Husbands & Lovers

Content warning: This section of the guide discusses antisemitism, rape, and child loss.

“Anyway, did it really matter how Cleopatra got the snake into her bedchamber? The point was, she died of snakebite. Unless the whole incident was a metaphor—the snake in the lady’s bedchamber administering the lethal dose of venom.”

In this allusion, the narrator describes Hannah’s thoughts about the asp, or Egyptian cobra, that killed Cleopatra before Hannah, herself, is bitten. She ponders whether the snake—a phallic symbol that is connected to the concept of original sin via the Garden of Eden—was only a metaphor for a man. The question suggests that men, or one man in particular, is to blame for Cleopatra’s death, and that women are always killed, ruined, or diminished by the men in their lives. Hannah is bitten because Alistair forces her to move to Egypt and burned because she loves Lucien. Men are responsible for Jànos’s death as well as Kàroly’s abduction. Mallory is raped by Monk’s father, and Paige is betrayed by an unfaithful husband.

“You’ll be happy to make all the arrangements and so on, won’t you darling?”

Alistair doesn’t ask Hannah her feelings about moving to Egypt; he simply informs her that they are moving. His supposition that she will make the arrangements is less of a request than it is an assumption that she’ll be happy to do his bidding, as reflected by the rhetorical nature of the question. This interaction characterizes their passionless relationship, as Hannah’s response, that this “sound[s] splendid” isn’t quoted directly, though Alistair’s dialogue is cited, suggesting that her