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Chapter 26
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Woman in Cabin 10, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Entrapment and Isolation
Perception vs. Reality
Trauma, Mental Illness, and Resilience
Ambition and Compassion
Wealth and Power
Summary
Analysis
The next morning, the girl comes in with a breakfast tray, dressed as Anne. At first, she reacts fiercely when Lo reveals she’s figured out what she and Bullmer have been up to. When she asks why Lo couldn’t stop digging, Lo explains, “Because I knew what it was like to be you … what it’s like to wake up in the night, afraid for your life.” When the girl angrily snarls that that’s not her, Lo points out, “It will be, though.”
Once again, Lo’s own traumatic experience has equipped her to recognize and desire to help someone else who’s trapped in a bad situation. She also perceives that, whether the girl yet recognizes it or not, her own life will soon be at risk, when Bullmer is finished with her.
Themes
The girl insists that she and Bullmer are in love. Lo seizes on this, pointing out that if it were true, Bullmer would have divorced Anne long ago—but then he’d have missed out on her fortune. More likely, Bullmer saw the girl at his club and hatched a plan whereby he could still wind up with Anne’s money, even if she survived her cancer. The girl furiously storms out of the room and doesn’t reappear with food for supper. Lo begins to fear she’s made a terrible mistake.
