46 pages • 1 hour read
Jean RhysVoyage In The Dark
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1934A 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 3: Chapters 5-7; Part 4: Chapter 1Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Part 3, Chapter 5 Summary
Laurie receives a letter from Ethel and gives it to Anna, who is now staying with her. Ethel claims Anna “is a very deceiving girl” who owes her money and brings in anybody “she picks up in the street” (142). According to Ethel, Anna has revealed her pregnancy too late for Ethel to help her, has destroyed the room she rented from Ethel and still owes Ethel money.
Anna says Ethel actually owes Anna money, and does not understand why Ethel has approached Laurie. In the meantime, Anna has attempted other techniques to get rid of the baby she carries. As she starts to get sick again, Laurie mentions she knows a person who can successfully conduct an abortion for Anna but wonders if it may be too late. For that, Anna needs more money than she currently has, money she has gained from selling her fur coat. Laurie urges her to write Walter, as her time is limited, and he may be able to aide her during this crisis. Laurie advises her to be vague about her condition: “‘When you’re asking for money you don’t want to give people the idea that you’re down and out, you want to puzzle them a bit’” (144).
Part 3, Chapter 6 Summary
Anna and Laurie are at her friend d’Adhémar’s flat, waiting until Anna goes to meet Vincent. Anna is still trying to control her feelings of sickness and is highly sensitive to the smells around her.
Anna meets Vincent at Laurie’s flat; he has been sent by Walter. He correctly assesses that she is pregnant, and she assures him it is not Walter’s baby and that she has no idea whose it may be. Vincent promises on Walter’s behalf that he will help with the abortion and advises an indecisive Anna: “Just make up your mind and you’ll forget all about it” (147).
Anna has mixed feelings about keeping the child. Vincent seems to hint that this is all “nonsense” (147). He does not comprehend why Anna never got in touch with Walter, as he had prepared everything financially for her, to which she retorts, “‘So much every Saturday…Receipt-form enclosed’” (147). Vincent replies that in the end, that money will assist her.
Vincent tells Anna to let him know about when she needs the money for the abortion and to contact him directly. He notices the picture of Laurie on the mantelpiece and muses out loud: “‘She really is pretty. But hard,’ as if he were talking to himself. ‘They get like that. It’s a pity’” (148).
Before Vincent goes, he insists on Anna returning all the letters Walter has ever given her, to which Anna agrees. Vincent, in forced laugher, has faith that Anna has given him everything before he takes her leave.
Laurie returns with d’Adhémar to find Anna crying and admonishes her, saying that everything has been solved.
Part 3, Chapter 7 Summary
Anna is at Mrs. Robinson’s flat for an abortion. Anna gives her the money for the abortion, upon which Mrs. Robinson instructs her on what to do following the procedure. Anna drinks the brandy she is provided but is nervous: “‘If I can’t bear it, if I ask you to stop, will you stop?’” (150).
Although Mrs. Robinson agrees, she continues until the procedure is complete, despite Anna’s mild protest. When it’s over, Anna is in disbelief and crying, and she realizes “everything is different” (151). Anna is weak when she grabs a taxi and goes to her new flat at Langham Street, where Laurie waits for her.
She repeats to Laurie what Mrs. Robinson has said: “‘She says I’ve just got to wait and it’ll be all right. She says I must walk about as much as I can and wait; and not do anything—just wait, and it’ll be all right’” (152).
Anna needs someone to stay with her and Laurie suggests the charwoman, but she has a baby and Anna does not want her to know. Laurie consoles her that Mrs. Robinson is “clever” (152), so she should be fine.
Part 4, Chapter 1 Summary
Anna’s abortion has taken full effect, and she is found by the charwoman, Mrs. Polo, who calls Laurie, as she does not want to be involved in “a thing like this” (155). Laurie tells her she should have called a doctor, instead, and gives Anna the gin that Anna has requested.
Mrs. Polo and Laurie talk as Anna dips deep into delirium as the abortion does not seem to have been conducted appropriately. She imagines herself back in the West Indies during the Masquerade, with scenes flashing of Hester, her father, the dancers, the costumes and the reverie.
Anna feels worse and Mrs. Polo comments, “‘It ought to be stopped’” (157), in regard to Anna’s deteriorating condition. As Anna comes back to consciousness, she tells Laurie, “‘I fell for a hell of a long time then’” (158), to which Laurie says that is the excuse she must give the doctor, who appears to accept the reasoning.
After the doctor heals her, he assures that she will be all right: “‘Ready to start all over again in no time, I’ve no doubt’” (159).
Anna contemplates this as she watches a ray of light coming through the crack under the door: “I lay and watched it and thought about starting all over again. And about being new and fresh. And about mornings, and misty days, when anything might happen. And about starting all over again, all over again…” (159).
Part 3, Chapters 5-7 and Part 4, Chapter 1 Analysis
Anna’s escapism has dire costs; she is much farther along in her pregnancy than she imagined and has resorted to pills and concoctions to take care of the matter, rather than seek the permanent solution of an abortion. She must contemplate the idea that a child may be born, and she knows she is in no state to take care of it as a mother should.
Anna almost asks to be a tragedy and, perhaps, she looks forward to it, as it’s familiar to her. When d’Adhémar points out, “‘Of course, frustration can become something homely, desirable and warm’” (145), he almost appears to define Anna’s choices. Perhaps, the death of her father, the move to England, and the desertion by nearly everyone she knew or cared for has traumatized her to the point where she believes this perpetual “frustration” and victimization is where she belongs.
She finally jolts from her reverie upon realizing she wants an abortion and agrees to ask Walter for money. Instead, it is Vincent who arrives; by this time, he represents Walter, not only by taking care of his affairs, but also in that he is effectively the younger version of Walter. They are similar in appearance save Vincent is more arrogant, precise and indifferent toward Anna. Walter needs Vincent to handle his emotional affairs because he cannot. Unlike a younger man with infinite possibilities, Walter is more vulnerable because he is older, and his avenues ahead do not seem to go as far, and the consequences do matter. This is why Walter has Vincent ask Anna to return the letters, so that there is no evidence of Walter and Anna’s affair.
Until the end, Anna only wants to be approved and loved. Even before her operation, she wants Mrs. Robinson, who is French-Swiss, to like her, so she starts speaking French. Throughout this ordeal and the resulting pain, as Anna is bleeding later, at her flat, Anna manages through to cope via a collage of her dreams and memories of Masquerade. This festival is no different than life; everyone is on their voyage, their escape to a happiness that cannot be humanly attainable. Each person celebrating is wearing a mask and, finally, Anna seems to see white privilege: “A pretty useful mask that white one watch it and the slobbering tongue of an idiot will stick out” (156). The mask is made of how others perceive you, and it determines and sets your future as Anna realizes that she knows “why the masks were laughing” (157). When Anna recovers, she has a “new and fresh” (159) start; she has at least the possibility of having a second chance, which many others do not.
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