The one consistent character throughout the work is the narrator, Duras herself. She emerges as someone deeply involved in the war as well as a highly emotional person. The contradictions in her personality are evident in her reflections on the past: "How could I have written this thing I still can't put a name to, and that appalls me when I reread it?" The close association between violence and eroticism in her life is marked in the novel, as well as the rapport between love and destruction, evident in her relationship with her husband, whom she nurses back to life and then leaves. The ambiguity of her relationship with Rabier reflects the same conflicts. In the third part, she appears as Therese. She comments: "The person who tortures the informer is me. So also is the one who feels like making love to Ter, the member of the...