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The First Hearing: 4
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Darkness at Noon, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Ideology and Contradiction
The Individual, or the “Grammatical Fiction, vs. the Collective
Logical Reasoning and Bureaucracy
Change and the Laws of History
Truth, Confession, and Performance
Summary
Analysis
The colorless electric light shines bleakly over the new prison. Rubashov tries to convince himself that this is all a dream: he tries so hard that he feels dizzy. As they reach cell No. 404, which has his name on it, he feels ashamed, realizing how well everything has been prepared and that he will have to endure what is to come.
While his earlier dream had a kind of vivid reality, Rubashov now wills his new reality to turn back into a dream. That he recognizes how well organized his arrest was probably indicates that he too has participated in others’ arrests.
Themes
