogniz[ing] opportunity” suggests that she feels guilty about using Jonathan for self-serving reasons, and about how her role as his wife forces her to behave inauthentically. It seems plausible that the Annika Lenny is speaking about now is the same Annika whom Paul met in Toronto, so this scene presents another example of previously disparate characters converging in an unexpected, almost fateful way. 

Annika’s rejection of Lenny and his production company is significant because it’s the first time a character has actively dismissed an opportunity on the grounds that it would make them complicit in actions and ideologies that go against their personal values. In contrast to Annika, for example, Vincent continues to take advantage of the opportunities being with Jonathan affords her, even though she feels ashamed of her cushy, privileged lifestyle at times. Lenny’s odd comment about wanting to work with Jonathan after he “figured out how his fund worked” hints at the possible illegal nature of the fund. Perhaps the claims that Ella Kaspersky has been making for years (and which Jonathan has always denied) have some truth to them. This is also supported by Jonathan’s sudden eagerness to change the subject. Regardless, Vincent either doesn’t see anything suspicious in Lenny’s comment, or she chooses not to understand it in order to keep the peace with Jonathan.

It’s symbolically significant that Vincent spends time with Mirella beside the pool. The novel uses water to symbolize isolation, and Vincent typically goes to the pool to be alone with her thoughts and demons. Inviting Mirella to share this space with her suggests that Vincent is willing to open up to another person in a way she hasn’t before. Vincent’s comment about how she “grew up on a road with two dead ends” is literally true (Caiette was remote and not accessible by car) but also reflects the hopelessness with which Vincent has always regarded her life and her prospects: she saw no way out of her circumstances, no avenue for upward mobility. This helps to explain why she stays in her loveless, phony relationship with Jonathan: because opportunity has so rarely come her way, and she’s afraid of not finding anything this good again.

Vincent and Mirella seem to understand each other so authentically that they don’t need words to make their feelings known to each other. The difficulty Vincent has in discussing the past gives more insight into the lingering trauma and grief she carries with her in the aftermath of her mother’s death and the other letdowns she’s suffered in life.

Mirella’s initial encounter with Faisal mirrors Vincent’s initial encounter with Alkaitis: they were both struggling financially, down on their luck, and happened upon a rich, older man who was willing to sweep them away into a life of opportunity, financial excess, and ease. Until this point in the novel, Vincent’s feelings about Paul and the role he might have played in the graffiti remain unknown, but it’s clear now that she’s estranged from him and still deeply disturbed by the graffiti.

Vincent’s remarks clarify what haunts her most about her mother’s death: that she’ll never know for certain whether it was planned or an accident—if her mother met a tragic fate, or knowingly and willingly abandoned her. Paul’s message inadvertently alluded to this insecurity, and she feels hurt and betrayed that Paul would so carelessly advertise suicide without any regard for how it would affect her.

Rather ironically, Alkaitis’s initial proposition to Vincent is one of the most authentic and straightforward interactions they will have in their relationship: it will be rare for her to know Jonathan’s true intentions after his initial proposal of their “transactional arrangement.”

The “ghosts of [her] earlier selves” Vincent sees are reflective of the guilt she feels at becoming part of a system of greed and self-interest. Just like Mirella, who hated becoming a person who doesn’t see other people (by which she means the staff or lower classes), Vincent hates that she’s become reliant on materialism and excess.