A few days ago I delved into Mrs. Miniver. I am enjoying this simple story very much and basking in the lovely writing. I had a hard time picking what I wanted to share--thoughts on sitting in the dentist chair (These thoughts alone are worth picking up the book to read!), the war (powerful), or numerous others. Today I am going to settle on a couple of quotes about marriage.
"But that is what I feel every spring," said Clem unexpectedly. And I've known him through seventeen of them, thought Mrs. Miniver, with out knowing that. But it was quite natural really: she had long ago discovered that whereas words, for her, clarified feelings, for Clem, on the whole, they obscured them. This was perhaps just as well. For if they had both been equally explicit they might have been in danger of understanding each other completely; and a certain degree of un-understanding (not mis-, but un-) is the only possible sanctuary which one human being can offer to another in the midst of the devastating intimacy of a happy marriage. (p. 94)
Enchanted, she put the incident into her pocket for Clem. It jostled, a bright pebble, against several others: she had had a rewarding day. And Clem, who had driven down to the country to lunch with a client, would be pretty certain to come back with some good stuff, too. This was the cream of marriage, this nightly turning out of the day's pocketful of memories, this deft habitual sharing of two pairs of eyes, two pairs of ears. It gave you, in a sense, almost a double life: though never, on the other hand quite a single one. (p. 203)
I lov this movie, though it has been years since I saw it. I'll have to read this book. That second quote, especially, is just lovely.
ReplyDeleteWow! What incredible insight and ability to write about it.
ReplyDeleteI like how the idea of understanding each other completely is described as a danger.
ReplyDeleteThe second quote is a beautiful way of looking at marriage.
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