Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The End of the Affair, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Hatred
Faith, Acceptance, and the Divine
Jealousy and Passion
Adultery, Deception, and Honesty
Summary
Analysis
Mr. Parkis describes a party at Sarah’s house that he managed to sneak into by making Sarah believe he was one of Henry’s friends and vice versa. Mr. Parkis puts a package on Bendrix’s desk and tells him it is Sarah’s diary, which he found in her room during the party. Bendrix opens the diary and sees that it is a couple of years old, but the entries are not daily and they cover the time up until the present. Bendrix thanks Mr. Parkis and promises to tell Mr. Savage about how well he’s done his job. Mr. Parkis shakes Bendrix’s hand before leaving. Once Mr. Parkis is gone, Bendrix opens the journal. What Bendrix reads in the journal is “like a declaration of love,” and he notes that “It’s a strange thing to discover and to believe that you are loved.”
Bendrix considers it a “strange thing” to discover that he is loved. This highlights that Bendrix has become so accustomed to the idea of hatred—and has for so long been consumed by his own hatred of Sarah and the world around him—that encountering anything other than hatred feels strange and disconcerting.
Themes
