The Sea Themes

The Sea Themes

The Relationship between Past and Present

The action of the novel, the string of events along its narrative through-line, is essentially an embodiment of this key theme. For the narrator, past and present are tightly and inescapably wound together; recollections of the past trigger actions in the present, the loneliness of the present triggers escape into the past, present feelings echo those experienced in the past and vice versa. Most importantly, the key aspect of his current spiritual condition, his awareness and fear of his approaching death, is a direct consequence of two elements in his past, one more recent, the other more distant - the deaths of Anna and Chloe. In this context, it might not be going too far to suggest that in some ways, while the past is safe, it's also as dangerous as the future. Only the present is safe, while neither the past nor the future is fully real, only looming.