Good Morning, Midnight

Sasha returns to her hotel and finds that René has left her a note at the front desk. He informs her that he will be leaving Paris shortly. Thinking the man next door is taunting her, Sasha exits her room to confront the man and, instead, discovers René there waiting for her. Sasha, self-conscious about what the hotel staff and guests will think of her, chastises René for coming up to her bedroom. René asks Sasha to accompany him to dinner this evening to celebrate his potential union with a wealthy American. He believes that Sasha has brought him luck.

Sasha calculates how much money she has left to return to London and ensure she can pay for the dinner tonight and get home safely. Sasha arrives at the restaurant later that evening but initially cannot find René. René enters, slightly drunk and without any money to pay for dinner. At his request, Sasha gives him the money to pay for their dinner. They go to a restaurant of Sasha’s choice.

As they eat, René bombards Sasha with requests for recommendations to help him settle in London, where he hopes to move to very shortly. An excited René rhapsodizes on “the gold-mine just across the Channel” (156), meaning England. He shares what he has heard about England from his friends; he has heard about the strong sexual desire in English women for which they are willing to pay for relief.

Sasha and René continue their dinner and engage in loud, risqué conversation. Eventually, René reveals that he has arranged with the help of their waiter a hotel room where they can spend the night. As René tries to convince Sasha to spend the night with him, he asks if she has ever loved a woman. Sasha divulges that once, at a brothel, she felt drawn to a prostitute she observed from afar who looked “awfully sad and very gentle” (160). Sasha and René quarrel as Sasha claims that she is not like other women because she is cerebral. René defines a cerebral as “a woman who doesn’t like men or need them […] The true cérébrale is a woman who likes nothing and nobody except herself and her own damned brain or what she thinks is her brain” (162). Annoyed, Sasha tells René that she would like to leave and go to the Exhibition. Despite his lack of interest, René insists on going with her.

Sasha and René arrive at Trocadéro and walk through the Exhibition. They soon leave and head to a café for a drink, “the goodbye one” (165). Sasha and René order brandies at the Deux Magots, and Sasha reminisces on the last time she came to this café. She worked for a wealthy woman and wrote stories for her. As Sasha shares her adventures with this woman, René reveals that he also knew her and describes the woman’s house in depth.

René tries to convince Sasha to spend the night with him. When he questions Sasha’s hesitance, she admits, “It’s because I’m afraid” (171). René pushes Sasha to explain why she is afraid and surmises that she is worried he will kill her. In contrast, Sasha, suicidal, claims, “If I thought you’d kill me, I’d come away with you right now and no questions asked” (172). In a torrent of rage, Sasha finally admits, “I’m afraid of men—yes, I’m very much afraid of men. And I’m even more afraid of women. And I’m very much afraid of the whole bloody human race […] Who wouldn’t be afraid of a pack of damned hyenas?” (172-73).

Touched by Sasha’s honest revelation, René shows her his wounds, which include a scar across his throat. Sasha tells René that she believes him, that he too has been wounded like her. He openly declares, “I want absolutely to make love to you” (175). When Sasha continues to reject him, René concludes, “Something bad must have happened to make you like this” (175). Confident and unrelenting, René tells Sasha that he can change her, as demonstrated when “he makes a movement with his hands like a baker kneading a loaf of bread” (175). Still, Sasha continues to resist René’s pleas. As they leave in a taxi, she asks him to whistle.

Sasha imagines a future with René in her “film-mind”; within her fantasy, René mistreats her yet she continues to care for him and the women he brings home in infidelity. Despite this imagined ill treatment of her, Sasha declares, “But as long as he is alive and near me I am not unhappy. If he were to die I should kill myself” (176). Sasha and René say their farewells at the door of her hotel, and she ascends the stairs to her room while seeing “very clearly in my head the tube of luminal and the bottle of whisky” (176). Just before Sasha reaches her room, the lights go out. Sasha, in search of her key, fumbles to find and open her door. She sees the light of a cigarette but soon realizes who it is and embraces the man, René, enthusiastically.

They enter Sasha’s room and have a drink. Sasha grows angry as René refers to the previous parts of the evening as a “comedy.” Resentful of his implication that she is “easy, easy, free and easy. Easy to fool, easy to torture, easy to laugh at” (180), Sasha asks René to leave. René refuses to leave and tells Sasha that she will have to cause a public scene to convince him to leave.

They struggle on the bed as Sasha works to fight off René quietly to avoid the notice of the hotel staff or guests. Sasha soon redirects René to her dressing-case, where she has stored a 1,000-franc note. She urges René to take the money and leave. She hopes that “he might say something. He might say good night, or goodbye, or good luck or something” (184), but René leaves quickly and silently. Sasha collapses in emotional despair and checks to see if René has taken all her money. He left her two 100-franc notes and a mille note. She toasts to his kindness and drinks.

Sasha, now drunk, continues drinking. She imagines calling out to René and asking him to “come back, come back, come back” (188). She unlocks the door to her room to allow René to return without any barrier. She undresses and goes to her bed, where she lies down trembling and tired. Sasha briefly worries about her looks and questions whether she should turn out the light to hide “how awful” she must look. However, Sasha quickly resolves, “It doesn’t matter. Now I am simple and not afraid; now I am myself” (189). Sasha continues her imaginary calls to René and envisions him entering her room. Instead, she knows, without looking, that it is the man next door who enters her room. She wonders which dressing gown he wears. She looks and sees “it is the white dressing-gown” (190). The man stares down at her in silence. Sasha embraces him while crying out her last words, “yes—yes—yes” (190).