The boy was lying, fast asleep, on a rude bed upon the floor; so pale with anxiety, and sadness, and the closeness of his prison, that he looked like death; not death as it shews in shroud and coffin, but in the guise it wears when life has just departed; when a young and gentle spirit has, but an instant, fled to Heaven: and the gross air of the world has not had time to breathe upon the changing dust it hallowed.
Interpretation
This quote reflects on the profound impact of anxiety and sadness on a young boy, portraying his state as close to death without being dead.
In this quote from Charles Dickens, the author evokes a powerful image of a boy exhausted by anxiety and sadness, lying in a simple bed on the floor. The description of the boy's pale visage associates his emotional state with death, not in a literal sense but in the way it robs the spirit of life and vitality. Dickens draws a stark contrast between the physical state of being alive and the emotional burden that can render a person nearly lifeless, suggesting that the weight of despair can diminish one's essence just as profoundly as death itself.
In practice
This quote could be used in a discussion about mental health in youth.
I recollected one story there was in the village, how that on a certain night in the year (it might be that very night for anything I knew), all the dead people came out of the ground and sat at the heads of their own graves till morning.
A silent look of affection and regard when all other eyes are turned coldly away-the consciousness that we possess the sympathy and affection of one being when all others have deserted us-is a hold, a stay, a comfort, in the deepest affliction, which no wealth could purchase, or power bestow.
Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts. I was better after I had cried, than before--more sorry, more aware of my own ingratitude, more gentle.
There are not a few among the disciples of charity who require, in their vocation, scarcely less excitement than the votaries of pleasure in theirs.
You might, from your appearance, be the wife of Lucifer,” said Miss Pross, in her breathing. “Nevertheless, you shall not get the better of me. I am an Englishwoman.
Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th of December to pick a man's pockets.
They themselves mocked Africa, trading stories of absurdity, of stupidity, and they felt safe to mock, because it was a mockery born of longing, and of the heartbroken desire to see a place made whole again.
I shall go on shining as a brilliantly meaningless figure in a meaningless world.
They all err - Muslims, Christians, Jews and Magians. There are two kinds of humans - the intelligent, who have no religion, and the religious, who have no intellect.
It is the stars, The stars above us, govern our conditions.
IDLENESS, n. A model farm where the devil experiments with seeds of new sins and promotes the growth of staple vices.
The consequences of our actions take hold of us, quite indifferent to our claim that meanwhile we have 'improved.
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