54 pages • 1 hour read
E. L. JamesFifty Shades Darker
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2012A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 7-12Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 7 Summary
Ana looks over at Christian after her large purchase and practically begs him to have sex with her. The auction carries on, but Ana is distracted. She agreed to help Mia, Christian’s sister, earlier in the evening. Ana learns that this help entails having her first dance auctioned. Christian gets in a bidding war with an unknown older gentleman. The bidding closes when Christian wins with a $100,000 bid.
Christian takes Ana into the house and shows her his childhood bedroom. Christian spanks Ana after she begs him to do it. He then removes the balls from her vagina and has sex with her. While they prepare to return to the party, Ana finds a picture of a pale, dark haired, dark-eyed woman on his memory board. Ana asks who it is, but Christian says that she is no one of consequence. The pair dances first. Then Ana dances with others, including Christian’s psychologist, Dr. Flynn. He turns out to be the man that was bidding against Christian for the first dance.
Ana excuses herself to go to the restroom but runs into Elena instead. Elena tells Ana that Christian loves her. She then threatens Ana if she hurts Christian. Ana cannot help but laugh. Ana tells Elena off, citing her abuse of Christian when he was a child. Elena stands flabbergasted, and Ana leaves her. She stalks back to Christian, who immediately asks her what is wrong. She tells him to ask Elena. She wants to ask him to stop associating with Elena, but instead tells him she needs the bathroom.
The two stay to watch the fireworks over Puget Sound. The MC announces that they have raised $1,853,000 for the Coping Together charity. Christian and Ana say good night to his family and friends. He tells her that the gynecologist is coming tomorrow to get her birth control sorted out. Ana receives a note from Sawyer, a member of Christian’s security team, from Elena. She offers to take Ana to lunch and signs the letter “Mrs. Robinson.”
The couple returns to Escala, Christian’s apartment, to find that someone slashed Ana’s tires and threw paint on her car. Their security tells Ana and Christian to wait to enter the apartment, but Christian goes in anyway, leaving a worried Ana in the hall with Sawyer.
Chapter 8 Summary
Ana and Sawyer remain in the hallway until Christian opens the door and tells them it is all clear. Ana asks if they will call the police, but Christian says they cannot.
Ana wakes in the middle of the night to find Christian gone. She goes to find him and hears him talking to Elena, telling her to back off. Ana knocks on the door when he hangs up. The two begin to get intimate, until Ana remembers that she saw the outline of a woman watching her sleep when she woke up. Christian barks at Ana to get dressed. Christian relays the information to Taylor.
Ana and Christian head to a hotel for the night, leaving Taylor and Sawyer to thoroughly search the apartment. The two discuss the party and Christian’s family on the way to the hotel. Ana asks Christian about Elena loving him in a way he found acceptable. Christian tells her, “I was out of control. I couldn’t bear to be touched. I can’t bear it now. For a fourteen-, fifteen-year-old adolescent boy with hormones raging, it was a difficult time. She showed me a way to blow off steam” (249). Ana lets the conversation veer to safer territory as they pull up to the Fairmont Olympic Hotel.
The two get to a room, make some more small talk about Christian buying all the portraits of Ana from José’s show. They then have sex, falling asleep tangled around each other.
Christian wakes Ana at 10:15 to eat and shower. Christian allows Ana to wash him. Ana tells him that she and his family love him and that he is easy to love. Leila and Elena love him, in their own messed up way. Christian tells her to stop, but she whispers that he loves her to him. He agrees.
Chapter 9 Summary
Ana experiences elation at Christian’s confession of love for her. The two linger in the shower, and have sex again. Christian and Ana lie together discussing “virtue” and sex. Ana asks about his birthmother; he tells her that the pimp found her body. He was trapped inside the house with his mother’s corpse for four days. He was malnourished and terrified. Christian asks to change the subject.
They dress for an outing. Christian orders Ana to dry her hair and suggests jeans and a sweater. Christian takes Ana to a Saab dealership to pick out a new car since Leila ruined hers. He tells her she might want something different than what his submissives drove. He suggests the safest model, but Ana’s inner goddess wants the convertible even though her subconscious is cringing in disgust at the idea of Christian buying her another car.
Once Christian orders the car, the two make their way up the coast in Christian’s Audi. They eat at a seaside tavern and then board Christain’s sailboat with the assistance of the sailor, Mac. Christian straps Ana into her life vest and sets sail, allowing her to drive for part of it. They lay anchor off shore. Mac heads out in a small boat, leaving Ana and Christian in privacy. Christian tells her that he has never taken anyone but family on the boat before. He shows her the cabins, then takes her to bed.
