Travel may "put a stopper on those memories you would like to resurrect. It does not always work, of course, sometimes the scent is too strong for the bottle, and too strong for me. And then the devil in one, like a furtive peeping Tom, tries to draw the cork."
— Du Maurier, Daphne, Lady Browning (1907-1989)
Work Title
Publisher
Gollancz
Date
1938
Metaphor
Travel may "put a stopper on those memories you would like to resurrect. It does not always work, of course, sometimes the scent is too strong for the bottle, and too strong for me. And then the devil in one, like a furtive peeping Tom, tries to draw the cork."
Metaphor in Context
Then he turned to me and spoke. A little while ago you talked about an invention," he said, "some scheme for capturing a memory. You would like, you told me, at a chosen moment to live the past again. I'm afraid I think rather differently [end page 38] from you. All memories are bitter, and I
prefer to ignore them. Something happened a year ago that altered my whole life, and I want to forget every phase of my existence up to that time. Those days are finished. They are blotted out. I must begin living all over again. The first day we
met, your Mrs. Van Hopper asked me why I came to Monte Carlo. It put a stopper on
those memories you would like
to resurrect. It does not
always work, of course,
sometimes the scent is too
strong for the bottle, and too
strong for me. And then the
devil in one, like a furtive
peeping Tom, tries to draw the
cork. I did that in the first
drive we took together. When
we climbed the hills and
looked down over the
precipice. I was there some
years ago, with my wife. You
asked me if it was still the
same, if it had changed at
all. It was just the same,
but--I was thankful to
realise--oddly impersonal.
There was no suggestion of the
other time. She and I had left
no record. It may have been
because you were with me. You
have blotted out the past for
me, you know, far more
effectivly than all the bright
lights of Monte Carlo. But for
you I should have left long
ago, gone on to Italy, and
Greece, and further still
perhaps. You have spared me
all those wanderings. Damn
your puritanical little
tight-lipped speech to me.
Damn your idea of my kindness
and my charity. I ask you to
come with me becuase I want
you and your company, and if
you don't believe me you can
leave the car now and find
your own way home. Go on, open
the door, and get out."
(pp. 38-9)
(pp. 38-9)
Categories
Provenance
Watching Hitchcock's film adaptation.
Citation
Du Maurier, Daphne. Rebecca. New York: Avon Books, 1994.
Theme
Memory
Date of Entry
01/21/2009