Of the widow's countless death-duties there is really just one that matters: on the first anniversary of her husband's death the widow should think I kept myself alive.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
Later, her first intense, serious love affair, yes then she'd lost something more tangible, if undefinable: her heart? her independence? her control of, definition of, self? That first true loss, the furious bafflement of it. And never again quite so assured, confident.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote reflects on the profound impact of a first love, highlighting the feelings of loss and confusion that accompany it.
Joyce Carol Oates explores the complexities of first love, emphasizing how it can lead to significant personal loss and transformation. The emotions tied to such an intense experience may strip one of their sense of self, independence, and confidence, leading to a realization that they are forever changed by the depth of the relationship and its aftermath.
Themes
LoveLossSelfIndependenceTransformation
In practice
Example use cases
In a speech about the lessons of love at a graduation ceremony.
More from Joyce Carol Oates
All quotes →I never really knew I wanted to 'be' a writer, but I was always writing from a very young age. It became more conscious as an ideal when I was in my twenties.
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I'm drawn to write about upstate New York in the way in which a dreamer might have recurring dreams. My childhood and girlhood were spent in upstate New York, in the country north of Buffalo and West of Rochester. So this part of New York state is very familiar to me and, with its economic difficulties, has become emblematic of much of American life.
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My writing is often a way of 'bearing witness' for others who lack the education and the opportunity to tell their own stories, so I hope that my writing won't be affected too much by my personal life.
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The worst cynicism: a belief in luck.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
. . . there is a wish in the heart of mankind to be distracted and confused. Truth is but one attraction, and not always the most powerful.
Joyce Carol OatesRead
Similar quotes
I will make love my greatest weapon and none on whom I call can defend against its force._x000D_ _x000D_ My reasoning they may counter; my speech they may distrust; my apparel they may disapprove; my face they may reject; and even my bargains may cause them suspicion; yet my love will melt all hearts liken to the sun whose rays soften the coldest clay._x000D_ _x000D_ I will greet this day with love in my heart.
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Romances paint at full length people's wooing. But only give a bust of marriages.
Lord ByronRead
I say you are a coward and you are; I think you hunt only to reassure yourself that you are not what you are: the weakest thing to ever walk the Earth. He will come for me and then we will be gone, and you will be helpless for all your hunting, because Westley and I are joined by the bond of love and you cannot track that, not with a thousand bloodhounds, and you cannot break it, not with a thousand swords.
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I'm a feminist, but I think that romance has been taken away a bit for my generation.
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All love's pleasure shall not match its woe.
William ShakespeareRead
Only God, my dear, Could love you for yourself alone And not your yellow hair.
William Butler YeatsRead