Once There Were Wolves

The behavior pattern of domestic violence is often represented as a three-phase cycle in which loving and abusive behavior alternate. The three phases are commonly known as the tension-building phase, the crisis phase, and the calm or honeymoon phase. American psychologist Lenore Walker developed the model in her now-classic book The Battered Woman (1979) to better understand the complex nature of abusive relationships and why women stay with and at times defend the men who abuse them. The behavior of characters in the novel who are involved in abusive relationships, and even the behavior of the communities in which abusers reside, follow this pattern.

The first or tension phase is characterized by walking on eggshells so as not to upset the abuser. The partner fears that any perceived infraction can set off an episode of violence. In the novel, this phase mirrors Aggie’s behavior toward Gus. She matches his moods and makes sure he believes that she is having fun. Like Lainey, she keeps her fear hidden, knowing that her abusive husband will become angrier if he senses a change in her demeanor.

Duncan’s explanation of how he got his limp is an example of how a tension and crisis phase combine: “My father took to [my leg] with a cricket bat. Shattered my femur. Mam didn’t want to anger him further by taking me to a hospital so she bandaged me up as best she could, and it healed very badly” (170). Even while experiencing abuse, Duncan’s mother used her survival instinct to minimize further threat.

The crisis phase can include threats, destructiveness, abuse of drugs and alcohol, and acts of physical, sexual, and psychological violence. The clearest example of the crisis phrase in the novel is Gus’s rape of Aggie.

The beginning of Chapter 26 shows the escalation from tension to crisis: “Gus was miserable, and he was furious with his wife, who was frightened of him, and was trying to get through the days without ‘provoking him.’ […] So he often filled the house with men who drank with an almost defiant need to get drunk” (218). Though Inti is not Gus’s primary target, her behavior reflects a survivor’s hypervigilance: “I watched Gus now, doing shots. He was ignoring me. It would be all right. They would get drunk enough to pass out and I’d go to bed” (219). She tells herself to “ride it out” and not make a fuss. When Aggie arrives, she senses Inti’s distress right away: “She took one look at what was going on, clocked my expression, and turned to her husband. ‘What’s the game, darling? Deal me in’” (219). A master of diversion, Aggie acts to deflect attention away from Inti. Her efforts almost succeed, but Gus grows more persistent and coercive. “You love to play […] so play” (219). At this point, neither sister can prevent what is about to happen. Aggie has continued to drink hoping, like Inti, that Gus and his friends will get drunk enough to forget about them, but on this occasion, Gus is intent on hurting Aggie.

Like many abuse survivors, Aggie is a master manager. Usually, she knows how to prevent events from escalating, giving her a false sense of control in the relationship. When Inti unlocks her door and sees Gus and James taking Aggie into the bedroom, “she flashed [Inti] a look as she disappeared behind the door, not of control, but of terror” (220). The height of crisis is the rape itself, but McConaghy portrays the events, emotions, mindsets, and actions of the characters in a developing occurrence of sexual domestic violence.

The third phase of the cycle is the calm or honeymoon phase. This phase occurs after the crisis and is characterized by the abuser’s repentance and the survivor’s reassurance. The abuser feels guilty, cries, and promises the abuse will never happen again. They may promise to get help, and the survivor sees them again as the person they fell in love with. This phase can be a parallel with gaslighting, or the abuser’s psychological manipulation of the abused. The survivor wants the abuser to change and believes that this time, things will be different. After the rape, Gus seems dazed, unaware of what he has done. He sits on the floor with his head in his hands (222). In Chapter 28, he expresses repentance by trying to visit Aggie in the hospital. When Inti threatens him with a knife, he says he is sorry and begins to cry. She asks him why he did it, but

he didn’t answer me, would never answer because maybe he didn’t know why, maybe that was the true horror of it, that there would never be an explanation to make sense of this. He stopped crying and I saw him detach into that cold inner world of his, and I knew this for his coping method, one he had imparted to his wife (233).

Emotional detachment allows Gus, like other abusers, to live in denial of their actions.

“Battered Woman Syndrome” is a type of posttraumatic stress disorder specific to survivors of domestic violence. Walker coined the term in her book. It is characterized by intrusive memories, experiences, and hallucinations of the past. The survivor feels as if the event is happening repeatedly, which makes the traumatic past part of the present. Anxiety, avoidance, cognitive changes, and dissociation are symptoms of BWS. Though McConaghy never specifies that Aggie suffers from BWS, Aggie’s behavior is a textbook reflection of the condition.

When Aggie kills Stuart, it raises important ethical questions. In the novel, only Duncan kills the person directly responsible for abusing him. The women never get direct retribution; they kill stand-ins, or they do not kill at all. Aggie is the only battered woman in the novel who kills a male abuser, but her distorted perception makes her go too far, and she almost kills an innocent man. Her actions mark her as too dangerous and unstable to live in society. Gus is the man responsible for her condition, but she is the one who lives with and continues to suffer from his violence. Her victims are Gus’s victims as well, which is how the cycle of domestic violence perpetuates beyond the initial abuser and victim.