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Part Three
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Good Morning, Midnight, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Sadness and Vulnerability
Identity and Belonging
Memory, Loss, and Change
Money and Manipulation
Summary
Analysis
No longer reminiscing about her past, Sasha receives a note from René. He stopped by the hotel to see her, but she wasn’t there. He has, he says, had a stroke of luck and will be leaving Paris in the next couple days. When Sasha gets upstairs, the man in the nightgown calls her a dirty cow, but she has no idea why he’s so upset. Then, once she’s inside her room, a knock sounds on the door. It’s René. He tells her that he stopped by earlier, and that the receptionist let him wait in Sasha’s room. Sasha realizes that the man in the nightgown probably thought she had called for a “gigolo,” which must have been why he was so rude to her in the hall.
The man in the nightgown intrudes once more on Sasha’s life, this time judging her because he thinks she has hired a sex worker. Of course, her sex life doesn’t affect him, but he doesn’t hesitate to let her know that he disapproves of her actions. And yet, she didn’t hire a sex worker—René just showed up on his own. No matter what Sasha does, then, she seemingly can’t avoid getting judged by other people, which is most likely why she cares so much about how she presents herself to the world.
Themes
Sasha wishes René hadn’t come to her hotel. He playfully hints at wanting to sleep with her, but she shows her annoyance that he has showed up at her hotel, so he quickly switches subjects, telling her that he met a rich American woman. He explains that he enticed the woman and convinced her to lend him money. And Sasha, he says, played an important role in his success—she is, he says, a “luck-bringer,” which is why he wanted to see her before leaving Paris. He takes her hand in his and stares at it, and Sasha assumes he’s sizing up her ring, which she tells him is worth nothing. But he claims he was just looking at her hand.
René’s intentions are still unclear, as it’s hard to determine if he legitimately wants to spend time with Sasha or if he’s hoping to get something out of her. His story about the American woman reveals that he is the type to con wealthy women (just as Sasha suspected). However, it’s possible that he’s just telling her this story as a way of getting Sasha to put her guard down. The ambiguity surrounding his motivations muddles their entire relational dynamic, making it nearly impossible to know if they have a genuine connection or if he’s just out to deceive her.
Themes
Sasha agrees to meet René later that night. When he leaves the hotel, she feels unexpectedly giddy and excited but then forces herself to slow down. She even decides to not wear any new clothes or do anything to change her appearance. She has a total of 1,600 francs left and decides to take 250 along with her—enough for dinner and drinks, but also enough to pay for a taxi if she needs to quickly get away from René in the event that he turns mean.
Themes
Sasha intentionally arrives late to meet René. She doesn’t see him anywhere but isn’t perturbed—for some reason, she can tell he’s somewhere nearby. She sends the waiter to the back terrace, and surely enough, he returns with René, who is cold from sitting outside and mildly annoyed that Sasha was late. He has already had a few drinks, but he and Sasha order another round, and he admits that he won’t have enough money to pay for anything after he settles the bar tab. Sasha asks why he hasn’t gotten any money from the American woman yet, and he says it’s too early to ask her for anything. He’ll soon be able to borrow money from her, but “she must be ready” before he asks.
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In a taxi on the way to dinner, René asks Sasha to give him money before they arrive at the restaurant so he can pay for dinner. She obliges and gives him 200 francs. At the restaurant, René eats ravenously while Sasha hardly touches her food. Although Sasha thinks René invented the American woman, something seems to have made him confident and happy. He keeps talking about London, saying he’ll be there in a couple days and asking Sasha about life in the city. He also speaks candidly about what he’s heard from male sex workers in London, saying that the city is a “gold-mine” because Englishwomen love foreign men. Many of these men, René explains, are gay, but the Englishwomen don’t care and pay them handsomely.
Themes
Sasha tries to get René to see that he’s too optimistic about his prospects in London, but he insists that she’s just skeptical because she’s a woman—after all, he says, England is a difficult place for women. But Sasha knows René will have his own hardships in London, especially since he’ll face difficulties in England’s racist society, though nothing she says will dampen his enthusiasm. Instead of listening to her sober advice, he goes on at length about the tricks of sex work, and Sasha starts to genuinely enjoy herself as they talk loudly about lewd matters.
