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Scene 2
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
In 1975, Jerry and Emma sit in a furnished flat—their illicit rendezvous spot. Their interaction is cold and dispirited as they discuss how it’s been some time since they’ve met here. Emma’s job running a gallery and Jerry’s increasing travel commitments for work have left them with no time to see each other, and their romance has withered.
This scene marks the play’s first move backward in time. Based on Jerry and Emma’s reference in Scene 1 to a two-year gap since they last met, this 1975 rendezvous is likely that last meeting. At this tail end of their failing romance, they are far more bitter and fed up with each other than during their reunion two years later. Interestingly, their affair has lost steam due to the same problem that stifles many normal marriages—increased work obligations.
Themes
Emma laments that their secret apartment has become just “an empty home.” Jerry replies that it was never a home; they both have real homes with their respective families.
They agree to sell the apartment. Emma says she doesn’t want any of the things in it, including a Venetian tablecloth. She gives her key to the place to Jerry, struggling to get it off her keyring. She says she believes they’ve made the right decision as she leaves.
Emma leans into the renunciation of her domestic fantasies, angrily rejecting the apartment’s household trappings. She claims to be convinced of this decision, but her struggle to remove her apartment key indicates that she struggles to let the affair go. This attachment is confirmed by the fact that Jerry is the first person she calls after her decision to divorce Robert two years later.
Themes
