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Scene 1
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Betrayal, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love, Jealousy and Betrayal
Time, Perspective, and Identity
Literature and Integrity
Responsibility and Consequences
Summary
Analysis
Later that year, Robert has arrived at Jerry’s house. Robert is frustrated as Jerry struggles to get to the point of why he asked Robert to come. Finally, he discloses his meeting with Emma, lamenting the fact that she told Robert about their affair.
Robert, surprised, reveals that Emma actually told him about the affair four years ago. He thought Jerry knew that he knew about it this whole time. Jerry is shocked, not comprehending how Robert could have maintained their friendship for the last several years if he knew about the affair. Robert counters that, in fact, they haven’t played squash in recent years like they used to. Jerry remains baffled, while Robert is quite indifferent to the whole thing. He casually admits to having hit Emma and cheated on her for years, and he seems resigned to his current divorce. Robert is equally indifferent to the rumors that Emma has been having sex with Casey, whom he publishes.
Robert’s disclosure reveals that Emma has been untruthful with Jerry, going back to 1973—two years before their affair ended. Jerry’s cluelessness for the last four years again shows him to be self-centered and unthoughtful. Robert’s terse and indifferent attitude toward the whole situation, meanwhile, suggests his harshness and pessimism. His unemotional admission of abuse furthers this characterization, although the audience doesn’t know whether the abuse began before or after he learned of Emma’s affair.
Themes
The two of them discuss Casey’s artistic decline since the days when Jerry discovered him and convinced Robert to publish him, However, they concede that Casey still sells well, making them both money. Jerry says he's been reading Yeats recently. He recalls a time when Robert once went to the island of Torcello and read Yeats at dawn.
Robert’s steely indifference to the turbulent topics Jerry raised redirects their conversation to small talk. Their exchange reveals that their jobs in the book trade, which sometimes put them in business together, are lucrative but artistically unfulfilling. Jerry references the poet Yeats as a counterweight to this reality. In recalling Robert’s memories for him, Jerry further shows himself as fixated on the past, whereas Robert himself can’t be bothered with it.
Themes
