54 pages • 1 hour read
S. J. WatsonBefore I Go to Sleep
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2011A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Part 2, Chapters 2-4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 2: “The Journal of Christine Lucas”
Part 2, Chapter 2 Summary: “Friday, November 9”
Christine’s first journal entry describes waking up with no memories next to a husband she does not recognize. After Ben leaves for work, she receives a call from Dr. Nash. He picks her up from the house and takes her to his office. Christine believes she has never met Dr. Nash before, but he shows her a video of them working through memory tasks. He gives her a journal to record her memories each day before she falls asleep. Dr. Nash shows Christine a photograph of a house that she recognizes as her childhood home. She remembers the interior of the house and recognizes another image as her mother. Dr. Nash explains that her childhood memories are the easiest to access.
Driving Christine home, Dr. Nash advises her to hide the journal from Ben. Christine decides she will conceal the journal in a shoebox in her wardrobe. She asks Dr. Nash to remind her about the journal each day.
That night, Christine writes in the journal while Ben is downstairs. She knows that all her memories will be gone when she wakes up.
Part 2, Chapter 3 Summary: “Saturday, November 10”
Christine wakes thinking she is a child in her parents’ home. She goes through the process of learning who she is from the photographs by the bathroom mirror. Ben then explains her situation. She receives a call from Dr. Nash explaining who he is and where to find her journal. Reading the previous day’s entry, Christine can remember none of the events described. However, she finds the photograph of her parents’ house and recalls more images from her childhood. Instinctively, she senses that her parents are dead. Christine clearly remembers an incident from her teenage years when her father announced he was seriously ill. It is her most vivid memory yet.
That afternoon Christine and Ben walk up Parliament Hill to admire the view of London. Christine asks Ben to tell her about their life together. Ben tells Christine that they met in the college library when they were students. He says he proposed by embedding an engagement ring in a bar of soap. They married in a church in Manchester and honeymooned in the Italian Lakes. Christine observes that there are no photographs of their wedding in the scrapbook. Ben explains that a fire destroyed many of their possessions in their last home.
Christine realizes there are no photographs of their children, and Ben confirms they do not have any. When Christine asks about the accident that caused her memory loss, Ben tells her she suffered a severe head injury in a hit-and-run incident. Christine remembers wanting to be a writer as a child and asks if she fulfilled her ambition. Ben replies that Christine only worked as a secretary.
Ben and Christine see a firework display from the hill. Christine vividly remembers watching fireworks from a rooftop at a student party with a red-haired friend. She powerfully recalls the strength of their friendship. They share a joint, and her friend says she wanted to introduce Christine to a man. Christine asks Ben if she had a “best friend,” but he insists she did not.
Later that evening, Christine feels a sense of “dread” at going to bed with Ben. She undresses in private and feels awkward about seeing Ben naked. Ben kisses and touches Christine, but she feels anxious and tells him she is tired. Christine wonders if she has had sex with her husband since the accident.
Part 2, Chapter 4 Summary: “Monday, November 12”
Christine has an appointment with Dr. Nash at his office. She has read her journal entry for the weekend but remembers nothing of her time with Ben and what he told her. She again woke with no idea who Ben was. However, she tells Dr. Nash she has recalled that the red-haired friend from her student days wanted to be an artist. Dr. Nash suggests that Christine retains memories but cannot “access” them. He shows her a picture of the church where she married Ben, but Christine cannot remember anything about her wedding.
Dr. Nash asks Christine how she feels about the incident that caused her amnesia. Christine says that she cannot remember the event, so it is hard to hate the person responsible. On the way home, Dr. Nash takes Christine to the house she lived in before she lost her memory. The homeowner lets them look around, saying they bought the house 10 years ago from an architect. Christine asks for a glass of water and vividly remembers Ben appearing naked in the kitchen with two bottles of wine. She remembers passionately kissing Ben (who then had a mustache) and then going to bed. The memory ends when Christine drops her glass, and it shatters.
Christine feels relieved at finally having a positive memory of Ben. On the drive home, Dr. Nash gives her a cell phone so they can contact each other.
Part 2, Chapters 2-4 Analysis
Christine’s first journal entry takes her narrative back to November 9. From here, Christine and the reader begin to piece together her past and identity. The reader gets a sense of the repetitive nature of Christine’s life. Every day she goes through the same process of re-learning who she is but as if she is experiencing it for the first time.
In Chapter 3, Ben tells a series of lies that Christine will eventually expose over the following weeks. He claims that Christine lost her memory due to injuries from a hit-and-run accident and that a fire destroyed many of their photographs. Ben also claims that Christine was never a mother and did not fulfill her childhood ambition of becoming a writer.
By emphasizing the things she never accomplished, Ben encourages Christine to perceive herself as a failure. He also concocts a romantic tale about meeting at the college library. His story of Christine knocking her coffee over his books mimics the plot of a romantic comedy. As Ben feeds Christine this fictional history on Parliament Hill, she hears “the tail of [a] little boy’s kite [make] a sound like a death rattle” (64). The author’s use of this ominous simile at a romantic moment signals the threat Ben poses to Christine.
In Chapter 3, Christine has her first memory of Claire: a character who becomes increasingly important in Christine’s emerging sense of identity. The memory of sharing a joint with her friend at a student party suggests a more vibrant side to Christine’s character, which is currently being stifled.
Christine’s fluctuating feelings about Ben are also illustrated in this chapter. On Parliament Hill, she reflects, “I felt safe there, with this man. I could see that he was kind, and thoughtful, and patient. No matter how awful my situation, it could be so much worse” (67). However, only hours later, Christine feels “a creeping dread” (75) at the prospect of getting into bed with Ben. She relates her aversion to intimacy with Ben to her memory loss. Although she has been married to Ben for years, it feels as if they have only just met. However, as the novel progresses, it becomes clear that Christine’s feelings result from the subconscious knowledge that Ben is not who he claims to be.
On November 12, Christine’s appointment with Dr. Nash seems to confirm the “authority” of some of Ben’s claims. However, when Dr. Nash agrees that Christine’s wedding photographs were destroyed in a fire, he is simply repeating information Christine has told him in a previous session. In a similar misunderstanding, Christine tells Dr. Nash it is “hard to hate” the person who caused her amnesia because she cannot remember the incident. While Christine is referring to the hit-and-run driver Ben told her about, Dr. Nash assumes she is referencing the person who attacked her in Brighton. This miscommunication instills a false sense of trust in Ben’s character.
Dr. Nash’s motives remain opaque. His reference to the paper he is writing on Christine prompts her to question whether he simply sees her as an opportunity “to further his career” (86). The model of a brain in Dr. Nash’s office, “sliced down the middle, parted like an orange” (79), symbolizes his desire to dissect what lies inside Christine’s mind. When he touches Christine’s hand to comfort her, this may be a gesture of compassion or an attempt to exploit the older woman’s physical attraction to him.
Christine’s trepidation at visiting her old home marks her growing realization that her past is a “place it might be unwise to visit” (87). Nevertheless, she prioritizes her need for a sense of identity over her fear of discovering painful truths. The homeowner’s revelation that she bought the house from an architect is a potentially critical clue, signaling that the man Christine believes to be Ben is an imposter. However, Christine does not appreciate its significance, assuming that another couple owned the house after she and Ben. The protagonist’s falsely placed trust in her husband grows when she remembers him appearing naked in the kitchen. Perceiving this as proof that they were happily married, Christine does not realize she is recalling an extra-marital affair.
