Strait is the Gate

Based on a Freudian interpretation, the story uses the influences of childhood experience and the misunderstandings that can arise between two people.

However, in reaction to her mother's infidelities and from an intense religious impression, Alissa develops a rejection of human love.

The ending of the novel occurs ten years after Alissa's death with the meeting of Jerome and Juliette.

Alissa reached, by going the other way round the world, a damnation very similar to the Immoralist's – indeed, Strait is the Gate might be called The Moralist.

"[1] The title refers to a phrase in the Gospel of Luke in the Bible:[2] Strive to enter in at the strait gate: for many, I say unto you, will seek to enter in, and shall not be able.This verse appears at the end of the first chapter as the subject of a sermon on the Sunday after Alissa's mother runs away with another man.

However Alissa ultimately interprets the "strait and narrow" to preclude any earthly happiness that Jerome and she could share in marriage.