Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Nightwood, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Sexuality, Gender, and Nonconformity
Identity
Obsession and Despair
Otherness and the Search for Acceptance
Summary
Analysis
When Jenny and Robin arrive in New York, Robin shoots down Jenny’s suggestion that they get a house; Robin insists a hotel is good enough. Robin refuses to leave their room for two weeks and seems broken. Eventually, however, she decides to start going out. She goes to churches and seems like she’s renouncing something. Usually Jenny follows at a discreet distance. Jenny loses patience with how difficult it is to understand Robin—in fact, Jenny thinks Robin has some relationship with dark spirits—and becomes hysterical, spending all of her time stumbling around their room and crying.
When Robin was first with Nora, she begged for a home; with Jenny, Robin begs for the opposite. She sees Jenny as a temporary respite, a place to rest before she inevitably leaves in search of her home. Although she didn’t show it, Robin’s split with Nora was traumatizing. By breaking up with her, Nora effectively sent a message: if Robin wants to enjoy the security of a home with Nora, then Robin will have to learn to appreciate her. The thing that Robin is renouncing here is her former life—she intends to give up wandering and let go of her past in order to move forward, although she’s still not sure how to do that.
Themes
Robin wanders closer and closer to Nora’s house. Sometimes Robin sleeps in the woods, and sometimes she sleeps in the chapel near Nora’s house. Eventually, Robin moves her belongings into the chapel. One night, she wakes up to the sound of Nora’s dog barking in the distance. Nora also hears the dog and realizes something is happening. Unwilling to wait for whatever’s coming, Nora runs outside and notices a light coming from the chapel. Cursing, she runs over and stops in the doorway. Inside, Robin is dressed in boy’s clothes in front of a candlelit altar full of toys. As the dog runs in, Robin drops to all fours and barks at him. Robin chases the dog around on all fours while the dog, evidently frightened, tries to get away. Eventually Robin, exhausted, collapses on the floor and weeps, and the dog lies down with her.
Just as Matthew predicted, Robin returns to Nora in the end. Since being back in America, Robin has gone through a process of renunciation, but the process doesn’t finish until the final scene when Robin acts like a dog. Throughout Nightwood, Robin has been compared to an animal, meaning that she is somewhat wild and ill-suited to a domestic life. In the end, Robin almost seems possessed by an animal spirit, but by succumbing to her animal-like impulses, she’s also able to exorcise them. This leaves Robin raw, vulnerable, and emotional when it’s all over, but from this point Nora will be able to help her rebuild herself. After this, Robin and Nora may finally be able to find happiness and security in their relationship, coming to a sense of peace that’s hinted at when the dog lies down with Robin.
Themes
