Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Regeneration, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Masculinity, Expectations, and Psychological Health
War, Duty, and Loyalty
Male Relationships
Trauma and Mental Illness
Alienation vs. Belonging
Summary
Analysis
Prior, having finished his fortnight of confinement, shows up at Sarah’s lodging. At first she does not want to see him, but once he explains he could not leave Craiglockhart—thus admitting he’s a psychiatric patient—she agrees, and together they take the train to the beach. The beach is crowded with visitors, but Prior feels completely disconnected from the civilians apart from Sarah. An anger stirs deep inside him, rising briefly against Sarah as well, since they are so happy and ignorant while soldiers suffer and die in France. Prior feels that they “owed him something,” even Sarah. They leave the crowds behind and find a quiet place on the beach, and Sarah takes off her jacket, shoes, and stockings, and tiptoes around at the water’s edge. A storm is gathering in the sky.
Prior’s admission to Sarah that he is a psychiatric patient and thus suffered a mental breakdown marks yet another point of vulnerability that he shows Sarah and no one else, likely because she never asks or expects him to behave in a particular masculine manner. This scene also demonstrates Prior’s sense of alienation from other civilians since they have not shared his war experiences, suggesting that many soldiers feel alienated in this way. Prior’s relationship with Sarah thus offers him a critical point of safe contact with the civilian world, keeping him from becoming entirely alienated and isolated.
Themes
Lightning flashes across the sky and the rain pours. They run together towards the shelter of the forest, finding a hollowed buckthorn thicket to crawl into. In the excitement, Prior feels his anger towards Sarah fall away. Cautiously, in case Sarah doesn’t want it, Prior makes love to her in the thicket while the storm blows over. They crawl out and make their way back to civilization, stopping to eat at a pub, happy as can be. However, abruptly, Prior’s joy falls away entirely. When Sarah asks why, he tells her he is thinking about the war and the things they did, which disturbs her. Prior thinks she’s better this way, slightly sullen, and does not want to admit that something meaningful had taken place in the thicket.
Prior’s aversion to both his own and Sarah’s joy and happiness, in spite of the brief intimacy they shared with each other, suggests that his past trauma and the horrific suffering he’s witnessed has robbed him of much of his capacity for simple, unhindered pleasure. This both informs his feeling of alienation from the happy, ignorant masses of civilians, as well as demonstrates yet another tragic cost of war and its trauma upon young minds.
Themes
