In The Only One Left, men prioritize their comforts, desires, opinions, and personal conveniences over the needs and wellbeing of women. This dynamic persists in both of the novel’s timeframes—its Gothic atmosphere of dread and claustrophobia is heightened by the powerlessness its female characters feel at the hands of the male authority figures in their lives.

In 1910, when Evangeline Staunton, the beautiful daughter of a wealthy and elite Gilded Age family, became pregnant by one of her family’s servants, she was in a potentially ruinous position. The social mores of her time dictated female sexual purity and fidelity to one’s social class, so she was in danger of becoming a pariah. Evangeline’s vulnerability was exploited by Winston Hope, a new-money social climber who coerced the Hope family into letting Evangeline marry him—even a marriage to a social inferior was better than having a baby out of wedlock. The controlling and abusive Winston reveled in his newfound power: He had numerous affairs and wasted Evangeline’s money, spending recklessly on the opulent Hope’s End even after his business ventures failed. The toxic family dynamic relied on patriarchal power: Neither Evangeline nor her daughters could stand up to Winston, and legally, they had no recourse to prevent his behavior.