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Book 2, Chapter 8
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The End of the Affair, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love and Hatred
Faith, Acceptance, and the Divine
Jealousy and Passion
Adultery, Deception, and Honesty
Summary
Analysis
Bendrix opens Sarah’s diary to the last page and reads the final two paragraphs. The first paragraph is directed to “You” and included an appeal to “You” to give “him” peace; no names are mentioned, however. In the second entry—dated February 12, 1946—Sarah writes that although she had experienced a period of peace, she dreamed of Maurice and no longer felt that peace. She writes that she wants “ordinary corrupt human love” and asks God to take the pain away for a while. In an aside, Bendrix writes that he started reading the diary from the beginning but did not read every entry because some of them “had still the power to hurt.”
The two paragraphs Bendrix reads give a hint of the struggle between Sarah’s belief in God and her desire to be with Bendrix (whom she refers to by his first name, Maurice, throughout the diary). It also illustrates that although belief is painful for Sarah, it also brings her moments of peace.
Themes
