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Chapter 6
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in If on a winter’s night a traveler, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
The Act of Reading
Academia and Publishing
Censorship and Government Oppression
Love, Lust, and Anxiety
Summary
Analysis
The narrator compares the feeling of starting a new book to the feeling of hearing the first ring of a telephone. The narrator often feels anxiety about telephones, hearing them in other houses and assuming that it’s his own telephone.
This story begins with yet another metaphor for the experience of reading. The “network of lines that enlace” in the title could refer to the literal telephone lines that connect people, or it could also refer more metaphorically to how reading builds connections between people.
Themes
Every morning before going to class, the narrator jogs. Sometimes, as he passes by houses, he can hear telephones inside them, as if the telephones are chasing him. Other times, everything is silent. One day, he becomes obsessed with a house where the telephone keeps ringing, but no one answers. He circles the house a few times before eventually leaving to continue his run.
The unanswered telephone symbolizes how even with the technology to connect people instantly, it can still be difficult to communicate. The narrator’s obsession with the unanswered phone perhaps reflects a fear of this lapse in communication—mirroring the Reader’s fear that Ludmilla has abandoned him at the café.
Themes
The narrator runs until there are no more houses. But he can’t forget the constantly ringing telephone, so eventually he turns around to go back to that house with the telephone. He answers the phone and says that no one is home. The voice on the other end doesn’t seem to listen to the narrator and instead starts giving him an address. The voice says that someone named Marjorie is tied up and will be waking soon. If the narrator doesn’t come to see Marjorie within half an hour, the house she’s in will be burned to the ground.
The narrator tries to communicate, but his efforts only confuse him further. The “network of lines that enlace” now stand for the conspiracy that the narrator has somehow gotten involved in, as well as perhaps representing the ropes used to tie up Marjorie. The narrator came looking for connection but instead found restrictions, as he himself gets “tied up” in a complicated conspiracy.
Themes
The narrator feels he should call the police or the fire department. But he doesn’t know how to explain to them why he picked up the telephone in the first place, so eventually, he just runs out. He wishes the best for Marjorie.
When the narrator is in danger, he thinks of social institutions like the police or fire departments and realizes they can do nothing to help him, showing the limits of what government can do.
Themes
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The narrator tries to think of any Marjorie he knows and eventually remembers Marjorie Stubbs from when she attended a class he was teaching. The narrator noticed her because she was attractive, but he feels he embarrassed himself when he invited her back to his house to lend her some books—she refused, misunderstanding his intentions.
The relationship between the narrator and Marjorie is yet another relationship that parallels the relationship between the Reader and Ludmilla. Notably, just as the narrator struggles to communicate on the telephone, he also struggles to communicate in person with Marjorie.
Themes
The narrator keeps running, seeing some girls on campus who are headed to his class. He asks one of them about Marjorie, and the student says she hasn’t seen Marjorie in two days. The narrator immediately sprints to the address he heard on the phone. There is Marjorie Stubbs tied to a sofa and gagged. The narrator releases her, but she just calls him a “bastard.”
And so, the narrator’s story is an exaggerated representation of anxiety. The narrator said one wrong thing to Marjorie in the past, and now it has come back to haunt him, with her kidnapped and blaming him for it. Even after untying Marjorie, the narrator remains entangled in the conspiracy, reflecting the difficulty of communicating.
Themes
