In That Night, by Alice McDermott, almost all the romances end in tragedy. Sheryl and Rick's relationship ended due to Sheryl's pregnancy. Sheryl's mother's romance ended when her husband died. The narrator's marriage faded and subsequently ended. Rick's parent's relationship consisted of many problems. The mother's bouts with mental illness interrupted the continuity and stability of their life and romance. .
Rick and Sheryl, the central characters in this novel, used each other to fill the emptiness in their own lives. Sheryl's father had suddenly died. She felt "this emptiness left like an impression by the way she loved her father must be filled or else it will be as though he never lived." The inconsistent love at home caused an emptiness inside of Rick. Sheryl continually fed him the notion that her love for him completed him. When Sheryl's mother sent her away, Rick's greatest fear was that Sheryl had changed. "She had said she loved him. She had promised him things he could hardly understand except as some kind of fulfillment of all that he knew he wanted, and then become someone else." Rick feared abandonment by Sheryl as his mother had repeatedly abandoned him. The fact that Sheryl left suddenly, never to see or speak to Rick again and gave their child up for adoption concluded their romance tragically.
Tragedy completed Sheryl's mother's romance by circumstances beyond her control. Her husband had suddenly died. She had an extremely difficult time pulling herself together and moving on with her life. The mothers on the block expected their own romances to end tragically as well, as "their own plans for widowhood usually involved a gallant, tragic, air." People in the neighborhood gossiped and said things such as, " "She's never going to find another husband with an attitude like that." " The narrator describes the way the mothers on the block treat her. "Our mothers, who had begun by then to look for reasons to avoid her, said it was high time she pulled herself together and started being pleasant again.
