Free love

Free love in the novel is both a declared principle and a practical question: whether intimacy can be released from convention without turning another person’s desire into a claim. G. H. Barrow argues for freedom in love and marriage and calls his ideal “passionate friendship,” but Anne Elizabeth’s encounters with him and Richard Ellsworth Savage show that declarations of openness do not settle the terms of a relationship. Her desire, hesitation, and refusals make the ideal a contested practice rather than a simple rejection of restraint.

Barrow’s Theory and Its Limits

On the crossing, G. H. Barrow pays Anne Elizabeth considerable attention. Their conversations bring together his interest in labor and her experience in a New Jersey textile strike. They walk around the deck arm in arm, even as the rough sea and bitter cold interrupt their movement. Barrow tries to make love to her; Anne Elizabeth argues that what she needs is a good friend, explaining that an unhappy love affair has left her unable to contemplate another romance. The exchange gives the ideal of free love an immediate condition: her account of what she needs should matter to him.

Barrow responds sympathetically and describes his own relations with women as unsatisfactory. He says that people should be free in love and marriage, rather than bound by conventions or inhibitions, and identifies “passionate friendship” as what he believes in. Anne Elizabeth says she shares that belief. Yet their later encounters expose the gap between the principle and its enactment. On their first night in Paris, Barrow asks her to come to his hotel room, and she gives him a severe reprimand. In Rome, after he has treated her kindly on the journey, she begins to think she might marry him if he asked. Her changing response is not a conversion to his doctrine so much as evidence that affection and attraction remain particular, unsettled judgments.

Friendship, Desire, and Refusal

Anne Elizabeth’s conversation with Richard Ellsworth Savage makes the pressure of social convention explicit. She recalls being surprised when G. H. Barrow invited her to his hotel shortly after they had landed, saying that at home he would not have done so. She attributes the contrast to wartime conditions and what she sees as looser continental morals, while insisting that she has never been prissy. Her account registers both a changed social atmosphere and her own surprise; it does not mean that she accepts every advance made in its name.

Richard Ellsworth Savage answers, “In Rome do as the Romans do.” Anne Elizabeth laughs and studies his face as if trying to work out his intention. She calls the situation part of life, but when he wants to kiss her heavily in a doorway, she gives him a quick peck, shakes her head, takes his hand, and squeezes it hard. Her words, “Let’s us be good friends,” set a boundary without denying their warmth. The scene gives friendship a double meaning: it is a genuine form of closeness she offers, and a limit on what Richard may presume from her response to him.

A Principle Tested in Company

The concept returns in Paris, where Barrow’s request that Anne Elizabeth stay with him becomes increasingly insistent. He asks her not to sail and says he could arrange something through the Red Cross; he presents his unhappiness and his wish for happiness as reasons she should give him a chance. He also appeals to her as someone who appreciates the art of life. Anne Elizabeth answers that she cannot love anybody now and says, “I have everybody.” When he continues to press, she tells him coldly that if he knew about her, he would not want her. The exchange does not explain everything behind her words, but it clearly shows her resisting the idea that Barrow’s loneliness or theory of love entitles him to her intimacy.

After returning to the table, Anne Elizabeth sits through the conversation about the peace treaty before going to the ladies’ room. On her way back, she sees French aviation officers in the bar and chooses to join them rather than return directly to Barrow. She dances with the group, becomes happy and unconcerned with what will happen, and calls Barrow and the others “the worst old set of plush horses.” Barrow’s face appears red and indignant in the doorway; she calls back, “Be back in a minute, teacher.” Her movement between the table and the bar is a concrete assertion of choice: she can leave an uncomfortable approach, enter another company, and decide where to spend her attention.

Meaning and Ambivalence

Across these episodes, free love does not mean that every convention disappears or that desire automatically produces mutual understanding. Barrow speaks against inhibition, but his repeated invitations and pleas show how easily the language of freedom can coexist with pressure. Anne Elizabeth’s responses distinguish openness from obligation: she can welcome friendship, consider marriage, feel desire, or refuse an advance without any one choice binding her to the next.

The novel also leaves the ideal unsettled. Anne Elizabeth tells Richard that the altered standards of wartime Europe are part of life, yet she draws a physical and verbal boundary with him; she agrees with Barrow’s language of passionate friendship, yet rejects his invitation to his room; later, she entertains the possibility of marrying him before refusing his more urgent appeal. These contrasts keep free love from becoming a slogan with a single practical meaning. Its significance lies in the continuing negotiation between convention, desire, companionship, and a woman’s authority to determine the terms of her own closeness.