A Voyage In The Dark

By Mimi and Phoebe

Prostitution•Prostitutes-they are thought to be because they are chorus girls

•When her first land lady said “No, I don’t let to professionals” p8

•Would have been seen at 3am in the morning “crawling up the stairs”

•Beautiful but poor, undercurrent of disapproval from other characters ‘sneering’ implied they think she is a prostitute

Racial Identity•“I wanted to be black. I always wanted to be

black...being black is warm and gay, and being white is cold and sad” (p27)

•Her step mum accuses her of being mixed race

•The step-mother, Hester, hates the childhood friend, Francine very much

•Can’t reconcile identity, caribbean heritage contrast to her English race

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Clothes

•“About clothes, it’s awful. Everything makes you want pretty clothes like hell. “ p22

•Anna sees class as something that can be brought; she thinks the way to access a better life is is by dressing nicely and making a man fall in love with you

•She dresses in “black velvet”, metaphor she is mourning for her past Caribbean life

Depression•Sleeping all day, headaches, fevers,

lethargy,

•“I was thinking it was funny I could giggle like that because in my heart I was always sad, with the same sort of hurt that the cold gave me in my chest.” p14

•Everyone says how miserable she is, “soppy”

•“I sleep as if I were dead.” p97

Claustrophobia/Agoraphobia

•‘It’s a very nice place.’ She said so long as you don’t suffer claustrophobia. p70

•Sentence structure being long and descriptive and claustrophobic and all over the place a bit like the Gothic

•In England she feels it like a “high dark wall” p127 so it’s like an impasse

•She doesn’t leave the house often later often- developing agoraphobia

Language •Simple language , monosyllables for

most of the book, which Jean Rhys herself describes like ‘a kitten mewing’. This reflects Anna Morgan’s naivety as a character and also her emotionlessness and fogginess like a blanket over her. Her thoughts and feelings are unclear and not described in word but we get the meaning in what is left unsaid. Like a wordless sadness we know something is wrong. Childishness and vulnerability of Anna.

•Anti-thesis of Caribbean and England. The cold grayness of England contrasted with the colorful-purple in particular of the sunny Caribbean

Male Gaze

•“A cat may look at a King, so why not I at a prettier thing” p60

•Men treat her a child. Walter calls her a child, act as authority figures and takes advantage.

•Financial support, the males are used for this

Trapped/lost in time•“It was one of those days when you

can see the ghosts of all the other lovely days. “p122

•“Sometimes it was as if i were back there and it was as if England were a dream. At other times England was the real thing and out there was the dream, but I could never fit them together.”p7-8

•Uprooted, stuck in between the 2 part of neither, doesn’t belong

Aging

•“Yet they are always so scared of getting old,” p78

•“That’s when you can hear time sliding past you, like water running ” Time going too fast

•She doesn’t enjoy life at all, she is told she should but doesn’t

Questions•Do you feel sympathy for our

narrator, Anna Morgan, and if so why and if not why not?

•Who do you think is the villain of the novel, if there is one at all?

•Do you consider this a book about race considering there are few if any non-white characters and none who get a real voice

•How do we as modern readers react to how abortion is dealt with?