Did Estraven and Genly Fall in Love?

The hands playing with rope, symbolizing connectivity, friendship, strong bonds.

The second half of the book is about the trip that Ai and Estraven make across the ice in order to reach safety in the country that they both left under threat. Estraven and Genly fight elements together, and through this they are able to learn about each other. They get to see each other’s strengths and weaknesses. They are, in a sense, bound together. They are isolated on the ice and faced with such trials and forced to rely on one another. This gives them a chance to tell stories and give opinions that they never had a chance to when they were in society. The mind-speaking technique that Ai teaches has strange results: to Estraven, Ai's voice sounds just like Estraven's brother's, and when Ai hears Estraven he thinks that the voice he is hearing is his own. This leads to the question…did they fall in love?

I think that they did fall in love, but not a romance love. Being away from society helps them to both let down their guards and gets to know each other on a much deeper level, and develop a strong connection. Relying on each other for survival resulted in them forming a bond unlike anything that could have been formed when they were in society. When they were in society, they both were playing social roles and they were guessing what social role the other was playing. When Estraven and Genly looked at each other, they were home and they were each other’s comfort.