Imagine getting lost in your thoughts for a long time, and you're trying to remember your goal in life, and then suddenly, it hits you: "Oh yeah, I'm trying to murder the woman I love!" The novel plays on this insane, troubling premise, showing that although the idea seems bizarre and sinister, there are elements of truth in George's insanity. Although it would be easy to make the novel about "crazy people," perhaps a more nuanced analysis would be to treat the universality of his point of view.
Nothing is more antithetical to romantic love than murder, and yet, the novel suggests that in George's case, the urges are the same. He wants to destroy Netta because of the effect she has on his psyche. This raises an important thematic question: If love causes each person to suffer, does that mean that each person has a choice to blame the person they love, as if they were entitled to that person's affections?
Yes. That is the novel's opinion. Add to this irony that George tends to go into fugue states where he acts bizarrely and doesn't remember it later, and suddenly we have a murderer on our hands. How could it be that love is so close to hatred if the two are opposites? George's story suggests that perhaps the answer lies in control. To truly love is to be scathed by emotion and suffering, but not to exert control. By exerting control over the person he presumes to love, he suddenly condemns them both to tragedy.
