Quote of the Week – Week 40

Thank God that those other Jane ladies here are eloquent in exploring other JA books, lest I fear that dearest readers will be bored with my chosen quote, for it is, again, taken from Persuasion. I can’t help it, the book just holds my heart so gently yet persistently nowadays that all I did to find a quote was just randomly opened a page, and there you go: the quote of the week. From Volume II Chapter XI (Oxford edition, 2004, p. 194) after Anne Elliot received that letter from Captain Wentworth, and they both wandered along the streets of Bath just to rekindle their old feelings:

QUOTE

There they returned again into the past, more exquisitely happy, perhaps, in their re-union, than when it had been first projected; more tender, more tried, more fixed in a knowledge of each other’s character, truth, and attachment; more equal to act, more justified in acting. And there, as they slowly paced the gradual ascent, heedless of every group around them, seeing neither sauntering politicians, bustling house-keepers, flirting girls, nor nursery-maids and children, they could indulge in those retrospections and acknowledgments, and especially in those explanations of what had directly preceded the present moment, which were so poignant and so ceaseless in interest.

END OF QUOTE

I find this passage very interesting, for these feelings can only be experienced by those who had loved and lost before, who completely understand the meaning of growing up alone, letting go all the pain without giving into hatred or feeling sorry for themselves. It’s like… they grow up without each other’s presence, even without any hope that their love will be returned, and yet they survived and emerged as better beings. And when they met again, they found the same souls that they were attracted to, and also much more, for their separate learning processes had taught them so much.

Jane, you’re a wonderful woman, you know that my lady? I wonder if she was thinking of Tom Lefroy when she wrote this passage... and having a 'what-if' moment. Nevertheless, a strong woman she remained!

Pic: Captain Wentworth (Rupert Penry-Jones) and Anne Elliot (Sally Hawkins) from Clerkenwellfilms