What are the main themes in Ruth Rendell's "The Wrong Category"?

The main themes in Ruth Rendell's short story "The Wrong Category" are gender roles and guilt and innocence.

In "The Wrong Category," the protagonist, Barry, has taken to visiting the sites of recent murders by a serial killer who is still unidentified and active. It is not clear to the reader why Barry does this, and one possible explanation is that he himself is the killer, returning to the scenes of the crimes.

When Barry encounters a woman who apparently fits the profile of the serial killer's victims, it seems to the reader that he poses a danger to her. However, the woman makes advances first to another man, then to Barry, and he is shocked, a reversal of normal gender roles.

The story challenges and reverses the reader's assumptions about who is the guilty party and about the likely roles of men and women in acts of violence. The reader initially assumes that Barry's behavior is sinister, while the girl is innocent and vulnerable, and that a serial killer is likely to be a man whose victims are women, both of which ideas turn out to be misguided.

Analyze Ruth Rendell's story "The Wrong Category."

An analysis of a literary work is based on the writer’s understanding of numerous components, including plot and structure, characterization, language, and genre. A useful initial step in writing a literary analysis is to determine the author’s goals. One can then evaluate if the author achieved them, and if so, how. An analysis differs from a summary, which usually emphasizes plot and briefly presents significant events as they occur within the work. An analysis is subjective in that it conveys the writer’s opinions, but it differs from a reflective essay in that those opinions are not primarily personal, emotional reactions. The analytical essay will not only state the writer’s opinions but also support them with specific evidence from the work.

Ruth Rendell’s “The Wrong Category,” like her other fiction, fits well within the genre of mystery and suspense. In this story, plot, structure, and characterization are carefully intertwined. An analysis might first address the nature of the mystery that the author is establishing and then explore how Rendell handles specific components. As the theme of murder is made prominent early on, the reader might assume this is a “who done it” type of murder mystery, in which the murder’s identity is revealed at the end. One could consider how the main characters of Barry and the young woman are developed to fulfill or challenge the reader’s expectations of a murder mystery. Are the characters convincing? Or are their quirks contrived to fit the story’s structure and plot outcome? Related aspects of the analysis could include how the author uses language and if the writing style adds to or detracts from the story’s overall effectiveness.