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Scene 8
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 winter of 1968, Emma steps into her bedroom. Jerry reveals himself waiting in the shadows, startling her. There is a party going on downstairs in Emma and Robert’s house. Jerry is quite drunk and aggressively comes on to Emma. Emma resists Jerry’s advances, but he grows bolder. He tells her that he fantasized about seducing her and “blackening” her wedding dress on the day of her wedding to Robert, at which Jerry served as best man. Jerry declares his total infatuation with and love for Emma as the only thing of any significance to him. Emma keeps insisting that her husband is right outside, but Jerry kisses her. She pulls away.
Throughout the play, Jerry and Emma’s relationship has come off as one of mutual passion and commitment. The audience may thus be surprised to see that it begins in such a jarring, drunken outburst of passion from Jerry to Emma’s shocked and unreceptive response. Jerry’s broadcasting of his transgressive fantasies and burning desires are totally uncharacteristic and will not occur again.
Themes
At this moment, Robert walks in, unemotional as ever. Emma explains that Jerry is drunk, while Jerry congratulates Robert on his wife’s beauty, speaking as his “oldest friend” and “best man.” Robert clasps Jerry’s shoulder, then leaves. Emma moves to leave as well, but Jerry grabs her arm, and the two of them stand looking at each other.
Even Robert’s appearance cannot subdue Jerry’s brazenness. Perhaps this moment convinces Emma of Jerry’s genuineness and lures her into the affair. Robert’s trademark refusal to admit that anything bothers him proves a massive miscalculation here, as Jerry effectively “outmans” him in Emma’s presence.
Themes
