What is etiquette? According to Google, is a code of behavior that delineates expectations of social behavior according to contemporary conventional norms within a society, social class, or group. Anna was influenced by her friend Laurie of learning to be etiquette since it was a norm in London. Anna didn’t have the proper behavior since she came from the Caribbean and didn’t experience it back at home. Learning etiquette helped her feel accepted within the society and be more appreciated. Anna wearing white gloves represents being etiquette and was slowly engaging in London’s social norms.  Even though she experienced some of these norms from her stepmother Hester, she was miserable. According to the article “Two Tunes: Jean Rhys’ Voyage in the Dark”, Loendorf explains, “this young girl feels when forced to comply with the demands of a culture pressed upon her. Implicating that Anna feels like this with gloves on and how it doesn’t suit her in the hot weather. Anna states, “I thought about home and standing by the window Sunday Morning, dressing to go to church, and putting on a woolen vest which had shrunk in the was too small because wool next the skin is healthy. And white drawers tight at the knee…” (36) Shows her frustration of London’s culture and that she feels that it’s so unnecessary. Although she feels like not doing the norms that London women do, she has to learn to feel more accepted.

I have attached a short video where you can see how etiquette is described in Britain.

LOENDORF, HARALD. “Two Tunes: Jean Rhys’ Voyage in the Dark.” Caribbean Quarterly, vol. 46, no. 1, 2000, pp. 24–36. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40654111.

Rhys, Jean, and Carole Angier. Voyage in the Dark. Penguin Books, 2007.

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