They are all alike you know. They hold their tongues for years and you think you're safe, but when the opportunity comes they remember everything.
Edith WhartonRead
You thought I was a lovelorn mistress; and I was only an expensive prostitute.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The speaker reveals the misunderstanding of their true intentions in a relationship, highlighting the difference between love and transactional connections.
In this quote, Edith Wharton addresses the theme of misunderstanding within relationships, particularly the often misconceived notions of love and desire. The speaker emphasizes that what may appear to be a romantic or emotional involvement is, in reality, a transactional relationship, where emotional attachment is mistaken for love. This distinction illustrates the complexities of human connections and the assumptions people make about each other's motives and feelings.
Themes
RelationshipsLoveMisunderstandingIntentionTransaction
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the nature of love vs. transactional relationships.
More from Edith Wharton
All quotes →They seemed to come suddenly upon happiness as if they had surprised a butterfly in the winter woods
Edith WhartonRead
Set wide the window. Let me drink the day.
Edith WhartonRead
And I wonder, among all the tangles of this mortal coil, which one contains tighter knots to undo, & consequently suggests more tugging, & pain, & diversified elements of misery, than the marriage tie.
Edith WhartonRead
As he paid the hansom and followed his wife's long train into the house he took refuge in the comforting platitude that the first six months were always the most difficult in marriage. 'After that I suppose we shall have pretty nearly finished rubbing off each other’s angles,' he reflected; but the worst of it was that May's pressure was already bearing on the very angles whose sharpness he most wanted to keep
Edith WhartonRead
There are two ways to spread happiness; either be the light who shines it or be the mirror who reflects it.
Edith WhartonRead
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