Themes
Sasha briefly worries that the waiter is judging them for talking so openly about sex, but she doesn’t care—she’s having a great time. But then René tells her that he asked the waiter if there was a nearby hotel that he and Sasha could visit after dinner, and Sasha becomes angry and embarrassed. She tries once again to tell him that there’ll never be anything between them, but he just says it’s a pity she won’t give him a chance. He then tells her that she doesn’t need to be frightened of him, since he’d never do anything to hurt her. He’s not wicked like some other young men.
Themes
At one point in their conversation, Sasha calls herself a cérébrale (a “cerebral”), but René disagrees—he actually thought she was rather stupid. When she shows offense, he quickly explains that he doesn’t think she’s unintelligent, it’s just that she seems to “feel better than [she] think[s].” A real cérébrale, René believes, doesn’t like men. She also doesn’t like women, instead only liking herself and her own thoughts.
Themes
Sasha tires of her conversation with René and suddenly wants to leave the restaurant. She tells him that she’s going to see an exhibition and that he can come if he wants, though what she really hopes is that he’ll leave her alone. But he accompanies her, and by the time they get to the museum, they end up not going inside. Instead, they go to yet another bar, where they plan to have a final “goodbye” drink.
Themes
In the bar, Sasha tells a story about working for a rich couple in Paris. She lived in their enormous house, and as she describes it, René interjects that he, too, stayed in that house. They realize they’re talking about the same place, causing Sasha to wonder about René’s actual life story. Although it’s entertaining to talk about this overlap in their lives, it doesn’t make Sasha doesn’t feel closer to René. To the contrary, it makes her suspicious. She excuses herself and goes to the bathroom. It’s very familiar to her—yet another Parisian bathroom in which she has cried. She wonders if the mirror recognizes her and, if so, what it thinks about how she has changed.
Themes
Returning to the table, Sasha orders another drink, though René tells her not to because he doesn’t want her to get drunk and cry. She ignores him, but he tells her to finish the drink quickly so they can go to her hotel. When she protests, he asks what’s keeping her from having sex with him. Doesn’t she want to? She admits that she does but that she’s afraid. He then wants to know why—does she think he’ll kill her and steal her beautiful ring, or perhaps kill her just because he likes to do “bad things”? If so, he assures her that he doesn’t want to do bad things to her. He just wants to lie in her embrace.
Themes
René presses Sasha to tell him why she’s afraid. She privately notes that, if she really thought he’d kill her, she’d be all the more likely to go with him. Finally, she tells him that she’s afraid of all men. In fact, she’s afraid of women, too. She’s afraid of everyone, since all humans are like wicked “hyenas.” She would have killed herself a long time ago, she says, if only she had the courage. Having spoken about her fears, Sasha feels plunged into darkness. It’s not until a moment later that she pulls herself together and realizes she’s still sitting in the bar across from René, a sex worker who looks quite sad.
Speaking softly, René says that he has many wounds. He lifts his head and shows Sasha a scar that traverses his throat. There are many others, he says. Sasha says that she, too, has been wounded, and he validates this sentiment—he can tell that she’s been hurt. And then he says again that he wants to have sex with her. She refuses once again, prompting him to ask what happened in her life that hurt her so badly. But she can’t answer this question because it wasn’t just one thing that hurt her, but an accumulation of many things. All he knows, though, is that he could relieve her of all her pain. After making love, he assures her, she would feel changed. But she holds her ground.
Themes
Sasha has a brief flashback to lounging in a room with a previous lover—a lover who mistreated her and often brought home other women. She then comes back to reality. She’s in a taxi with René, who whistles a pleasant tune until they reach her hotel, at which point they say goodnight and part ways. But then, as she walks in the dark to find her door, she sees the glowing ember of a cigarette hovering in the blackness, and she can sense that it’s René: he has come back for her. Without thinking, she throws herself into his arms.
