The heaventree of stars hung with humid nightblue fruit.
James JoyceRead
He could not feel her near him in the darkness nor hear her voice touch his ear. He waited for some minutes listening. He could hear nothing: the night was perfectly silent. He listened again: perfectly silent. He felt that he was alone.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote conveys a sense of loneliness and longing in the absence of a loved one.
In this passage, James Joyce expresses the profound isolation experienced by an individual when they cannot connect with a loved one, either physically or emotionally. The silence of the night amplifies his feeling of solitude, emphasizing how the absence of another person can create an overwhelming sense of loneliness, reinforcing the significance of companionship in human experience.
Themes
LonelinessAbsenceSilenceLoveConnection
In practice
Example use cases
In a heartfelt speech at a memorial, one could reflect on how the absence of our loved ones leaves a silence that resonates deeply.
More from James Joyce
All quotes →I think a child should be allowed to take his father's or mother's name at will on coming of age. Paternity is a legal fiction.
James JoyceRead
If he had smiled why would he have smiled? To reflect that each one who enters imagines himself to be the first to enter whereas he is always the last term of a preceding series even if the first term of a succeeding one, each imagining himself to be first, last, only and alone whereas he is neither first nor last nor only nor alone in a series originating in and repeated to infinity.
James JoyceRead
Gentle lady, do not sing Sad songs about the end of love; Lay aside sadness and sing How love that passes is enough. Sing about the long deep sleep Of lovers that are dead, and how In the grave all love shall sleep: Love is aweary now.
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I am tomorrow, or some future day, what I establish today. I am today what I established yesterday or some previous day.
James JoyceRead
The movements which work revolutions in the world are born out of the dreams and visions in a peasant's heart on the hillside.
James JoyceRead
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