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Scene 5
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 summer, Emma and Jerry are having a romantic tryst in their flat. When Jerry asks her about her trip to Venice and Torcello, Emma says she couldn’t go to Torcello because of a speedboat strike. Jerry mentions his plan to get lunch with Robert, and Emma asks him for what purpose. Jerry denies that they need a purpose to have lunch.
This scene chronologically follows the one before it, unlike Scenes 3-5. Emma is carrying on her affair with Jerry, even though Robert now knows. As the audience knows, Jerry will not find out that Robert knows until four years later. This scene shows Emma nervously dancing around this new reality, burdened by the imbalance of knowledge.
Themes
In the course of their idle talk, Jerry reveals that he’s had a virus and that his son has fallen off his bike, and Emma mentions that she’s read and enjoyed the book by Spinks that Jerry gave her. Jerry tells her that Spinks lives a solitary, ascetic lifestyle.
Emma presents a tablecloth she brought back from Venice, and the two of them discuss the state of their “home.” Jerry mentions a couple panicked close calls he’s had recently with his wife almost stumbling onto evidence of their affair. Finally, he recalls the moment long ago when he tossed Emma and Robert’s daughter up in the air while both his and Emma’s families were present.
Emma expresses domestic tendencies even in an illicit affair, revealing both the seriousness of the relationship and perhaps the limits of her imagination. The close calls Jerry recounts here provide a natural opportunity for Emma to mention that Robert has found them out. In not doing so, Emma in a sense betrays Jerry, even though she may just be trying to protect his peace of mind. Jerry’s recurring memory of tossing Emma’s daughter in the air again points to his nostalgia for the innocent closeness of their two families, when no secrecy was necessary.
Themes
