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In Nightwood, Djuna Barnes uses night to represent the hidden parts of Robin Vote’s personality. The other four primary characters—Felix Volkbein, Nora Flood, Jenny Petherbridge, and Dr. Matthew O’Connor—struggle to understand Robin because there’s so much about herself that she doesn’t say or share with others; one might argue that not even Robin understands herself, as she often seems to simply follow her impulses and drives. Among these impulses is the one to go out at night and wander the streets of Paris or even the woods in America, once she moves there. Although Robin doesn’t explicitly tell her partners not to follow her, they all get the distinct sense that they’re not wanted (in fact, Nora tries to go out with Robin for a while but couldn’t stand feeling like she was unwanted, so she started staying home). Robin feels most like her true self at night. Under cover of darkness, she can drink as much as she wants, act however she wants, and make love to whoever catches her eye. It is at night that Felix walks in on Robin holding their newborn son Guido high in the air “as if she were about to dash [him] down,” and nighttime again when she is finally able to come clean about the fact that she never wanted to have a baby. Night, then, allows Robin to express things that she struggles to articulate during the day. As Nora explains it, Robin “wanted […] to throw a shadow over what she was powerless to alter—her dissolute life, her life at night.” Robin returns to her home at dawn and sleeps during the day. She’s only comfortable with the night because by night her “dissolute life” doesn’t seem so dark or unnatural—she finds acceptance, freedom, and even herself in the darkness.
Night Quotes in Nightwood
The Nightwood quotes below all refer to the symbol of Night. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Night Watch
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The doctor, seeing Nora out walking alone, said to himself, as the tall black-caped figure passed ahead of him under the lamps, “There goes the dismantled—Love has fallen off her wall. A religious woman,” he thought to himself, “without the joy and safety of the Catholic faith, which at a pinch covers up the spots on the wall when the family portraits take a slide; take that safety from a woman,” he said to himself, quickening his step to follow her, “and love gets loose and into the rafters. She sees her everywhere,” he added, glancing at Nora as she passed into the dark. “Out looking for what she’s afraid to find—Robin. There goes mother of mischief, running about, trying to get the world home.”
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Watchman, What of the Night?
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“Have I not shut my eyes with the added shutter of the night and put my hand out? And it’s the same with girls,” he said, “those who turn the day into night, the young, the drug addict, the profligate, the drunken and that most miserable, the lover who watches all night long in fear and anguish. These can never again live the life of the day. When one meets them at high noon they give off, as if it were a protective emanation, something dark and muted. The light does not become them any longer. They begin to have an unrecorded look. It is as if they were being tried by the continual blows of an unseen adversary.”
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Go Down, Matthew
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“Time isn’t long enough,” she said, striking the table. “It isn’t long enough to live down her nights. God,” she cried, “what is love? Man seeking his own head? The human head, so rented by misery that even the teeth weigh! She couldn’t tell me the truth because she had never planned it; her life was a continual accident, and how can you be prepared for that? Everything we can’t bear in this world, some day we find in one person, and love it all at once.”
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She began to walk again. “I have been loved,” she said, “by something strange, and it has forgotten me.” Her eyes were fixed and she seemed to be talking to herself. “It was me [who] made her hair stand on end because I loved her. She turned bitter because I made her fate colossal. She wanted darkness in her mind—to throw a shadow over what she was powerless to alter—her dissolute life, her life at night; and I, I dashed it down.”
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“May they all be damned! The people in my life who have made my life miserable, coming to me to learn of degradation and the night. Nora, beating her head against her heart, sprung over, her mind closing her life up like a heel on a fan, rotten to the bone for love of Robin. My God, how that woman hold on to an idea! And that old sandpiper, Jenny! Oh, it’s a grand bad story, and who says I’m a betrayer? I say, tell the story of the world to the world!”
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Get the entire Nightwood LitChart as a printable PDF.
Night Symbol Timeline in Nightwood
The timeline below shows where the symbol Night appears in Nightwood. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
La Somnambule
...of leaving her bed, however, Robin seems lost, as if she’s done something terrible. One night, Felix sees her raise their baby high into the air as if she wants to...
(full context)
...and is rarely home, and Felix, overwhelmed by sorrow, doesn’t know what to do. One night, Robin tells Felix that she never wanted to have a baby and asks why they...
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Night Watch
...bought during their travels. Eventually, Nora finds herself alone in their house most of the night and a part of the day. She roams through the rooms, afraid of moving anything...
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...return to her. Tortured by Robin’s absence, Nora, too, begins wandering through the streets at night, hoping to catch just a glimpse of Robin in a café. On the other hand,...
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Watchman, What of the Night?
...women’s clothing, and an abdominal brace. Matthew is on his bed wearing a wig, a nightdress, and a lot of makeup. Seeing that it’s her, Matthew yanks the wig off and...
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...irritated because he was expecting someone else, asks Nora if she’s ever thought about the night. She says she has, but it does no good to think about something she knows...
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Matthew says he’s talking about French nights and explains that they’re different because the French keep both night and day in their...
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...like the Frenchman who puts a coin in the collection box for the poor at night so that he’ll have it to spend the next morning. Matthew goes on to say...
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Matthew notes that some of the worst atrocities and tragedies happen during the night. In this way, the dead are responsible for some of the evil of the night,...
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“Night people” never bury their dead, but their wakeful partners carry both the beloved’s dead and...
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...about the other women who share her position, waiting for their partners to return at night, which makes Nora cry. Matthew rhetorically asks if he knows his “Sodomites” and what it’s...
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Matthew says that this isn’t everything about the night—there’s so much more, but he can’t explain it all. He assures Nora that a person’s...
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...best love she can have is someone else’s. Matthew repeats that he’s coming to the night Nora is most interested in—the night Jenny met Robin. Matthew says he was at the...
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...friend for a good meal and whiskey—and this led to the ride they took that night. Matthew describes their route, which took them along the very street where Nora and Robin’s...
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Go Down, Matthew
One night, Matthew was hurrying home to bed, hoping that in the morning he wouldn’t wake with...
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...boy who died of an infection while his father, a famed singer, was performing one night. Then Matthew changes the subject back to Robin, saying that she’s beautiful but he never...
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...always left again. Matthew mentions that she must have been coming back at dawn, when night people are most frightened. Nora says that the love between her and Robin was impossible...
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The Possessed
...in the chapel near Nora’s house. Eventually, Robin moves her belongings into the chapel. One night, she wakes up to the sound of Nora’s dog barking in the distance. Nora also...
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