Lady in the Lake

Maddie Schwartz is the protagonist of Lady in the Lake. The novel centers around the year of her life that follows her decision to leave her husband after two decades in pursuit of opportunities to accrue the attention and recognition she felt denied as a housewife and mother. A well-respected and admired member of Baltimore’s Jewish community, Maddie relies on her connections to enable her self-invention. She married Milton Schwartz, 10 years her senior, at the age of 19. She actively sought this arrangement following a tumultuous sexual relationship with Allan Durst Sr., a local painter. Hired to create her portrait, the adult man took advantage of their sessions alone together to exploit Maddie’s youth, inexperience, and vulnerability after his son broke up with her. When Maddie discovered she was pregnant at 17, Allan Sr. arranged for and insisted that Maddie have an abortion.

As an adult in her thirties, Maddie views the abortion as a transgression. Early in her marriage to Milton, convinced that her inability to conceive a child was somehow related to the termination of her pregnancy, Maddie visited Allan Sr. one final time. She engaged in sexual intercourse with him, and then with Milton less than a day later, finally conceiving. She now firmly believes that her son, Seth, 16 at the time the novel begins, is Milton’s child. She claims to have loved Milton and to have enjoyed their 20 years together, but she shows little compassion for how blindsided he feels. She is primarily fixated on securing from him the steady alimony payments that will allow her to pursue her personal interests without having to worry about her income. Maddie considers her “job” of raising Seth to be at an end, now that the young man is approaching college. She appears to have no insight into how her son could be so frustrated and angry with her.

Maddie’s decision to finagle a job at the Star despite any previous newspaper experience is undertaken out of financial necessity. However, the appeal of the publishing world emerges in the form of the instant credit and notoriety that would accompany a byline. Maddie uses her proximity to the discovery of Tessie Fine’s remains to facilitate her advancement, respecting the culture and customs of the newsroom only enough to avoid being seriously reprimanded. She completes her desk work efficiently and diligently, but remains constant in her hunt for news exclusives that will distinguish her. Her immersion in the male-dominated world outside her former domestic sphere confirms much of what she had theretofore only assumed, and she makes the conscious decision to use her physical attractiveness and charm to circumnavigate the traditional merit and experience-based trajectory followed by most reporters who are eventually assigned their own beat. In her pursuit of the truth of what became of Cleo Sherwood, Maddie is reckless, naive, impudent, and often callous, ignoring both friendly advice and outright warnings about proceeding further.

In the relationship Maddie develops with Ferdie Platt, which spans the length of the novel, Maddie is guarded and distant, heavily invested in the excitement she derives from the adventurous and exploratory aspects of their sexually driven attachment. She believes herself to be progressive, distinct from her peers whose beliefs demand separateness and distance from those who are different than they are, but many of her actions and opinions prove contrary. She finds the difference between herself and Ferdie so compelling that she fetishizes him, but leans on the excuse that their relationship would not be well received publicly as a means of avoiding romantic intimacy. She uses him for the erotic thrills he consistently provides her and for the information he is able to share secondary to his role as a law enforcement officer. Her decision to ignore the inevitable consequences for him in favor of following a confidential lead that could only come from him marks the end of their involvement.

Maddie is consistently described as attractive by nearly all of the men and women who encounter her in the novel; her black hair, olive complexion, blue eyes, and physical presence, complimented by her sophisticated personal style, render her striking and difficult to ignore. Once an adherent to the more traditional, feminine, conservative, and elegant style of dress more common to suburban women, Maddie changes her fashion as she embraces her new self. She adopts ironed hair; short hemlines; bright, bold prints; and high boots. These changes place her among the high fashion, “mod” style of the mid-to-late 1960s. That said, she is aware of Perspective’s Role in Shaping Reality, so she adapts her appearance as needed; notably, she maintains her previous wardrobe and integrates these pieces into her office attire so as to inspire the respectability she hopes to establish.

By 1985, Maddie has gotten everything she wants, the only unresolved source of ill content the fact that she did not win the Pulitzer Prize for which she had been nominated. Maddie’s pursuit of Cleo continues. However, Maddie’s interest remains not because she cares about Cleo or hopes that Cleo is safe and happy; much more so, Maddie is aware that, if she could ever prove that Cleo faked her death and ran away with Ezekiel Taylor, it would make for a sensational story.