“Don’t move. We can’t move, caught like lobster in a restaurant aquarium. These are the confines of our life together, this room, this bed. This is the voluptuous exile freely chosen” (72).
This passage occurs just after the narrator has returned to his flat to find it utterly destroyed, courtesy of Jacqueline. It is perhaps the first moment in which the narrator acknowledges the “confines” of his/her relationship with Louise. It is important in that he/she understands that being with Louise publicly under these circumstances will never be accepted within society because of its adulterous and illicit characteristics. Their relationship is no longer amicable or pure. Instead, it has become destructive and invasive, chaotic and uneven. The narrator and Louise are permitted from living a life of spontaneity or freedom. They are in turn, bound to the bedroom – the only safe place where they can express themselves freely.
The reference to lobsters in “a restaurant aquarium” infers that one is at a seafood restaurant, where he/she can view the lobsters from a tank. It is implied, then, that the lobster dishes served on the menu will be fresh and local (from the tank). The narrator compares Louise and him/herself to the lobsters because not only does he/she feel trapped and watched by everybody, but is also expecting to be eaten – for his relationship to be ruined or ended by a greater force. The “confines of our life together” indicates that the narrator acknowledges that there are limitations to his/her relationship with Louise. The only place in society in which the two characters are exempt from judgement or hostility is in their “voluptuous” or sexual bedroom.
This passage seems grim and desperate. In a sense, it feels as if the narrator is hostile that Louise hasn’t yet left Elgin. It seems that he/she wishes that their relationship could be free and expressive rather than bound to the bedroom.