Chapter 10 Summary
Mac returns to the ship, and they make for the shore. Christian teaches Ana some more boat skills, including tying knots. The two make jokes about the skill. Taylor calls to say the apartment is clear and they can return to Escala. Ana discovers that Taylor’s first name is Jason. She tells Christian she sees Taylor as avuncular.
As the pair chats, Ana confesses that she feels like she is not enough to meet his needs. Her feelings of inadequacy overwhelm her, and she begins to cry. Christian reassures her that she is enough and that they are both still learning how to be in a relationship and that this is a new skill for them both.
The two make it back to Escala. There, they find Taylor who brings Christian up to speed on how Leila has been entering the apartment. Christian tells Ana that she cannot leave Escala. She argues, preparing to go to work. Christian reminds her that she does not need to work. The argument escalates until Ana agrees to take Sawyer with her.
Christian then gives Ana a tour of the apartment. They end up in the billiard room. Ana challenges Christian to a match. They make a sexual bet on the game. Ana misses the last shot; Christian sinks the eight ball, stating that he is going to spank Ana and then have sex with her right there on the pool table.
Chapter 11 Summary
The two take a bath together. Ana agrees not to go out at work tomorrow. Then, the couple goes to bed. At work the next day, Jack asks Ana to get him ready for a conference in New York on Thursday. He then tells her that she will be going as well. She does not feel entirely comfortable with this arrangement, but she agrees. She knows it is a good opportunity to network.
Christian invites Ana to move in with him. She feels like it is too soon. She tells him she would like to talk about moving in later and lets him know, via email, that she will be traveling for work. Christian tells her no about going to New York with Jack. The argument escalates over email.
Ana then receives an email from Elena asking if she can have lunch and get off to a better start. Christian calls her work phone demanding that she delete the personal emails. He hangs up without waiting for a response. Jack tells Ana to halt work as senior management has issued a spending moratorium. Ana knows it is Christian’s doing. They continue their email argument.
Jack asks Ana to get him a sandwich from across the street. She goes to get it without telling Sawyer or Christian. When she returns, Jack sets her to work on briefs, asking her to work late. She begins to work, but Christian calls again, chiding her for going out. Ana accuses him of suffocating her. She tells him she must work late and hangs up. As she works, Ana thinks about Christian as a child and all the trauma he endured that led him to being such a controlling man.
Ana looks up at 7:00 pm. Christian calls. Ana tells him to pick her up at 7:30. Jack comes out of his office asking Ana to make a few more edits to the last draft. He leans in uncomfortably close to her. He brushes his arm against hers and touches her back, ignoring her flinching away from him. He stays leaning over her while she makes the changes. Ana tells Jack that she cannot get a drink since she is meeting her boyfriend. Jack reacts to the name Christian Grey. Ana escapes the encounter.
Ana and Christian let the argument go and head back to Escala. Ana learns that they have not found Leila. They make it to the elevator. Christian stops it between the floors to have sex.
In the apartment, the couple eats what Mrs. Jones has made for dinner. They discuss the trip and Christian’s reaction. Christian trusts her, but not Jack. Ana wants her career to be her own. Christian tells Ana he loves her. Taylor interrupts their discussion, informing them that Elena is at the door.
Chapter 12 Summary
Elena enters the apartment, shocked to find Ana there. Christian tells her that Ana is his girlfriend. The two discuss Elena’s reason for coming. She is being extorted. Ana realizes she has no place in this discussion and excuses herself. She pauses to listen when she leaves the room. Elena observes that Christian seems happy. The conversation continues down this path. Elena asks more personal questions, insinuating herself into his relationship by questioning Ana’s motives and whether Ana can meet Christian’s unique needs. Christian tells her off, but she just tells him that she is worried.
Ana heads to bed as Elena gets up to leave. Ana asks Christian about her when he comes to the bedroom. Christian tells Ana it is in the past, but Ana wants more details about their relationship. She discovers that Christian was a submissive for her, and then she was a submissive for him. Elena’s husband has a fortune from timber and controlled Elena’s life. Ana also learns that Elena has submissives, and her current sub is Christian’s age.
Christian excuses himself to get some work done. Ana goes to the library and curls up with a book. She wakes when Christian comes in to find her. Christian takes her to the living room and sets her on the piano. He begins to perform cunnilingus. She asks him to stop, whimpering the word no. Christian replies, “This is my revenge, Ana […] argue with me and I am going to take it out on your body somehow” (288). The two have coercive sex on the piano and then head to bed.
