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Scene 7
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 the summer of 1971, Jerry has just arrived to the flat as Emma cooks a stew. In their amorous chitchat, Emma mentions that she saw Jerry’s wife, Judith, getting lunch with a woman yesterday. This bothers Jerry, who is immediately suspicious—both of his wife and of Emma’s presence at the restaurant. Emma claims she was eating with her sister.
This scene sets the play in reverse-chronological motion again. Emma’s cooking further emphasizes her traditionally domestic tendencies. Jerry’s jealousy of Judith here is of course an irrational double standard. The whole exchange shows the potential for deceit to breed further deceit once the grounds for trust have been shaken—as they necessarily have in an affair. Given the deceptions Emma already engages in, the audience has reason to doubt that Emma was actually at lunch with her sister.
Themes
Emma wonders if Judith has suspected their affair. Jerry is convinced she hasn’t. He then reveals that Judith has an admirer of her own, a colleague at the hospital where she works, though she claims it’s perfectly innocent. Emma pries into whether Judith might be cheating on Jerry, and he says no but seems unsure. They then both ask whether they’ve been “unfaithful” to each other, though they both deny it.
Emma reveals that she’s become pregnant while Jerry was away on business and that the child is definitely Robert’s. Jerry expresses a muted congratulations.
Emma’s pregnancy by Robert is, ironically, an act of unfaithfulness to Jerry. In her hesitancy to mention it, Emma reveals that she herself understands this, irrational as it is. Jerry certainly feels the sting, though in typical fashion he avoids confrontation.
Themes
