The Left Hand of Darkness is the story of Genly Ai, ambassador of an intergalactic confederacy known as the Ekumen, and his journey to the planet Winter. The human inhabitants of Winter are ambisexual, spending most of their time in an androgynous state and adopting male or female sexual characteristics during a monthly mating period. Genly's story explores Western conceptions of sex and gender, as well as the idea of androgyny.
Le Guin's works set in the Hainish universe explore the idea of human expansion, a theme found in the future history novels of other science-fiction authors such as Isaac Asimov. The Hainish novels, such as The Dispossessed , Left Hand , and The Word for World is Forest, also frequently explore the effects of differing social and political systems. Le Guin believed that contemporary society suffered from a high degree of alienation and division, and her depictions of encounters between races, such as in The Left Hand of Darkness, sought to explore the possibility of an "improved mode of human relationships", based on "integration and integrity". The Left Hand of Darkness explores this theme through the relationship between Genly Ai and Estraven; Ai initially distrusts Estraven, but eventually comes to love and trust him. Le Guin's later Hainish novels also challenge contemporary ideas about gender, ethnic differences, the value of ownership, and human beings' relationship to the natural world.
A prominent theme in the novel are social relations in a society where gender is irrelevant; in Le Guin's words, she "eliminated gender, to find out what was left." In her 1976 essay "Is Gender necessary?" Le Guin wrote that the theme of gender was only secondary to the novel's primary theme of loyalty and betrayal. However, Le Guin revisited this essay in 1988, and stated that gender was actually central to the novel; her earlier essay had described gender as a peripheral theme because of the defensiveness she felt over using masculine pronouns for her characters.
The novel also follows changes in the character of Genly Ai, whose behavior shifts away from "masculine" behavior, and grows more androgynous over the course of the novel. He becomes more patient and caring, and less rigidly rationalist. Ai struggles to form a bond with Estraven through much of the novel, and finally breaks down the barrier between them during their journey on the ice, when he recognizes and accepts Estraven's dual sexuality. Their understanding of each other's sexuality helps them achieve a more trusting relationship. The new intimacy they share is shown when Ai teaches Estraven to mindspeak, and Estraven hears Ai speaking with the voice of Estraven's dead sibling Arek.
Feminist theorists criticized the novel for what they saw as a homophobic depiction of the relationship between Estraven and Ai. Both are presented as superficially masculine throughout the novel, but they never physically explore the attraction between them. Estraven's death at the end was seen as giving the message that "death is the price that must be paid for forbidden love." In a 1986 essay, Le Guin acknowledged and apologized for the fact that Left Hand had presented heterosexuality as the norm on Gethen.
The androgynous nature of the inhabitants of Gethen is used to examine gender relations in human society. On Gethen, the permanently male Genly Ai is an oddity, and is seen as a "pervert" by the natives; according to reviewers, this is Le Guin's way of gently critiquing masculinity. Le Guin also seems to suggest that the absence of gender divisions leads to a society without the constriction of gender roles. The Gethenians are not inclined to go to war, which reviewers have linked to their lack of sexual aggressiveness, derived from their ambisexuality. According to Harold Bloom, "Androgyny is clearly neither a political nor a sexual ideal" in the book, but that "... ambisexuality is a more imaginative condition than our bisexuality. ... the Gethenians know more than either men or women." Bloom added that this is the major difference between Estraven and Ai, and allows Estraven the freedom to carry out actions that Ai cannot; Estraven "is better able to love, and freed therefore to sacrifice."
The book features two major religions: the Handdara, an informal system reminiscent of Taoism and Buddhism, and the Yomeshta or Meshe's cult, a close-to-monotheistic religion based on the idea of absolute knowledge of the entirety of time attained in one visionary instant by Meshe, who was originally a Foreteller of the Handdara, when attempting to answer the question: "What is the meaning of life?" The Handdara is the more ancient, and dominant in Karhide, while Yomesh is the official religion in Orgoreyn. The differences between them underlie political distinctions between the countries and cultural distinctions between their inhabitants. Estraven is revealed to be an adept of the Handdara.
Le Guin's interest in Taoism influenced much of her science fiction work. Douglas Barbour said that the fiction of the Hainish Universe contains a theme of balance between light and darkness, a central theme of Taoism. The title of Left Hand derives from the first line of a lay traditional to the fictional planet of Gethen;
Light is the left hand of darkness,and darkness the right hand of light.
