Character Relationship Map: Closet Monster

Characters

• Oscar Madly (played by Connor Jessup) — protagonist

  Oscar is an eighteen-year-old preparing to graduate while applying to a special effects make-up school in New York. He works at a hardware store, develops feelings for Wilder, struggles with his fathe...

• Wilder (played by Aliocha Schneider) — supporting

  Wilder is a confident and charismatic new employee at the hardware store who becomes close to Oscar. After being fired, he invites Oscar to a costume party and later helps him after a painful episode,...

• Teenage Boy (played by Brad Nippard) — supporting

  The Teenage Boy is the victim of a violent homophobic attack witnessed by Young Oscar. His attackers impale him with a metal rod, creating a traumatic image that later returns through Oscar's painful...

• Young Oscar (played by Jack Fulton) — supporting

  Young Oscar is the eight-year-old version of Oscar who learns that his parents are divorcing. He retreats into a fantasy world of happier memories and conversations with Buffy, and he witnesses a viol...

Canonical Relationships

Family, romantic, and professional connections based on plot evidence.

• Oscar Madly → Young Oscar (Temporal Past Self) — Young Oscar represents the protagonist's earlier self and the origin of his trauma.

  The story follows eight-year-old Young Oscar and later presents eighteen-year-old Oscar reflecting on his childhood memories.

Story Dynamics

Alliances, conflicts, and narrative interactions that evolve throughout the story.

• Oscar Madly → Teenage Boy (Unknown Trauma Connection) — The teenage boy's murder is connected to Oscar's recurring physicalized trauma.

  Oscar's later painful hallucination of a metal rod bursting from his body echoes the attack he witnessed as a child.

• Young Oscar → Teenage Boy (Narrative Witness To Victim) — The boy's assault becomes a defining traumatic image in Young Oscar's memory.

  Young Oscar witnesses a violent homophobic attack on a teenage boy whose attackers impale him with a metal rod.

• Oscar Madly → Wilder (Social Friend) — Their friendship becomes Oscar's first meaningful connection outside his troubled home life.

  Oscar and Wilder's friendship develops while they work together at the hardware store.

Story Analysis

Oscar confronts childhood trauma, family rejection, desire, and identity before releasing the fantasies that protected him.

Plot Progression

1. A Childhood Split — Young Oscar learns about his parents' divorce and retreats into fantasy. He also witnesses a brutal homophobic attack that becomes a lasting traumatic image.
2. Desire At Work — As an eighteen-year-old, Oscar applies to makeup school and takes a hardware-store job. Meeting Wilder awakens attraction that Oscar tries to deny.
3. The Party's Wound — Wilder is fired and invites Oscar to a goodbye party, while Oscar faces rejection from school and conflict with his father. The party ends in sexual violence and hallucination.
4. A Difficult Confession — Wilder brings Oscar to the treehouse, where Oscar admits his confusion and kisses him. Wilder's disappearance then sends Oscar back into unresolved family pain.
5. Release Into The Sea — Oscar finds the hamster dead and confronts the physicalized memory of the metal rod. On Fogo Island, he learns the truth about the hamster and symbolically releases the past.