“ The human heart . . . can contain only a certain quantity of despair. When the sponge is saturated, the sea may pass over it without causing a single drop more to enter it. ”
Victor Hugo, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame (1831). copy citation
| Author | Victor Hugo |
|---|---|
| Source | The Hunchback of Notre-Dame |
| Topic | despair insensitivity |
| Date | 1831 |
| Language | English |
| Reference | |
| Note | Translation by Isabel F. Hapgood in 1888 |
| Weblink | http://www.gutenberg.org/files/2610/2610-h/2610-h.htm |
Context
“In the meantime, public rumor had informed the archdeacon of the miraculous manner in which the gypsy had been saved. When he learned it, he knew not what his sensations were. He had reconciled himself to la Esmeralda's death. In that matter he was tranquil; he had reached the bottom of personal suffering. The human heart (Dom Claude had meditated upon these matters) can contain only a certain quantity of despair. When the sponge is saturated, the sea may pass over it without causing a single drop more to enter it.
Now, with la Esmeralda dead, the sponge was soaked, all was at an end on this earth for Dom Claude. But to feel that she was alive, and Phœbus also, meant that tortures, shocks, alternatives, life, were beginning again.” source
Now, with la Esmeralda dead, the sponge was soaked, all was at an end on this earth for Dom Claude. But to feel that she was alive, and Phœbus also, meant that tortures, shocks, alternatives, life, were beginning again.” source
Meaning and analysis
