Content Warning: This section describes and discusses the source text’s treatment of death and murder, domestic abuse, sexual violence, and drug and alcohol misuse.

While the novel presents a physical duality in Lucy, who presents herself as a student and Margot’s peer even though she’s older and doesn’t attend Rutledge, the deeper meaning of dual identity in the text is internal. Lucy argues that any person would commit murder “under the right circumstance” (110), implying that every person has a hidden, violent side that would lash out if they knew that their actions would have no consequences for them. This idea is a common theme in literature, and the novel directly references one of the most famous examples, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, adding dimension to this theme. As Margot struggles to become more like Eliza or Lucy, she encounters her own violent internal persona, and the same violence emerges from Sloane and Nicole, implying that feelings of anger, love, and betrayal can provoke this violent element of humanity.

For Margot, feelings of betrayal spark the moments in which her hidden identity surfaces, such as when she rejected Eliza and pushed her, perhaps accidentally, to her death.