Perfect Marriage, Perfect Prison: A Psycho-Social Study of Manipulation and Coercive Control in B. A. Paris’s Behind Closed Doors

Abstract

B. A. Paris’s Behind Closed Doors is a story about the manipulation and coercive control that basically form the core of the book. This paper claims that Jack exercises control by organized psychological manipulation, pretending, emotional exploiting, and sadistically dominating rather than by physical violence. It applies a psycho-social approach that covers the concepts of Evan Stark’s coercive control, Erich Fromm’s sadistic love, and Alfred Adler’s compensatory behavior to support this claim. The analysis shows how Jack’s tactics break Grace’s autonomy and transform the appearance of a perfect marriage to a situation of psychological entrapment. It also shows that Paris depicts manipulation thematically and employs specific narrative strategies to disclose the unsettling psychological realities of coercive control. The study concludes that the novel portrays the deep impact of manipulation on autonomy, identity, and survival. These results stress the novel’s significance as a literary reflection on the hidden patterns of coercive control.