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Chapter 10
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Waves, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Identity
The Meaning of Life
Facing Loss and Death
The Power and Limitations of Storytelling
Colonialism and Conquest
Summary
Analysis
The sun is now past its peak, and clouds begin to diffuse its light. The narrator describes how the garden becomes quiet, the birds “glutted” with singing. Everything from the leaves on the trees to the water in the river to the cows in the fields takes on a sleepy quality. Inside the house, “daggers of light” fall on domestic objects as if to break them. But the light can’t drive out all the shadows, which pile up in the corners. The waves hurl themselves with increasing fury on the beach.
Things change in the interludes after Percival’s death. The first permanent interruption of the friends’ circle of relationships incites a shift to a more subdued tone. And while there’s still plenty of light, from this point on, shadows—which stand for death—will never leave the room. They will grow larger as the day goes on. In contrast, although the waves have changed in height and intensity, they haven’t stopped their motion since before the sun rose. They imply, then, that larger and more elemental cycles are at play in human existence, too.
Themes
