You imagine the carefully pruned, shaped thing that is presented to you is truth. That is just what it isn't. The truth is improbable, the truth is fantastic; it's in what you think is a distorting mirror that you see the truth.
Jean RhysRead
I watched her die many times. In my way, not in hers. In sunlight, in shadow, by moonlight, by candlelight. In the long afternoons when the house was empty. Only the sun was there to keep us company. We shut him out. And why not? Very soon she was as eager for what's called loving as I was - more lost and drowned afterwards.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses deep feelings of loss and longing for a loved one, reflecting on the complexity of love and death.
In this poignant reflection, Jean Rhys articulates the repeated experience of watching a loved one suffer and ultimately die, emphasizing the emotional weight of love intertwined with loss. The imagery of light—sunlight, moonlight, and candlelight—symbolizes both presence and absence, suggesting that even as they shared moments of intimacy, the impending loss loomed large, echoing the profound impact of love that transforms into sorrow.
Themes
LoveLossGriefIntimacyMemory
In practice
Example use cases
In a eulogy for a loved one, to express the depth of shared experiences.
More from Jean Rhys
All quotes →If I was bound for hell, let it be hell. No more false heaven. No more damned magic.
Jean RhysRead
The musty smell, the bugs, the lonliness, this room, which is part of the street outside-this is all I want from life.
Jean RhysRead
Yes, I am sad, sad as a circus-lioness, sad as an eagle without wings, sad as a violin with only one string and that one broken, sad as a woman who is growing old. Sad, sad, sad.
Jean RhysRead
My life, which seems so simple and monotonous, is really a complicated affair of cafés where they like me and cafés where they don't, streets that are friendly, streets that aren't, rooms where I might be happy, rooms where I shall never be, looking-glasses I look nice in, looking-glasses I don't, dresses that will be lucky, dresses that won't, and so on.
Jean RhysRead
I must write. If I stop writing my life will have been an abject failure. It is that already to other people. But it could be an abject failure to myself. I will not have earned death.
Jean RhysRead
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F. Scott FitzgeraldRead
..still to have loved her without return would have lifted you higher than all those, be they who they may, that have ever known her to love.
Elizabeth GaskellRead
Jesus wanted to show us his heart as the heart that loved so deeply. For this reason we have this commemoration today, especially of God's love. God loved us, he loved us with such great love. I am thinking of what St Ignatius told us.... He pointed out two criteria on love. The first: love is expressed more clearly in actions than in words. The second: there is greater love in giving than in receiving.
Pope FrancisRead
We must never expect discretion in first love: it is accompanied by such excessive joy that unless the joy is allowed to overflow, it will choke you.
Alexandre DumasRead