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Updated July 14, 1997
Created July 14, 1997
The party takes a boat trip. Terence and Rachel maneuver around each other. Rachel becomes ill with a tropical fever and dies.
Chapter XX: The party faces a problem with sleeping arrangements "It was as Helen had forseen; the question of nakedness had risen already, although they were half asleep, and almost invisible to each other" (251). The heat is oppressive, but Terence and Rachel walk into the jungle; where there is a strange conversation between the two of them (256-257).
Chapter XXI: The trip up river continues and comes to a stop. The ship's crew laughs and jokes as the passengers get off for another walk in the jungle (265). Rachel and Terence talk about their engagement; Rachel apparently faints and opens her eyes to find Helen and Terence kissing above her (268). When they regain control of themselves, they "fall in line behind Mr. Flushing" (268). The party walks through a native village before returning to the ship (270-217). Helen talks to them about marriage (271-273) then "she [Helen] passed behind the curtain" (273). Terence and Rachel stand alone, on deck, in darkness and silence (273).
Chapter XXII: Terence and Rachel discuss what their lives will be like as married couple. Terence is writing a book titled Silence (275). He knows it will not be the same story after they get married. She plays a Beethoven sonata while he writes and talks; "I can't play a note because of you in the room interrupting me every other second" (276). They disagree about written work and whether or not Rachel fell in love with him. She says, "I never fell in love, if falling in love is what people say it is" (277). Terence makes the statement that "you've no respect for facts, Rachel; you're essentially feminine" during a discussion of truth and education. Terence reads from a novel which refers to women as "the enemy and parasite of man" (280). After Terence wonders if she'd throw him off a rock into the ocean, she dances about the room and he catches her and they fall. As a mermaid, she can swim away. Then she is free to mend her dress that had been torn while they were pretending (281-282). Rachel realizes Terence has a wider store of knowledge than she and so while she talks of family, she primarily "listen[s] and ask[s] questions (282). After days of conversation, they realize they are really too different to marry each other and so "'Let's break it off then,'" Rachel says on page 286. They look at each other as they stand side by side in front of a large mirror which allows "a large space for the reflection of other things" (286).
Chapter XXIII: A prostitute is expelled from the hotel and St. John and Helen Ambrose discuss it. Helen states that she dislikes the hypocrisy of the English middle class (287-290). Terence wants, demands that Rachel go to tea with him. He is meeting Mrs. Thornbury and Rachel doesn't want to go because "love" will be the topic of discussion. Terence threatens to go without her (291-293). St. John feels awkward about the upcoming wedding and really doesn't know what to say to the couple. He says "Love . . . seems to explain everything," but he asks himself after saying it, "had he really said what he felt?" (294-295).
Chapter XXIV: The traveling party returns to the hotel. Terence sleeps in a chair on the hotel hall while Rachel thinks about what marriage will be like. She decides it is not "the love of man for woman" (298). She shows an inner questioning of the process while carrying on "normal" conversation with others at the hotel. Rachel feels that men and women are paired off and women "renounce . . . the real things of life . . . [which] were . . . in the great world outside" (303). The women focused on the men and were not aware of what happened around them (303). Evelyn talks of moving to Moscow and starting a club in Bloomsbury that could meet once a week, so the members could talk (303-304). Mrs. Thornbury decides that she only feels twenty-five, even though she knows she is seventy-five; she decides it "must be wonderful to be twenty-five" (307).
Chapter XXV: Terence reads "Comus" by Milton to Rachel; she develops a headache and decides to go to bed. She is ill (308-310). Rachel drifts in and out of normalcy with fever. Nightmares fill her tormented dreams (313-314). Terence is angry because he has come to depend upon her for happiness and now she is ill. He is not angry with her, but with "the force outside them" (314). Dr. Rodriguez is unable to treat her successfully. Helen demands that they send for another doctor; St. John is sent to find one (322). Terence begins to feel that there is no hope, when even Helen, who has always been so strong begins to cry (327). Rachel regains one brief moment of lucidness and then she dies. Terence is beside himself with grief. (333-334).
Chapter XXVI: The knowledge of Rachel's death spreads through the hotel. Mrs. Thornbury feels very old; she and Evelyn cry together in the hall (336-337). Mrs. Flushing reacts to the death very privately and very angrily (338-339). At the luncheon table, no one can clarify for "old" Mrs. Paley who Rachel was; the scene provides a break in the tragedy for the hotel guests (341). Evelyn still has difficulty with creating a definition for death. Mr. Perrot arranges a meeting with Evelyn and proposes to her again saying he will wait as long as necessary for her, in spite of the fact that she sees only friendship for them (345-346).
Chapter XXVII: A storm gathers around the hotel; the lightning, rain, and darkness create an atmosphere of fear around the guests (347-348). The storm, in leaving, opens a way for the people to speak of something other than Rachel's death (351). St. John returns from his attempt to help Terence; Mrs. Thornbury tries to start a conversation, but stops when she realizes he doesn't want to talk (352). The sounds of normalcy sift through St. John's thoughts and the guests on their ways in and out of the room appear blurry and indistinct (353).