The Devil Wears Prada

Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2003

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Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Chapters 1-5

Chapters 6-8

Chapters 9-10

Chapters 11-12

Chapters 13-15

Chapters 16-19

Character Analysis

Themes

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Important Quotes

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Themes

Portrait of a Narcissist

Miranda Priestley is exceptionally good at her job as an editor. Her work garners the admiration and praise of her colleagues. Unfortunately, Miranda’s elevated status in the fashion industry allows her to cultivate an attitude of entitlement. She expects instant gratification for every whim. From her perspective, her assistants exist only to cater to her needs and take the blame for her mistakes. Miranda exhibits all the classic qualities associated with narcissistic personality disorder.

Andy comes close to a textbook definition of this psychological condition when she observes, “There were those she perceived as ‘above’ her and who must be impressed […] Then there were those ‘below’ her, who must be patronized and belittled so they don’t forget their place, which included basically everyone else” (293).

Miranda’s attitude is, of course, delusional. However, she manages to create a bubble of influence that insulates her from reality. The people who exist within her fashion sphere are so impressed by her accomplishments or fearful of her power that they abjectly support her sense of entitlement.

Aside from the novel’s exploration of Andy’s character growth, it also serves as a study of psychological pathology. As the narrator, Andy is obsessed with describing Miranda’s atrocities in painstaking detail. Despite contempt for her boss, Andy is willing to feed Miranda’s egotism in the hopes that this powerful woman will further her career.

In her dealings with other people, Miranda generally operates on a quid pro quo basis—a favor for a favor. She perceives favors as bargaining chips. This tactic explains Andy’s observation that Miranda has no read friends. Everyone wants something from her. For her part, Miranda grants favors—but exacts far more in return than she gives out.

A Devil’s Bargain

Starting with the book’s title, the author consciously employs the metaphor of a Faustian deal with the devil. Miranda is immediately identifiable as the devil in this tale, while Andy is the innocent who falls into her trap. Unlike most of her predecessors in the assistant’s job, Andy is appalled by Miranda’s high-handed behavior. Because she lacks a fashion background, Andy can see the true nature of the editor’s abuses. Andy admits that she never followed fashion and had barely heard of Runway. In contrast, all her co-workers worship Miranda and would die to work for her.

Although Andy isn’t impressed in the same way as Miranda’s other hapless victims, the devil still finds a way to hook the innocent college graduate into doing her bidding. Miranda exerts a great deal of influence in the publishing world. Andy’s desire for a job at The New Yorker is her Achilles heel. Her weakness is that she doesn’t want to pay her dues and toil away as an obscure author until she gets noticed by the magazine. Miranda certainly has the means to fast-track Andy’s career, but that favor has a steep price tag.

As Andy sacrifices every personal consideration to Miranda’s endless whims, she fails to realize that she has also sacrificed her personal integrity. Rather, she rationalizes her behavior as a shrewd career move. Only the combined warnings of her parents and Alex, as well as Lily’s near-fatal accident, snap Andy back to reality. Her family and friends can’t understand her life at Runway. No one outside that delusional world could. Andy herself acknowledges, “I didn’t know how to explain this world that may have been only two hours away geographically but was really in a different solar system” (77). In this solar system, everyone orbits around Miranda. Fortunately, Andy changes her trajectory before it’s too late.

Image Is Everything

Miranda’s narcissism goes unchecked because she’s chosen her career field shrewdly. All narcissists are masters at creating an image that, at least briefly, charms their observers because they focus on style over substance. Runway is the very epitome of style over substance. In the world of high fashion, image is all-important. How one looks matters far more than who one is at the core. Miranda is a master manipulator of photographic images. Andy says, “Fuck all the people who believed that Miranda’s behavior was justified because she could pair a talented photographer with some expensive clothes and walk away with some pretty magazine pages” (370).

Despite Andy’s contempt, Miranda succeeds precisely because legions of people hold the same superficial values as she does. Pretty magazine pages define the boundaries of their world—a rarified atmosphere that’s highly insulated from life’s realities. Miranda has constructed an invulnerable persona because everyone else in the fashion industry, where image is everything, supports her delusion.

This precept is woven into the magazine’s corporate culture and daily activities. Miranda insists that her assistants wear high-fashion clothing. Their competence matters far less than their looking stylish. Andy is saddled with an army of fashion and beauty consultants who try to make her look like a fashionista when she accompanies Miranda to Paris. No one cares that the clothing is unsuitable for the climate or that the shoes are painful to wear. One must maintain a trendy image at all times. The practical reason for this frivolous obsession with fashion is that Miranda’s powerful façade relies on nothing more substantial than a few yards of fabric. No castle wall could possibly be as flimsy as that.