Portia's Dedication to her Job

Jean Hanff Korelitz finally depicts Portia as an actual human rather than an object. In these few chapters, Portia makes mistakes and finds herself in a morally dangerous situation. On her trip to the Quest school, she finds herself actively thinking of engaging in sexual relations with an old classmate from Princeton. Upon her return home, she finds herself feeling guilty for her previous actions. However, during the beginning of the dinner date with her old classmate, Korelitz does not describe Portia as thinking about the consequences of her actions. It is not until she returns that she is depicted to show any sort of remorse for having relations. This speaks to her personality that she can have sexual relations with any man, when she is already in a relationship with another man. These emotions point to two different situations concerning her relationships. Either she does not feel something real for the man in which she is engaging in a relationship with or she does not put as much value on these feelings. Both ways indicate that she is not fully dedicated to the relationship as a whole. Although she may be dedicated to her career, these actions show that she is not dedicated to her man.

Furthermore, after arriving back from her school visits she was hosting a dinner party. Colleagues of Mark, her significant other, came over to visit with both of them. A colleague of his from Oxford also joined their dinner party. Throughout the dinner, Portia felt personally attacked by Corinne, the woman from Oxford. However, at the end of the dinner party, Portia had a discussion with Mark in regards to Corinne’s behavior. Mark immediately took the side of Corinne and grew very angry with Portia. She hastily came to the conclusion that he knew about her affair. This is the first instance that the audience is shown any regret on Portia’s end. On top of that, it is also interesting that she does not think of anyone else in her thoughts of Corinne. Portia, very selfishly, began the night dreading the dinner party. She did not go into it with an open mind and was not acting as a hostess like she should have been doing for Mark’s sake. Mark went through the trouble of cooking and cleaning everything and yet she could not take a few hours out of her day to support him. Even after a night of losing her manners, she once again did not feel bad for the awkwardness. Usually, being the host implies that you are to keep the air clean, not dirty. She constantly was promoting the school, just as if she were still at her job. The fact of the matter is that she spends more mental time on her job than any other part of her life. This can lead to a lack of enjoyment in life and therefore I believe that this was a big part of her decision to have an affair and feel no remorse.