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To me the mental time travel hypothesis works only with the existence of some overall purpose and outside agency beyond the drug itself. Perhaps as simple as God intervening to save Roger's soul from the consequences of his mortal sin. This in turn, of course, raises other issues. Should compassionate euthanasia such as this be a mortal sin? Should suicide, for that matter? And if the punishment for Roger here was unjust, why did God require human intervention rather than intervening directly to correct the injustice? Was Du Maurier having a subtle dig at Catholic dogma? Or perhaps at Christian dogma more generally. This type of question goes to the heart of Christian theology. Like many of these types of discussion, I often think of the author quietly lurking and chuckling, amazed at what others are seeing in her book. But we are of course having a bit of fun doing it. I won't take this religious aspect much further since once we branch into religious discussion (or politics) things can cease to be fun very quickly.
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