The War Between the Tates: Analysis of Major Characters
"The War Between the Tates" delves into the complex dynamics of relationships and moral conflicts surrounding the main characters: Brian Tate, Erica Tate, Wendy Gahaghan, Danielle Zimmern, and Sanford "Zed" Finkelstein. Brian, a political science professor at a second-tier university, grapples with dissatisfaction and the realization that his life has not met his expectations. His affair with Wendy, a naive and idealistic student, leads to turmoil as his wife, Erica, confronts the betrayal. Erica, grounded in her conservative values, navigates her own moral compass while engaging in a tumultuous relationship with Zed, a 1960s guru, after separating from Brian. Wendy's journey reflects the era's counterculture but reveals her own vulnerabilities through repeated pregnancies and an eventual decision to seek a commune. Meanwhile, Danielle, Erica's best friend, serves as a cautionary example of independence devoid of fulfillment, struggling with her own failures in motherhood and relationships. The interplay between these characters highlights themes of fidelity, identity, and the search for meaning in a shifting societal landscape.
The War Between the Tates: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Alison Lurie
First published: 1974
Genre: Novel
Locale: Upstate New York and New York City
Plot: Social satire
Time: 1969–1970
Brian Tate, a political science professor at Corinth University in upstate New York, born into a long line of social achievers. Forty-six-year-old Brian is a dissatisfied and disappointed man. Because it is clear that his greatest accomplishment is to hold an endowed chair at a second-tier university, he suffers discontent in realizing that he will never be famous and important. While working on a new book, he is seduced by one of his students, Wendy Gahaghan, who convinces him that a physical relationship with her will abet the success of the book. After his wife, Erica, discovers the affair early in the novel, Brian agrees to break off the relationship. He does not quite do so, and Wendy eventually shows up in Erica's kitchen, crying and pregnant. Brian is then kicked out of the house by his wife, with whom he is reunited at the end.
Erica Tate, Brian's wife, a homemaker, conservative, well-read, and alert. Erica's actions usually are guided by a sense of moral righteousness, a holdover from her Presbyterian childhood. Erica accepts Brian's initial affair with Wendy, but only on the condition that he break it off. A few months later, Wendy visits Erica to apologize for her crimes against Erica and blurts out that she is pregnant. Erica takes Wendy under her own care, orders Brian to leave the house, and then helps Wendy secure a then-illegal abortion. During Brian's absence from the house, Erica attempts an affair with Zed, a 1960's guru who runs a metaphysical bookstore. Her attempt fails, and at the end she invites Brian to come home.
Wendy Gahaghan, Brian's student and mistress. Truly a flower child, something of a hippie, and gullible, Wendy serves the vague and naïve idealism of the era. She convinces herself that she is sacrificing herself to the arts and to humanity by repeatedly offering herself to Brian, and she becomes pregnant by him. Acting under pressure from both Brian and Erica, she has an abortion, only to become pregnant a second time at the end of the novel. (Brian may not be the father this time.) She is last seen heading west to join a commune with a young man who is her equal in gull-ibility.
Danielle Zimmern, Erica's best friend. Independent and divorced, Danielle is everything that Erica can become if she maintains her separation from Brian; as such, she is not much of a figure to emulate, for she is no happier without a cad for a husband than Erica is with one. Danielle is something of a failure as a mother, because she operantly—although perhaps not finally—hates her children. She has an affair with a veterinarian and accepts his first proposal of marriage with no real thought.
Sanford “Zed” Finkelstein, a former classmate of Erica, a 1960's guru and owner of the Krishna Bookshop. Zed is a social loner and something of a pariah; he has come to town because he knows Erica is there. He meets her after she separates from Brian, and they attempt several times, unsuccessfully, to have a physical relationship. Zed stands as a counterpart to Wendy, on one hand, and to Danielle's new husband, on the other.