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
On September 12, 1944 Sarah writes that she went out by herself and had a few drinks, but that this was a mistake. When Henry came home, he was excited to announce that he was going to receive an O.B.E. Sarah said she didn’t understand and Henry told her that, if he kept moving up through the ranks at work, then one day she could be “Lady Miles.” To herself, Sarah thought that she only wanted “to be Mrs. Bendrix,” which she could never do. That night Sarah remembered the time she asked Henry if he’d ever had an affair. Incredulous, Henry told her that he hadn’t and that he’d “never loved any other woman.” Sarah thinks to herself, “While I loved Maurice, I loved Henry, and now I’m what they call good, I don’t love anyone at all. And You least of all.”
As time passes, Sarah moves beyond actively pleading to be let out of her promise and settles into despair—she no longer begs God to release her from her promise, but rather accepts that she will never become “Mrs. Bendrix” and explores her own apparent lack of love, shown when she says she doesn’t “love anyone at all” now that she’s left Bendrix. Furthermore, for the moment, Sarah has given up denying God’s existence, instead merely stating that she doesn’t love God—rather than that God doesn’t exist.
Themes
