QuoteProject
He lived in chambers that had once belonged to his deceased partner. They were a gloomy suite of rooms, in a lowering pile of building up a yard, where it had so little business to be, that one could scarcely help fancying it must have run there when it was a young house, playing at hide-and-seek with other houses, and forgotten the way out again.
Charles Dickens
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Interpretation

What this quote means

The quote reflects on the nature of memory and the weight of the past.

In this passage, Charles Dickens describes a somber setting that holds the memories of a deceased partner. The imagery of the gloomy rooms and the building's awkward placement suggests a sense of nostalgia and isolation, highlighting how the past can linger in one's present environment, shaping emotions and perceptions of reality. The metaphor of the house playing hide-and-seek emphasizes a loss of direction and purpose, mirroring the character's own trapped existence within memories.

Themes

MemoryNostalgiaIsolationPastLoss

In practice

Example use cases

In a speech about dealing with grief, one might quote Dickens to illustrate how the past can haunt our present.

More from Charles Dickens

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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Christmas is a poor excuse every 25th of December to pick a man's pockets.
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