The Voyage Out · Chapter
XIV explained
After the dance, Terence Hewet wanders through the night, exhilarated and reflective.
What happens
After the dance, Terence Hewet wanders through the night, exhilarated and reflective. He encounters Evelyn Murgatroyd, who seeks his advice about her romantic entanglements with Raymond Oliver and Alfred Perrott. Later, Hewet overhears a private conversation between Helen Ambrose and Rachel Vinrace about Rachel's mother, Theresa, revealing a more complex and joyful past than Rachel had known. The chapter also follows Miss Allan reading letters from home and Susan Warrington, now engaged to Arthur Venning, contemplating the universal solution of marriage.
Themes in this chapter
Love and Marriage
Evelyn's romantic confusion and Susan's belief in marriage as the universal solution highlight the central role of marriage in characters' lives.
Self-Discovery and Ignorance
Rachel learns new truths about her mother's past, prompting a deeper understanding of her own history and identity.
Communication and Silence
Hewet overhears a private conversation, and Evelyn seeks advice, illustrating the interplay between spoken words and unspoken feelings.
Characters to notice
- Terence Hewet
Runs down the hill in a state of ecstatic reverie, then is drawn into a conversation with Evelyn Murgatroyd about her romantic dilemmas.
- Evelyn Murgatroyd
Seeks Hewet's advice, confessing her conflicted feelings between Raymond Oliver and Alfred Perrott.
- Helen Ambrose
Speaks with Rachel about Theresa Vinrace, revealing a more vibrant and joyful side of Rachel's mother.
- Rachel Vinrace
Learns from Helen that her mother had been engaged to Maurice Fielding and was known for her vivacity.
- Miss Allan
Sits reading letters from her sister Emily, discussing family matters and literary opinions.
- Susan Warrington
Engaged to Arthur Venning, she reflects on marriage as the solution to all problems and enjoys her newfound status.
- Arthur Venning
Sits with Susan, reading letters from hockey-playing young women and discussing their future.
- Mrs. Paley
Susan's selfish old aunt, now treating Susan with more respect since her engagement.
Key passages
“Here am I, plunging along, like an elephant in the jungle, stripping the branches as I go, roaring innumerable words, lovely words about innumerable things, running downhill and talking nonsense aloud to myself about roads and leaves and lights and women coming out into the darkness—about women—about Rachel, about Rachel.”
Hewet runs down the hill, shouting joyfully and randomly about his surroundings and his thoughts, especially about Rachel.
Captures Hewet's ecstatic, almost primal state of mind after the dance.
“And there we lived from the year 1860 to 1895, the happiest years of my parents' lives, and there in 1862 my brother Maurice was born, to the delight of his parents, as he was destined to be the delight of all who knew him.”
A voice reads aloud a family history, describing a long and happy period of residence and the birth of a beloved brother.
This is the passage Hewet overhears, likely from a letter or memoir being read by Helen or Rachel.
“Marriage, marriage that was the right thing, the only thing, the solution required by everyone she knew, and a great part of her meditations was spent in tracing every instance of discomfort, loneliness, ill-health, unsatisfied ambition, restlessness, eccentricity, taking things up and dropping them again, public speaking, and philanthropic activity on the part of men and particularly on the part of women to the fact that they wanted to marry, were trying to marry, and had not succeeded in getting married.”
Susan believes that all personal and social problems stem from a lack of marriage, and she sees it as the universal remedy.
Reveals Susan's simplistic but deeply held conviction about the importance of marriage.
