Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Voyage in the Dark, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Homesickness, Memory, and Belonging
Sexism, Love, and Power
Race and Identity
Money and Happiness
Summary
Analysis
Anna has a terrible night in her new boardinghouse. Something seems to have gone wrong with the abortion, but there’s nobody there to help her. She slips in and out of dreams about the West Indies, remembering a masquerade she used to watch. Later, she hears Laurie’s voice in her bedroom—the landlady apparently called her for help, though she’s unhappy about this, pointing out that the landlady should have called a doctor instead. But the landlady didn’t want a doctor finding out that one of her tenants had an abortion.
Again, Anna is more or less on her own as she endures the frightening aftermath of an abortion gone wrong. Laurie’s presence (when she finally gets there) isn’t all that helpful or soothing, though she at least seems to urge the landlady to call an actual doctor. Both Laurie and the landlady’s impulse to distance themselves from Anna is due to the fact that abortions were illegal in England at this point in history. Therefore, nobody wants to help Anna for fear of being implicated in the illegal procedure.
Themes
Finally, Laurie and the landlady call a doctor and instruct Anna to say she had a bad fall. When he arrives, though, he immediately knows what really happened, recognizing that Anna was given quinine. “You girls are too naïve to live, aren’t you?” the doctor says, but he assures Laurie and the landlady that Anna will be better soon. He adds in a sarcastic, scathing tone that she’ll surely be ready to “start all over again” in no time. His words reach Anna in her dream state, and she drifts off while thinking about starting “all over again.”
Quinine is an anti-malarial drug that was believed to induce miscarriages in the first trimester of a pregnancy (the efficacy of this method has since been disproven). The doctor realizes that Anna has been given a large dose of quinine and instantly figures out that she has had an abortion. He responds with a sexist kind of condescension, as if Anna—and, in turn, everyone else present—is stupid. By saying that Anna will be ready to “start all over again” soon, he implies that she’ll continue having extramarital sex as soon as she’s healed. Anna, however, interprets his words differently, latching onto the idea of starting her entire life “all over again”—an idea that undoubtedly seems appealing, given the lonely, bleak existence she has been leading in England.
Themes
