Voyage in the Dark features many sexist, transactional relationships between wealthy men and younger women. The novel tacitly criticizes men who treat women as if their only purpose is to provide fleeting moments of pleasure, but it also suggests that the women in these toxic relationships can still develop real romantic feelings—or, at the very least, feelings that seem real. Anna, for instance, becomes enamored of Walter, an older man who initially uses his wealth to endear himself to her. Although it’s quite clear to everyone around her that Walter has no intentions of starting a long-term relationship, Anna comes to see him as one of the great loves of her life. She’s consequently devastated when he abruptly breaks things off. Other women in the book undergo similar experiences. Anna’s friend Maudie, for example, often talks about a man named Viv who showered her with affection and money and then, once she developed feelings for him, abandoned her. Maudie’s story serves as a cautionary tale, but Anna doesn’t listen, a fact that suggests it’s very difficult to exercise caution while in the throes of romantic infatuation. Even though everyone around her warns her that Walter will eventually lose interest, Anna is shocked when it actually happens. And yet, the novel’s intention isn’t to make her look foolish or naïve. Rather, Voyage in the Dark underlines her heartbreak as a way of showing that even unhealthy, imbalanced relationships can still produce strong romantic feelings—feelings that overshadow everything else in life and make it hard to move on.
Furthermore, the novel illustrates that dysfunctional romantic relationships are often quite emotionally complex. For example, the exact nature of Anna’s attachment to Walter is hard to understand. She doesn’t like him when they first meet, finding his forward advances off-putting. But something about their relationship slowly transforms, and though the reasons for this shift remain ambiguous, it’s reasonable to infer that her strong feelings have something to do with a sense of dependency on Walter. After all, he not only gives her financial stability and a comfortable life but also a feeling of companionship—which, of course, her life in England otherwise lacks. In many ways, he becomes a paternal figure in her life, often patronizing her by acting like he knows what’s best for her career and trying to make sure she’s set up for success. In other words, he pretends to take an active interest in her life, which is significant because Anna has so few people who really care what happens to her. There is, then, a significant element of manipulation at play in their relationship, as Walter targets Anna’s vulnerabilities—namely, her poverty and her loneliness—to make sure she’ll continue to see him. Through Walter’s predatory treatment of Anna, the novel shines a light on why it can be so difficult to get over toxic relationships that are founded on manipulation.
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Sexism, Love, and Power Quotes in Voyage in the Dark
We paired off. Maudie went on ahead with the tall man. The other looked at me sideways once or twice—very quickly up and down, in that way they have—and then asked where we were going.
‘I was going to this shop to buy a pair of stockings,’ I said.
They all came into the shop with me. I said I wanted two pairs—lisle thread with clocks up the sides—and took a long time choosing them. The man I had been walking with offered to pay for them and I let him.
There was a door behind the sofa, but I hadn’t noticed it before because a curtain hung over it. I turned the handle. ‘Oh,’ I said, ‘it’s a bedroom.’ My voice went high.
‘So it is,’ he said. He laughed. I laughed too, because I felt that that was what I ought to do. You can now and you can see what it’s like, and why not?
My arms hung straight down by my sides awkwardly. He kissed me again, and his mouth was hard, and I remembered him smelling the glass of wine and I couldn’t think of anything but that, and I hated him.
Soon he’ll come in again and kiss me, but differently. He’ll be different and so I’ll be different. It’ll be different. I thought, ‘It’ll be different, different. It must be different.’
About clothes, it’s awful. Everything makes you want pretty clothes like hell. People laugh at girls who are badly dressed. […] As if it isn’t enough that you want to be beautiful, that you want to have pretty clothes, that you want it like hell. As if that isn’t enough.
‘Only, don’t get soppy about him,’ she said. ‘That’s fatal. The thing with men is to get everything you can out of them and not care a damn. You ask any girl in London—or any girl in the whole world if it comes to that—who really knows, and she’ll tell you the same thing.’ ‘I’ve heard all that a million times,’ I said. ‘I’m sick of hearing it.’ ‘Oh, I needn’t talk,’ Maudie said, ‘the fool I made myself over Viv! Though it was a bit different with me, you understand. We were going to be married!’
