My dearest Clare,

I tried for so long to convince myself that it was just an accident -- a horrible, awful, tragic accident. But you know as well as I do that it was not. We both know, Clare, that I killed you. And we both know exactly why. There are certain expectations of respectability that our relationship constantly threatened. To declare ourselves independent of these expectations would be, for me, to commit social suicide. And the desire pulsating from within me whenever I heard your laugh, felt your touch, or gazed into your eyes was too much for me to suppress. As black women, we have still not earned the right to claim our freedom completely. We remain confined by the norms of white middle-class respectability. And we are viewed as a threat when we attempt to diverge from those norms.

Our relationship would have constituted a divergence of catastrophic proportions in the eyes of those who oppress us, and moreover, in the eyes of our men. To make our love public, or to assert any form of sexual independence, would be to contest the already vulnerable masculinity of black men. In short, we would be hated and ostracized by all of society, white and black, if we were to ever be discovered. And my feelings for you were strong enough to make me feel that such a discovery was inevitable.

And so I had to end you, Clare, and in doing so, end us. I hope that you will forgive me for what I have done. It was selfish, yes, but desperation and fear made me blind. What we had was dangerous and unsustainable. It is my hope that in death, you have been relieved of the pain of an impossible love.

Yours always,
Irene

Questions:
1. Why does Quicksand end with Helga in such an extreme state of subordination and misery? What does this say about the spheres of blackness and whiteness? Are they, for Helga, hopelessly incompatible? If so, why?
2. What is the significance of social class in Gentlemen's Agreement? How would the film be different if it took place outside the context of the upper class?