My Best Friend Monologues

The age old question remains unanswered as intimate partner violence continues to plague society, why did she not just leave him? In order to understand why some women stay in these unhealthy relationships, it is crucial to evaluate the situation from beginning to end and assess each individual separately and as a union. In Leslie Morgan Steiner’s memoir, she gives a personal insight of the violence she faced at the hands of her ex-husband Conor for three years. Leslie may have stayed was because of the void in her life that he filled, her sense of obligation to help Conor have a better life, and how dependent she was of him. Leslie came from a drunken mother whom she feared and loved at the same time, a career crazed father who sacrificed his home life for work, a bother Hugh and a sister Sylvia. During Leslie’s adolescent years she experimented with sex, alcohol, and drugs to cope with her mother’s alcoholism to the extent that her mom would sometimes refer to her as the “Washington Whore” (Steiner 18).
As with every relationship, Conor was the ideal gentleman in the on the surface. From the moment he and Leslie met on the subway she was infatuated by Conor’s
Recalling Conor’s first attack on Leslie when he choked her out after sex, instead of confronting him or calling anyone for help she made light of the situation. Despite how scared she was, “somewhere deep down in my stomach . . . there was a cold, hard feeling, a kind of fear I’d never felt before . . . My hands shook slightly under the covers” (Steiner 83), she thought maybe it was kinky sex and climbed back in bed with Conor to hold him tightly until she fell asleep. Although Leslie was blind to what really occurred, her passiveness may have validated for Conor to continue and escalate the attacks. Before Leslie was able to grasp the rapid changes in her life over such a short period of time, she was already under his