Doubles and False Identities

Most overtly, this theme relates to the fact that many of the characters are spies and therefore have alternate identities, but these alternate identities are symbolic of a more metaphorical breach between who the characters are and how they present themselves. The most significant example of this is the character Perry Gibbons, who is a closeted homosexual. Juliet finds it easy to embody Iris Carter-Jenkins for Perry's ploy to entrap Mrs. Scaife because she does not have a strong sense of self. She then briefly pretends to be a woman named Ivy Wilson in order to claim the body of Mrs. Scaife's maid, Beatrice. Godfrey Toby is an MI5 agent pretending to be an official of the Nazi Party, but his real life and genuine allegiances are opaque to Juliet. She repeatedly wonders who Toby really is, and in the end she will...