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Chapter 16
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in One Day, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Relationships and Time
Social Class
Coming of Age and the Search for Meaning
Addiction and Recovery
Summary
Analysis
Tuesday, July 15, 2003. Dexter and Emma go to stay at a cottage in Yorkshire. It doesn’t look like the photos, but it’s quaint enough. They’re on a sight-seeing and hiking trip of the local area, and Emma remembers many of the places from growing up. They’re now engaged and plan to marry in November. They plan to have a small, secular wedding at a registry office, then a small reception at a restaurant. They chose to take a holiday because Emma will soon be too busy working on a big deadline. Emma’s family still lives in Yorkshire, and they all liked Dexter when he and Emma visited earlier in the trip.
Dexter and Emma’s small wedding contrasts with Tilly’s lavish wedding and with Dexter’s extravagant first wedding, which was announced with heavy, lavender-scented invitations. This passage suggests that the size or magnificence of a wedding does not necessarily have anything to do with the intimate bond that it represents. For much of the novel, Emma has tried to leave behind her past in Yorkshire, but now she begins to accept it as she returns there to show Dexter around.
Themes
Earlier that day, Emma and Dexter went out hiking, but they got lost and decided to drive back to a local pub. There, they play pool, and Dexter notes with amusement that being in Yorkshire has brought Emma’s accent back. They go back to their cottage and Emma ditches her plan to work because she’s in the most fertile part of her cycle, so she and Dexter have sex.
The return of Emma’s accent shows again how class distinctions, while significant, can also be fluid and change with one’s circumstances. Dexter’s interest in things like hiking and cottages shows how he has left behind his days of “larging it” around the world and has learned to appreciate simpler, more intimate activities.
Themes
Emma is asleep by 9:00, so Dexter gets out his laptop to look at the draft document of his groom’s speech. He has the basic structure in place but not the exact wording. He tries to quietly say the speech to himself, remembering what it felt like to present on TV, but he stops when he hears Emma coming over. He pretends that he was reading a copy of Wuthering Heights she gave him. She invites him back to bed with her just to talk, and he goes gladly.
Dexter’s ability to write a speech to Emma in his own voice shows how he cares more about her than he did about Sylvie (when Dexter asked Emma for help in writing his speech). Emma and Dexter’s ability to be happy just talking in bed recalls the first night they spent together in 1988 and shows how some things don’t change with the times.
Themes
