I'll make you mine, lovers said in old books. They never said, I'll make you me.
Interpretation
The quote contrasts the traditional view of love with a more individualistic perspective, suggesting that true love should emphasize individuality and the self.
Margaret Atwood's quote reflects on the often romanticized notion of love, where the phrase 'I'll make you mine' implies possession and ownership, common in literature. In contrast, Atwood challenges this idea by proposing that true love should focus on the partners' individuality and self-identity, highlighting the need for personal growth and self-fulfillment within relationships rather than a merger of identities.
In practice
This quote can be shared during a discussion about healthy relationships and individuality.
If I am good enough and quiet enough, perhaps after all they will let me go; but it’s not easy being quiet and good, it’s like hanging on to the edge of a bridge when you’ve already fallen over; you don’t seem to be moving, just dangling there, and yet it is taking all your strength.
I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off.
What else can I do? Once you've gone this far you aren't fit for anything else. Something happens to your mind. You're overqualified, overspecialized, and everybody knows it. Nobody in any other game would be crazy enough to hire me. I wouldn't even make a good ditch-digger, I'd start tearing apart the sewer-system, trying to pick-axe and unearth all those chthonic symbols - pipes, valves, cloacal conduits... No, no. I'll have to be a slave in the paper-mines for all time.
We love each other, that’s true whatever it means, but we aren’t good at it; for some it’s a talent, for others only an addiction.
I've learned quite a lot, over the years, by avoiding what I was supposed to be learning.
Knowing too much about other people puts you in their power, they have a claim on you, you are forced to understand their reasons for doing things and then you are weakened.
Narcissus does not fall in love with his reflection because it is beautiful, but because it is his. If it were his beauty that enthralled him, he would be set free in a few years by its fading.
He felt he had lost it for good, he knew what it was to have been in communication with her, and to be cast off again. In misery, his heart like a heavy stone, he went about unliving.
The sum which two married people owe to one another defies calculation. It is an infinite debt, which can only be discharged through all eternity.
It is easier to love humanity as a whole than to love one's neighbor.
Only God knows how much I love you.
This is not a letter but my arms around you for a brief moment.
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