Last Twilight in Paris

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussions of illness, emotional abuse, religious persecution, and death.

The home in which Helaine is confined for 13 years of her life, beginning at age five, is a symbol of fear and disempowerment. As a child, she conceives of the townhouse as a “gilded cage”: Beautiful but nonetheless limiting. It isn’t until she begins taking walks and meeting Gabriel that she really begins to understand the way her confinement affects both her and her mother. When Otto yells at Annette for allowing Helaine to leave the home, “Helaine knew then that fear had kept her mother every bit as much of a prisoner as the walls of her childhood home had kept Helaine herself” (68). Annette has long known of Otto’s infidelity, and she’s simply chosen to ignore it for lack of another, better choice. She would be powerless if he left her, so she becomes as much a captive in her marriage as Helaine does in her home. At least there Annette can create the illusion of safety for her and Helaine.

When Helaine meets Gabriel, everything changes. Her fear diminishes when she realizes that she does have another option and need not remain in her parents’ home.