Analysis
The novel employs topics such as the innocence of childhood and its loss, family life (or its absence), class and gender distinctions and education are to be found. Hartley makes great use of symbols (such as the weather, Atropa belladonna, zodiac signs, the colour green and the arrival – and midpoint – of the new century) to highlight the main themes.
- The weather. The slowly escalating heat of the summer may represent the danger of Leo's job as a messenger. The rising mercury of the thermometer in the increasing heat evokes the flight of Mercury, the messenger of the gods: Leo is a messenger for the seemingly divine Marian and Trimingham. Leo enjoys the heat and is unconscious of the danger it poses, like the discovery of the Marian–Ted relationship.
- Atropa belladonna. The plant, commonly known as deadly nightshade, most probably represents Marian: she may be beautiful, but she is poisonous as well. Just as the Marian–Ted relationship has disastrous consequences, the consequences of eating deadly nightshade are catastrophic.
- The zodiac. Leo has an obsession with the characters of the zodiac. Marian and Ted are at one point explicitly described as the Virgin and the Watercarrier (Virgo and Aquarius) and Lord Trimingham may be represented by Sagittarius.
The plot has some parallels to that of the Danish novella, Brudstykker af en Landsbydegns Dagbog (Fragments from a Parish-Clerk's Diary) (1824) by Steen Steensen Blicher. Ian McEwan's novel Atonement (2001) examines some similar themes and has some loose plot similarities.
Read more about this topic: The Go-Between
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