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
In the morning, Ethel wakes Anna and asks about her time with Carl. She likes Carl and doesn’t mind what Anna does with him, but she tells her to be careful about letting their neighbors see them sneaking around at all hours of the night. She then suggests that Anna could spend even more time going out with her friends—that would all right with her, she says, though it might mean she and Anna might have to renegotiate the cost of Anna’s rent. Anna, for her part, just lies there in bed and agrees with everything Ethel says. Later, she gets up and finds five quid from Carl in her handbag.
Anna isn’t a sex worker, and yet her relationship with Carl is similar to the kind of relationship a sex worker might have with a client. Ethel, for her part, recognizes this and urges Anna to embrace the role of a sex worker. When she suggests charging Anna extra rent to use the flat as a place to bring back the men she sees, Ethel essentially gets one step closer to running the secret brothel she has seemingly wanted to open the whole time.
Themes
Carl doesn’t return for several days, which seems to make Ethel nervous. Finally, he calls and invites Anna to dinner, and they develop a regular routine of going out to dinner and returning late at night to Ethel’s flat. Meanwhile, Ethel raises the rent and insists that it’s a reasonable amount to charge, especially since the flat is such a good place for bringing back all sorts of friends.
Ethel has finally managed to benefit from Anna’s youthful good looks. She encourages Anna to go out with wealthy older men and bring them back to the flat to have sex, ultimately benefiting from Anna’s new unofficial source of income.
Themes
In a conversation with Carl one day, Anna learns that Joe is married. The discovery prompts her to ask if Carl is married, too, and he admits that he is. He also has a young daughter, but he refuses to tell Anna anything about her. Not long after this conversation, Anna goes out with him for the last time. He gives her 15 quid, and then she never sees him again. She does, however, run into Maudie, who tells her that she’s been seeing a successful man who likes her quite a bit. She even thinks he’ll marry her if only she manages to make herself look presentable, but she doesn’t have the money to do so. Anna agrees to give her just under 10 pounds.
It’s important to note that Voyage in the Dark isn’t necessarily about sex work. Rather, the novel explores the ambiguity of sexual relationships between young women and wealthy older men—relationships, of course, that resemble sex work. But Anna doesn’t think of herself as a sex worker, and neither does somebody like Maudie. Instead, they simply become involved in relationships that happen to be with emotionally unavailable men who use their wealth to make up for a lack of genuine connection.
Themes
