Yes! He knew how she would love. He had not loved her without gaining that instinctive knowledge of what capabilities were in her. Her soul would walk in glorious sunlight if any man was worthy, by his power of loving, to win back her love.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the understanding and depth of love that comes from knowing someone's true potential for love.
In this quote, Elizabeth Gaskell reflects on the profound connection between two lovers, highlighting that true love is not just about feelings but also about understanding and recognizing each other's capabilities and worth. The speaker acknowledges that the woman possesses a deep capacity for love that can be awakened by the right man who appreciates and reciprocates her emotions, suggesting that love has the power to bring out the best in individuals when it is genuine and mutual.
In practice
In a wedding speech, one might use this quote to describe the couple's deep understanding of each other.
Neither loss of father, nor loss of mother, dear as she was to Mr Thornton, could have poisoned the remembrance of the weeks, the days, the hours, when a walk of two miles, every step of which was pleasant, as it brought him nearer and nearer to her, took him to her sweet presence - every step of which was rich, as each recurring moment that bore him away from her made him recal some fresh grace in her demeanour, or pleasant pungency in her character.
It is the first changes among familiar things that make such a mystery of time to the young; afterwards we lose the sense of the mysterious. I take changes in all I see as a matter of course. The instability of all human things is familiar to me, to you it is new and oppressive." (Mr. Bell)
Loyalty and obedience to wisdom and justice are fine; but it is still finer to defy arbitrary power, unjustly and cruelly used--not on behalf of ourselves, but on behalf of others more helpless.
Thinking has, many a time, made me sad, darling; but doing never did in all my life....My precept is, do something, my sister, do good if you can; but at any rate, do something.
Mr. Thornton felt that in this influx no one was speaking to Margaret, and was restless under this apparent neglect. But he never went near her himself; he did not look at her. Only, he knew what she was doing — or not doing — better than anyone else in the room. Margaret was so unconscious of herself, and so much amused by watching other people, that she never thought whether she was left unnoticed or not.
Well, He had known what love was-a sharp pang, a fierce experience, in the midst of whose flames he was struggling! but, through that furnace he would fight his way out into the serenity of middle age,-all the richer and more human for having known this great passion.
Life is brief but love is LONG .
Only when you are lost can love find itself in you without losing its way.
I love our shared island, our shared Ireland and its core decency. I love it for its imagination and its celebration of the endless possibilities for our people.
We never live so intensely as when we love strongly. We never realize ourselves so vividly as when we are in full glow of love for others.
Love is the fire that warms our lives with unparalleled joy and divine hope. Love should be our walk and our talk.
The most important thing in life is to learn how to give out love, and to let it come in.
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