“I can only note that the past is beautiful
because one never realizes an emotion at the time. It expands later, and thus
we don't have complete emotions about the present, only about the past.”
― Virginia
Woolf
I found this quote made by
Virginia Woolf in one of her diaries and I would like to share it with all of you.
I chose it because I would like to relate it to what I personally believe and
to what I experienced while I was reading the book.
For me, it isn’t good to live
in the past, but it is necessary to look back to appreciate and clearly
understand how and why we have got to this point in our lives. It is like
what we talked in classes about “tunneling” which I understand as the characters'
past experiences that are like caves to the past that evoke past feelings and
thoughts.
Our feelings and emotions
become stronger through time, sometimes we can come back in time when we listen
to a song or read a book.
I strongly believe that
sometimes our past make us free because it remember us the times where
everything was easier and we used to see life from another perspective maybe
from a more innocent perspective.
Mrs. Dalloway doesn’t live in the
past, but she feels free when she thinks about what she was and what she has experienced,
it seems that her thoughts bother her and that she is in a constant battle between
the present and the past. Inevitably Clarissa has to face the present but at
the same time she embraces all the moments that make her feel like the woman
she used to be.
From my perspective, I think that this quote means that we find meaning in the past because we analyze and look for significance in what we have done in the past. This is something impossible to do in the present because time is needed to process things (and, the here and now happen so fast that they become past sooner than later). Our present may be full of emotions that we just live or go through without realizing their significance. It is time which allows us to think about them and find meaning on them. As an example, I can think about the kiss between Clarissa and Sally. This was a very especial moment for Clarissa, a moment of being. However, I don’t think that she had thought its significance at the same time that she was kissing Sally. She only felt that moment intensely and was completely aware of it. And it was time which allowed her to comprehend it in a more complete way.
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