I am heartless. My sister's voice, shocked and tearful, tells me our father is ill, seriously ill. I hurry from the phone to my room to check my wardrobe. I look for something black, something that will look elegant and flattering on my saggy body. I am heartless. I remember Father's kind face; I feel his hand holding mine as he led me encouragingly into the sea when I was four. “We will have fun,” he promised. “I will carry you if you want. Just don’t be afraid. Nothing can hurt as long as I am here with you.” I was such a cowardly child. I was afraid of water, afraid of loud voices, afraid of losing Father. I had a recurrent dream that my father had died; I had it throughout my childhood. I would wake up shivering and crying. Mother always said it meant that Father would live to be one hundred. When you dream someone is dead it means they will have a long life, she said each time. And I believed it. A world without him could not be real. But Father is not one hundred yet. He is not even near that. Maybe I will have to forget about the black dress for a while. For ten years, maybe? Or just five… a couple of years will do… or just a few more months. Who knows? Maybe he will take me to my grave, the same tender way he took me everywhere… the same loving hand holding mine, the same tired eyes when he stayed up all night to keep me company as I studied, the same smile as he held my babies the moment they came out of my womb. Father was always there, will always be here, for me, for all of us. I never told Father how much I love him. See how heartless I am?
Thus my friend we should not judge things by outward appearance for as Shakesoeare puts it " all that glitters is not gold" (The Merchant of Venice)
ردحذفNihal
Cordelia who really loved her father couldn't express her love in words. Moreover, her silence and her few words were misinterpreted by her father as revealing ungratefulness and thus was shunned from his presence and not given her share .of the inheritance
ردحذفNihal
It is unfair to limit love to just a word said. Don't you remember King Lear and his daughters?!!!! It's easy to say the word "love" but did they really mean it (I mean the 2 elder daughters)
ردحذفLove is not merely a word said. Love can be sensed in your voice when you speak, your hand when you touch, and your eyes when you look. Love is there in every nerve and bone you possess.
ردحذفyou are absolutely right my friend... what I really wanted to stress is that we, females tend to torture ourselves by negative ideas about ourselves. the narrator here lashes herself for being heartless , which is not true at all. she does not forget to
ردحذفshe also reveals how negatively she thinks about her own body, which another favorite method of self degrading for most women. do you agree?
ردحذف