‘D’you know,’ she said, ‘I never pay for a meal for myself—it’s the rarest thing. For instance, these two—I said to them quite casually, like that, ‘When you come over to London, let me know. I’ll show you round a bit,’ and if you please about three weeks ago they turned up. I’ve been showing them round, I can tell you….I get along with men. I can do what I like with them. Sometimes I’m surprised myself. I expect it’s because they feel I really like it and no kidding. […]’
She came over and helped me to undo it. She seemed very tall and her face enormous. I could see all the lines in it, and the powder, trying to fill up the lines, and just where her lipstick stopped and her lips began. It looked like a clown’s face, so that I wanted to laugh at it. She was pretty, but her hands were short and fat with wide, flat, very red nails.
Joe lit a cigarette and crossed his legs and watched us. He was like somebody sitting in the stalls, waiting for the curtain to go up.
‘How old is she?’ Joe said.
‘She’s only a kid,’ Laurie said. She coughed and then she said, “She’s not seventeen.’
‘Yes—and the rest,’ Joe said.
‘Well, she’s not a day older than nineteen, anyway,’ Laurie said. ‘Where do you see the wrinkles? Don’t you like her?’
‘She’s all right,’ Joe said, ‘but I liked that other kid—the dark one.’
‘Who? Renée?’ Laurie said. ‘I don’t know what’s happened to her. I haven’t seen her since that evening.’
‘Of course,’ she said, ‘you must be a bit nice to them.’
‘Why not ten bob?’ she said. ‘That’s all right. Everybody’s got their living to earn and if people do things thinking that they’re going to get something that they don’t get, what’s it matter to you or me or anybody else? You let them talk. You can take it from me that when it comes to it they’re all so damned afraid of a scene that they’re off like a streak of lightning at the slightest…’
‘Did you have a good time? I bet you did. Redman’s a nice man. He knows his way about, you can tell that. Oh, I bet he knows his way about. You know, kid, I’ve been thinking you’ll want to go out more with your friends and not feel you’ve got to be in all day. I don’t mind, but we may have to talk it over a bit about the rent.’
She was sure she could get him to marry her if she could smarten herself up a bit.
She said, ‘Isn’t it awful losing a chance like that because you haven’t got a little money? Because it is a chance. Sometimes you’re sure, aren’t you? But I’m so damned shabby and, you know, when you’re shabby you can’t do anything, you don’t believe in yourself. And he notices clothes—he notices things like that. Fred, his name is. He said to me the other day, “If there’s anything I notice about a girl it’s her legs and her shoes.” Well, my legs are all right, but look at my shoes. He’s always saying things like that and it makes me feel awful. He’s a bit strait-laced but that doesn’t stop them from being particular. Viv was like that, too. Isn’t it rotten when a thing like that falls through just because you haven’t got a little cash? Oh God, I wish it could happen. I want it so to happen.”
‘Yes,’ I said. ‘I sold my fur coat, I could give her ten quid.’
‘It’s not enough,’ Laurie said. ‘She won’t do it for that. My dear, she’ll want about fifty. Don’t you know anybody who’ll lend it to you? What about that man you talked about who used to give you money. Won’t he help you? […]’
‘Poor little Anna,’ making his voice very kind. ‘I’m damned sorry you’ve been having a bad time.’ Making his voice very kind, but the look in his eyes was like a high, smooth, unclimbable wall. No communication possible. You have to be three-quarters mad even to attempt it.
‘You’ll be all right. And then you must pull yourself together and try to forget about the whole business and start fresh. Just make up your mind, and you’ll forget all about it.’
I went and got the letters. I didn’t look at them, except the one on the top, which was, ‘Will you be in a taxi at the corner of Hay Hill and Dover Street at eleven tonight? Just wait there and I’ll pick you up. Shy Anna, I love you so much. Always, Walter.’
