“Better pass boldly into that other world, in the full glory of some passion, than fade and wither dismally with age.”
There are certain texts read at school that seldom do you find yourself picking up again, until years have passed and the eyes with which you view the world are no longer the same. Such is the case for me, Joyce’s ‘Dubliners’, and the story that comes before its close.
(Spoilers within.)
“Elle se sentait en même temps indignée contre tous ses voisins et humiliée d’avoir cédé, souillée par les baisers de ce Prussien entre les bras duquel on l’avait hypocritement jetée.”
– She was conscious at the same time of anger against all her neighbours and humiliation at having given way, as if she had been defiled by the embraces of the Prussian, into whose arms their hypocrisy had cast her.
(Spoilers within.)
Matilda Dancing 