#carlosg

The ending of “Woman on the Edge of Time” seems to be just that; it just ends. Chapter 19 follows Connie’s attempts of “winning the war”, poisoning the doctors and killing at least four of them. This chapter also shows the last time Connie ever sees Luciente, who advises Connie that killing in necessary under oppression, even if it’s not right. The book ends with Connie sitting and waiting, and chapter 20 lists medical information about Connie throughout the events of the book.

It sort of just ends there, Connie has successfully won “the war”, right? It can’t be certain since she has no contact with Luciente anymore, but the ending leads to ambiguity. Do we really know what happens now in Luciente’s future? Is it alright now that Connie killed those doctors?

The medical information in Chapter 20 makes it very clear that the doctors view Connie as some crazy, unstable person, hinting that Connie is still in the mental ward: “There were one hundred thirteen more pages. They all followed Connie back to Rockover”.

The ambiguity regarding Connie’s sanity seems to be irrelevant by the end of the book. If Connie were crazy and deliberately poisoned the doctors with no true motive but her wild imagination, she would still be living the rest of her live in a metal institute. If Connie were truly sane and secured Luciente’s future via poisoning the doctors, she’s still going to be labelled crazy and spend the rest of her existence in the institute. On top of that, Connie has no way of knowing whether Luciente’s future was safe since she can’t communicate with her. For all we know she may have done all the things she’s done throughout the book for nothing.