Femme Fatal

A Femme Fatal is an alluring and seductive woman whose charms ensnare her lovers in bonds of irresistible desire, often leading them into compromising, dangerous, and deadly situations.

From the website Artandpopularculture.com


From the beginning we read about the way Phyllis seduces Walter into her web and gives him a sense of power which gave her the ability to control him. In the beginning of the second reading we see how Phyllis gave Walter the opportunity to kill her husband all the while making sure that to him it seemed as if it were his idea. She is still trying to seem helpless and is trying to give him a sense of power as if he were still in control of the situation. She lets him talk down to her as if she didn’t know what she was doing, in the end she knows that if they ever get caught she can play the defenseless woman who couldn't defend herself against the mean bad man. When the plan to kill her husband is put into play she follows all of his instructions just like he taught her, or some would say just like a pro. While Phyllis is taking Walter to the train station we catch a glimpse of her cold nature as she pretends to talk to her husband as if she wasn’t just about to kill him. "A woman is a funny animal", Walter quoted this as a way of describing Phyllis while he watched her naturally interact with her husband, as if she didn’t have a care in the world. To me this meant that women can act naturally as if nothing were wrong even in the direst of situations. The first time Phyllis ever shows signs of being unstable is after they disposed of her husband's body. "I loved her like a rabbit loves a rattlesnake", what Walter meant by that was that even though Phyllis may be trouble and might one day cause his destruction he still loves her. When Walter talks to Lola he finds out that Phyllis was there when the first Mrs. Nirdlinger died, this is when he starts to think that maybe he had been played all along. In my opinion Phyllis has all the characteristics of a Femme Fatal she's a beautiful woman who seduced Walter and will in the end, end up being his demise.