Two are one, life and death, lying
together like lovers in kemmer ,like hands joined together,
like the end and the way.
Suzanne Reid stated that this presentation of light and dark was in strong contrast to many western cultural assumptions, which believe in strongly contrasted opposites. She went on to say that Le Guin's characters have a tendency to adapt to the rhythms of nature rather than trying to conquer them, an attitude which can also be traced to Taoism. The Handarrata represent the Taoist sense of unity; believers try to find insight by reaching the "untrance", a balance between knowing and unknowing, and focusing and unfocusing.
The Yomesh cult is the official religion of Orgoreyn, and worships light. Critics such as David Lake have found parallels between the Yomesh cult and Christianity, such as the presence of saints and angels, and the use of a dating system based on the death of the prophet. Le Guin portrays the Yomesh religion as influencing the Orgota society, which Lake interprets as a critique of the influence of Christianity upon Western society. In comparison to the religion of Karhide, the Yomesh religion focuses more on enlightenment and positive, obvious statements. The novel suggests that this focus on positives leads to the Orgota being not entirely honest, and that a balance between enlightenment and darkness is necessary for truth.
Loyalty, fidelity, and betrayal are significant themes in the book, explored against the background of both planetary and interplanetary relations. Genly Ai is sent to Gethen as an envoy of the Ekumen, whose mission is to convince the various Gethenian nations that their identities will not be destroyed when they integrate with the Ekumen. At the same time, the planetary conflict between Karhide and Orgoreyn is shown as increasing nationalism, making it hard for those in each country to view themselves as citizens of the planet.
These conflicts are demonstrated by the varying loyalties of the main characters. Genly Ai tells Argaven after Estraven's death that Estraven served mankind as a whole, just as Ai did. During the border dispute with Orgoreyn, Estraven tries to end the dispute by moving Karhidish farmers out of the disputed territory. Estraven believes that by preventing war he was saving Karhidish lives and being loyal to his country, while King Argaven sees it as a betrayal. At the end of the novel Ai calls his ship down to formalize Gethen's joining the Ekumen, and feels conflicted while doing so because he had promised Estraven that he would clear Estraven's name before calling his ship down. His decision is an example of Le Guin's portrayal of loyalty and betrayal as complementary rather than contradictory, because in joining Gethen with the Ekumen Ai was fulfilling the larger purpose that he shared with Estraven. Donna White wrote that many of Le Guin's novels depict a struggle between personal loyalties and public duties, best exemplified in Left Hand , where Ai is bound by a personal bond to Estraven, but must subordinate that to his mission for the Ekumen and humanity.
The theme of loyalty and trust is related to the novel's other major theme of gender. Ai has considerable difficulty in completing his mission because of his prejudice against the ambisexual Gethenians and his inability to establish a personal bond with them. Ai's preconceived ideas of how men should behave prevents him from trusting Estraven when the two meet; Ai labels Estraven "womanly" and distrusts him because Estraven exhibits both male and female characteristics. Estraven also faces difficulties communicating with Ai, who does not understand shifgrethor , the Gethenians' indirect way of giving and receiving advice. A related theme that runs through Le Guin's work is that of being rooted or rootless in society, explored through the experiences of lone individuals on alien planets.
Shifgrethor is a fictional concept in the Hainish universe, first introduced in The Left Hand of Darkness . It is first mentioned by Genly Ai, when he thinks to himself "... shifgrethor—prestige, face, place, the pride-relationship, the untranslatable and all-important principle of social authority in Karhide and all civilizations of Gethen." It derives from an old Gethenian word for shadow. George Slusser describes shifgrethor as "not rank, but its opposite, the ability to maintain equality in any relationship, and to do so by respecting the person of the other." According to University of West Georgia Professor Carrie B. McWhorter, shifgrethor can be defined simply as "a sense of honor and respect that provides the Gethenians with a way to save face in a time of crisis."
Ai initially refuses to see a connection between his sexuality and his mode of consciousness, preventing him from truly understanding the Gethenians; thus he is unable to persuade them of the importance of his mission. Ai's failure to comprehend shifgrethor and to trust Estraven's motives leads him to misunderstand much of the advice that Estraven gives him. As Ai's relationship to Estraven changes, their communication also changes; they are both more willing to acknowledge mistakes, and make fewer assertions. Eventually, the two are able to converse directly with mindspeech, but only after Ai is able to understand Estraven's motivations, and no longer requires direct communication.
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