In a memorable end to the movie The Hours, Nicole Kidman, who plays Virginia Woolf, is shown wading through the river just moments before she drowns. Her last lines, addressed to her husband Leonard, are as follows:"Leonard, always the years between us, always the years, always the love.
Always the hours."
I found the word "between" rather ambigious in meaning and wondered if I am alone in thinking so.
What does "between" in that line mean? Does Woolf mean the years she and Leonard had together? Or can it mean the years they differed from each other, the years apart they seemed emotionally? Is what she says on the surface meant to mask the unhappiness she felt within regaring her relationship with her husband?
4 comments:
Hmmmm... Tricky wording. I'd take it as being the same as the love between us. That is, the years between us in the sense of "the years we have been together".
Virginia Woolf's marriage to Leonard Woolf was incredibly successful. Leonard was devoted to her and she loved him very much too. So I don't think she needed to mask any kind of unhappiness.
I must say I find Virginia Woolf's real farewell note much more moving than that though. And much more fair - obviously - to their marriage.
"Virginia Woolf's marriage to Leonard Woolf was incredibly successful."
That's what I have heard as well, although I haven't read any formal biography of hers.
As I am just getting aquainted with Woolf, I find I have much to learn about her (real) personal life than that depicted in fiction such as "The Hours".
I do have a question: How would one explain the Woolfs' lack of children? Was it out of choice or due to a medical problem?
I have a lot to learn about VW too. I find her intriguing, both because of her literary output and her own life.
I have Hermione Lee's bio on VW on a shelf but haven't read it yet. What I have picked up from reading here and there is that childbearing was considered too dangerous for Virginia and her mental health. The consequences of having a child were totally unpredictable and so they never tried. VW felt guilty and/or despondent about it sometimes while LW felt it was the right thing (not having children, that is). H was always very concerned about VW's breakdowns, etc. and it's understandable he didn't want to risk them any more than was "normal" for her.
Woolf didnt pen the lines in the end of the film,one of the screenwriters did.
"The years between us" are exactly that the years shared between them.
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