Ana and Christian make up over breakfast. She agrees to let Taylor know if she needs to leave. At work, Ana emails Christian throughout the day. The receptionist interrupts when Ethan, her best friend’s brother, shows up asking for the apartment keys. Jack is in a good mood. Her day ends well as she gets into the car with Christian. They head to Ana’s apartment to get Ethan for dinner. Christian receives a call as they arrive and tells Ana to go on without him. Ana enters the apartment to find Leila holding a gun.
Chapters 7-12 Analysis
This section of the novel builds the central conflicts that carry throughout the narrative. Fifty Shades Darker follows its predecessor in focusing on Ana and Christian overcoming internal and external obstacles that stand in the way of their love. Christian’s primary conflict is with his past relationships and trauma. He must overcome his past relationship with Leila and his traumatic relationships with Elena and his mother. Ana must overcome the contentious relationship with her boss and her own feelings of self-doubt and insecurity. This section focuses primarily on Christian’s struggles and Ana’s reckoning with them.
Christian battles to create a new version of himself in this section of the novel. He firmly states his commitment to Ana and his love for her—he has grown in his ability to understand himself and to give and receive love. He allows Ana more into his physical and emotional space than ever before. Christian’s growth centers on the idea that he can be more than a dominant, but an actual partner to Ana. His past, however, challenges this assertion. Christian cannot simply walk away from who he was; he must face down and accept himself and his past.
Christian’s relationship with Elena centers on statutory rape. Elena took advantage of an adolescent to bring her own fantasy into reality. Christian explains her motivation as boredom; her “boredom” drove her to seduce her friend’s 15-year-old son. Yet Christian does not see this as problematic. Ana tries to show Christian how inappropriate this relationship was, but Christian refuses to see this as trauma. This lack of awareness and self-reflection echoes his feelings about his mother. He refuses to acknowledge the lasting impact of this childhood trauma outside of the physical. He talks about his childhood in shockingly blunt terms. He refers to his mother as a “crack whore” to distance himself from her. Christian wants to simply walk away from the relationships that shaped him, but they echo through his present. Christian’s refusal to stop when Ana says no demonstrates how consent is not central to his arousal, and it blurs definitions of their relationship. Christian is growing beyond the clear definitions of his previously codified contractual relationship with Ana, but this now has the capacity to hurt each of them more than before, as he assaults her here. At the same time, Ana’s relationship with Christian has shaped her understanding of her value to people in power. She has her “first dance,” a thinly veiled reference to her “virginity,” auctioned off to the highest bidder in Chapter 7. She meekly accepts every advance Jack makes and agrees to his demands the same way she does for Christian sexually. Ana’s idea of who she is and what she is worth is irrevocably changed by her relationship with the older and richer Christian and by the men in control of her.
Leila and Elena demonstrate the impact Christian’s decisions and past trauma impact his life. Leila threatens his happiness with Ana, the safety of those for whom he cares, and his property. He knows he must find Leila so she can get help but refuses the same help for himself. Elena stalks Ana, determined to remain in Christian’s relationships, even as Christian urges her to let go. Christian believes the best of Elena and rebuffs Ana’s attempts to illuminate Elena’s true nature.
The conflicts between Leila and Christian and between Elena and Christian further develop the themes of The Importance of Consent in Intimate Relationships, power and control, and trauma and sexuality. Consensual use of power and control defined Leila and Christian’s relationship. Leila’s loss of her lover has led her to seek power and control without the consent of others. She attempts suicide and destroys Ana’s car to gain a little control of her life. Leila cannot face her loss, so she dives into safety as a submissive. Christian does not consent to this but feels responsible for her safety. He feels that he should still have control of the situation. The traumatic loss of his mother created a need to control his surroundings, even when it threatens his own safety. He charges into the apartment when Leila might be there. He feels that he should oversee everything, even though that is impossible.
Christian’s relationship with Elena fed this need for control. Elena controlled Christian’s sexual awakening. From the age of 15, Christian and Elena closely monitored and controlled all Christian’s sexual encounters. His traumatic experiences with Elena led him to believe that he was only worthy if he controlled his own and his partner’s pleasure. He could not fully consent to his relationship with Elena as he was a minor, but he refuses to see himself as a survivor of abuse. He only feels comfortable if he feels in control. That control, however, is an illusion. Christian’s ability to grow with Ana hinges on his ability to reckon with his past trauma and grow in a relationship with Ana—a relationship built on trust, not control.
Ana and Christian face myriad problems that seem to crop up around them but are slowly learning to trust each other. Elena, Jack, and Leila represent their individual struggles. James uses these characters to show that Christian must learn to let go of power and control and face his own trauma if he hopes to build a life with Ana.
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