"I will wear a smile on my face, though the thorn rankles in my heart."
— Rowson, Susanna (1762-1828)
Author
Place of Publication
London
Publisher
Printed for William Lane, at the Minerva
Date
1791, 1794
Metaphor
"I will wear a smile on my face, though the thorn rankles in my heart."
Metaphor in Context
"Since," said she, "the severest scrutiny cannot charge me with any breach of duty to have deserved this severe chastisement, I will bow before the power who inflicts it with humble resignation to his will; nor shall the duty of a wife be totally absorbed in the feelings of the mother; I will endeavour to appear more chearful, and by appearing in some measure to have conquered my own sorrow, alleviate the sufferings of my husband, and rouse him from that torpor into which this misfortune has plunged him. My father too demands my care and attention: I must not, by a selfish indulgence of my own grief, forget the interest those two dear objects take in my happiness or misery: I will wear a smile on my face, though the thorn rankles in my heart; and if by so doing, I in the smallest degree contribute to restore their peace of mind, I shall be amply rewarded for the pain the concealment of my own feelings may occasion.
(I.xv, pp. 116-7; pp. 58-9 in Penguin edition)
(I.xv, pp. 116-7; pp. 58-9 in Penguin edition)
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Susanna Rowson, Charlotte: A Tale of Truth (London: Minerva Press, 1791). Republished in America: Charlotte: A Tale of Truth (Philadelphia: M. Carey, 1794). <Link to UVA Special Collections> <Link to UVA E-Text Center>
Text from U.Va. edition. Reading in Charlotte Temple and Lucy Temple, ed. Ann Douglas (New York: Penguin, 1991).
Text from U.Va. edition. Reading in Charlotte Temple and Lucy Temple, ed. Ann Douglas (New York: Penguin, 1991).
Date of Entry
05/29/2013
