Another element to consider...

When reading "Janus" the reader should consider the theme of lies. Beattie displays Andrea's character as one who lies throughout the entire story and in fact makes her profession one of lies versus being something innocent or caring like a nurse or school teacher. Andrea is deceptive when it comes to her relationship to her husband because of the affair and the fact that she feels like she cannot talk to him about it. She also uses techniques and tricks to fool her clients. A specific example is when Andrea lies to the woman when she forgot the bowl at her house. She could have just told the lady it was her bowl and that she had used it in the home to help decorate it. Instead, Andrea's obsession comes across through her lies and she tells the woman that she was a potential buyer herself and was also looking at the home. She could not risk losing the bowl. Andrea's identity is a complete lie in who she is and how she portrays herself to others. She even pretends in the beginning of the story that she does not know where the bowl came from and that it is not hers when people from the show home call her and ask about it and at that point in the story, she does not seem as attached to it as she does in the end of the story when Beattie has already revealed some background information on where the bowl really came from. Lies, deciet, trickery, pretend, things not seeming as they are, are all evident in Beattie's, "Janus" and it leads to the overall theme of the story that there is something wrong with Andrea.