Last Twilight in Paris

The experiences of several characters demonstrate the moral complexities of resistance. Gabriel, Louise, and Helaine confront the problem of wanting to uphold principles during the war that, in order to survive, they must sometimes compromise. 

Gabriel experiences a conflict between his desire to resist the German oppressors and his desire to protect Helaine. He appears to comply with the Germans when he agrees to accompany a small group of musicians who will play for German troops. He allows himself to be painted as a collaborator by those who do not understand in order to acquire the “special status and […] protect[ion]” (134) the role offers. Thus, while Gabriel remains committed to the resistance, he must not stage an overt rebellion if he is to keep Helaine out of harm’s way and not blow his own cover. 

Louise understands that the Red Cross’s work in the POW camps is dependent upon their obedience to German demands, and this understanding prevents her from fighting against certain injustices she observes there. When a coughing prisoner is brutally beaten for refusing to leave Franny’s performance, Louise is “horrified” by the brutality and expects to see other prisoners rise in protest. However, “they kept their eyes low, fearful that they would be next” (182). She also refrains from getting involved so as not to jeopardize the Red Cross’s ability to deliver their care packages to this camp and others like it. 

Louise thus believes that she must order her priorities in a utilitarian way, placing service to many over service to one, but this is a complex process that provokes her anger and guilt. It is the same with the Franny’s situation: Louise refuses to help because, as Ian so often reminds her, “if we made waves, [the Germans] would no longer allow us to deliver the aid packages” (209). Louise refuses to help her friend, something that would usually constitute a moral evil, in the service of a larger moral good. She remains haunted by her decision and Franny’s death even many years after the war, wondering if she did the right thing.

Helaine endures a similar kind of moral complexity when she witnesses the way all prisoners are punished for the disobedience of one. After several women disappear, a consequence of a single escape attempt, “Helaine realized […] she could not afford to take risks. Instead, she would do what she must in order to remain here, alive, until she and Gabriel could be together once more” (204). She wants to resist, but she is afraid of the repercussions for herself and the other prisoners if she does not. This sense of loyalty to others keeps Helaine imprisoned at Lévitan and compliant with the Germans’ demands, even though she is disgusted by the situation and longs for her freedom.

Thus, the novel suggests that in such a terrible situation, individuals can feel compelled to act in ways they normally would not in order to protect their own lives or others’. This can cause a multitude of ambivalent emotions, and it becomes almost impossible for individuals to feel justified in their choices, no matter how understandable those choices are.

Every character who experiences the war provides evidence of how enduring the effects of trauma and loss can be, but Louise and Joe’s tense postwar life is an especially significant embodiment of this phenomenon. As each spouse struggles with their painful memories and private disquiet, their marriage becomes fractured, and they each find it difficult to be at peace with their lives.   

Louise and Joe’s experiences are the most prevalent since their postwar experience is portrayed more fully than Gabriel and Helaine’s. Even the land in England and France still exhibits evidence of wartime damage, symbolizing the intangible emotional damage still affecting citizens of both countries. Louise describes her home as being situated in a development that was built just after the war ended, saying, “The site had formerly been a crater where a bomb had fallen, and I sometimes breathe deeply and imagine that I can still smell the gunpowder” (13). Such a description shows that Louise remains acutely aware of the war’s effects, both physical and emotional, nearly a decade after its conclusion. 

The location and condition of her home echo the pain she and Joe still feel and try to bury. Of Joe, she says, “Though I worry about him drinking too much, I don’t begrudge him the temporary escape liquor provides” (13). His pain and loss, still unresolved, continue to cause problems for his mental health and his marriage. That pain is still so significant that he uses alcohol to self-medicate and assuage it. Like the house, which has flaws only Louise sees, she says of Joe, “Only I’m close enough to see the scars that will never fully heal” (14). Her opinion that she and Joe can never fully heal from their memories and experiences demonstrates just how enduring those emotional scars can be.

Though Louise, and even Helaine, feel “lucky […] to have survived,” Louise is very aware that “none of us would ever be the same” (80). When she has trouble locating Ian, she immediately fears that he has died, saying, “the war had taken so many that the notion of premature death still comes quickly and by default, a conditioned response” (77). Likewise, when she leaves England to visit Paris for a few days, it felt like “just an errand [to her]. But to Joe, still carrying the pain and scars of the war, it had felt like abandonment and total loss all over again” (278). He is emotionally unable to separate the pattern of loss to which he became accustomed in wartime from a completely different situation years later. When Louise finds Helaine, Helaine also tells her, “[E]ven though I survived and went on to have a wonderful life, I never quite moved on” (316)—a sentiment to which Louise completely relates.

Ultimately, even when it seems that Ian will be brought to justice for his treason and Franny’s death, Louise senses that her trauma and loss will “never really be over” (323). Whether this is because the body remembers what the brain tries to forget, or because even Ian’s conviction cannot restore Franny to life, the effects of trauma and loss last a very long time.

Louise experiences complex contradictions between her past and current selves. In her youth, during the war, she feels very self-reliant and purposeful, but her postwar experience of wife and motherhood leaves her feeling unsatisfied and emotionally isolated. These feelings, in turn, make her feel guilty and a little resentful of her husband. It isn’t until she unearths and comes to terms with her complicated feelings that she is able to achieve peace within herself and bridge the divide with Joe. She must reconcile the different versions of her identity to figure out who she is now and what she really wants with her life, confronting the interplay between one’s past and identity.

Louise tries to repress certain aspects of her past life and forget who she used to be so she can feel more content with her present life. Of her wartime self and experiences, she says, “One of the plusses of leaving the city for […] my life with Joe was that I was able to put the past behind me. Now it rises up before me, larger than ever” (78). London is where she experienced her most autonomous and liberated self, but it also reminds her of the pain and loss she felt as a result of Franny’s death and being sent home by the Red Cross. When she returns to London 10 years later, everything—the good and the bad—comes rushing back to her. Spending time there with Ian, she says, “I am grateful to be here in this space where time stands still and someone else understands the way war changed us and the ache that never eased” (212). 

Ian represents so much about Louise’s past, and feeling the familiar attraction to him in a familiar place makes her feel simultaneously alive and contrite. This complexity of emotion causes her to claim that “The past, which has returned suddenly and unbidden, has awakened a dark part of me I’d hoped was gone for good” (111). For a long time, she attempts to bury that self, but doing so prevents her from moving forward and finding happiness in her current life.

Despite Louise’s efforts to forget her past, she eventually recognizes that “[she] can’t be any good for [her] family if [she is] not good [her]self. [She has] to sort out the past so [she] can put it behind [her] forever and move on” (111). Once Louise realizes how trying to escape the past affects her present relationships, she understands the damage this failure to accept both versions of herself can do. 

Thus, after she finds Helaine and Gabriel’s home in Paris, Louise says, “I regret keeping so much from Joe and realize it was driving a wedge between us. Sharing our pasts, our suffering and our truths, is the only way that we can grow together” (318). It is only by recognizing the interplay between her past and present selves that she halts her growing resentment and his tendency to isolate himself emotionally, enabling her to heal at last and be her authentic self.