Themes
Hugging René, Sasha feels profoundly happy. She can’t believe she thought she was finished with love. She’d thought feelings of youthfulness and happiness had left her forever, but now she feels reenergized and in touch with her emotions. She and René go into her room, where they passionately kiss. But as soon as they’re fully inside, she can tell that the spell has been broken. Now she feels uncomfortable and removed, wondering if anybody else in the hotel heard them in the hall. Everything is wrong, so she pulls away and makes some drinks.
Her drink tastes terrible, but Sasha drinks it anyway. She wants René to say something soothing and nice, but he just looks at her. He slides his hand under her dress and lets it rest on her knee, and suddenly she feels quite drunk—so drunk, in fact, that she starts getting angry, especially when René suggests that she has been playing with him all along. He thinks she always knew they would sleep together but just acted like they wouldn’t. Resenting his implication that she’s “easy,” she asks him to leave, but he refuses.
Themes
Again, Sasha asks René to leave. The intensity of their conversation escalates, as he thinks it’s ridiculous that she wants him gone. He even says she’ll have to call someone to force him out. She would have no shame in calling out for help, she says, but then she realizes she doesn’t want the people in her hotel to know he’s in her room. He seems to realize the same thing and tauntingly tells her to cry for help. He also gets angrier each time she asks him to leave, accusing her of kissing him one moment and banishing him the next. He advances on her as she writhes against his strength, but he manages to get her onto the bed.
Themes
Sasha keeps her knees pressed firmly together. Her dress is ripped in the back, and René has pinned her by the arms. And yet, she remains determined not to make a sound. She tries to tell herself that the entire ordeal is actually rather funny, though she also realizes that René looks quite mean. Still pinning her, he tells her about a method he learned to get women to submit to him when they don’t want to. She asks if he learned this method in Morocco, but he says it’s unnecessary there: a group of four men can overpower a woman and then take turns doing whatever they want to her.
Themes
René tells Sasha that he’s going to hurt her and that it’s her fault. He asks if she understands, and though she’s in pain, she says she does. She then tells him where she keeps her money and urges him to take it. He lets go of her and goes to the cash. As he looks it over, she asks him to take the 1,000 francs but to leave the smaller bills for her—otherwise, she’ll have nothing. She then tells him she’s not upset; she understands that everyone has to make their living. And as she says these things, she feels as if it isn’t really her who’s talking. Refusing to look at him as he takes the money, part of her briefly wishes he would stay or at least say goodbye, but then he leaves.
Themes
Sasha huddles on the bed and cries after René leaves, chastising herself for everything that has happened. Her entire stay in Paris has felt pitiful and ridiculous. She stares at the painting she bought from Serge and feels as if its subject—a lonesome guitar player—is looking back at her with a “mocking” expression. She also thinks about how the man in the nightgown probably heard her entire exchange with René. He’s probably still listening and hearing her cry, so she stops herself.
Themes
Sasha gets up to see if René left her any money at all, though she doubts he would have. She’s surprised, then, to find that he didn’t take anything. She pours a whiskey and raises a toast, thinking, “Here’s to you, gigolo, chic gigolo…” Thinking about how she’s not used to such kindness, she keeps drinking until she’s extremely drunk. Then she starts trying to will René to come back. He can’t be far from the hotel—she can even picture him walking on the street, so she tries to communicate with him in her mind, calling him back to the room.
Themes
Desperately wanting René to return, Sasha unlatches the door. She envisions him walking toward the hotel. In anticipation, she takes off her clothes and gets into bed. She can feel him coming up the stairs. Then the door budges. She shields her eyes as he comes inside. And as he makes his way to the bed, she lies completely still. As he gets closer, though, she knows it’s not René, but the man in the nightgown. Her only question is whether he’s in the blue or the white gown, so she takes her arm from her eyes and looks: it’s the white gown. They make silent eye contact, and though Sasha feels herself hating him, she wraps her arms around him and pulls him to the bed.
Themes
