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Viceroy Andrés
The Abbess, Madre María del Pilar, is a highly principled and formidable nun who superintends most of the city’s charitable works. In her hopes for women’s rights and a more equal society, she’s centuries ahead of her time. Moreover, her ceaseless and unselfish industry on behalf of the city’s poor and powerless differentiates herself from other church officials (namely, the Archbishop and Brother Juniper) who preach religious dogma without really caring about the people they supposedly serve, and from other members of the city’s elite (like Doña María and Camila Perichole) who are motivated exclusively by selfish, rather than altruistic, desires. The Abbess’s one worry is that she knows no one capable of continuing her work after she dies. In order to fill this gap, she grooms one of her young charges, Pepita, to be her successor by giving her difficult jobs (like caring for Doña María). Pepita’s death in the bridge collapse forces the Abbess to acknowledge that she can’t decide what happens after her death, but by relinquishing her desire for control she manages to gain some tranquility despite her sadness.
The Abbess Quotes in The Bridge of San Luis Rey
The The Bridge of San Luis Rey quotes below are all either spoken by The Abbess or refer to The Abbess . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Part 2: The Marquesa de Montemayor
Quotes
She was one of those persons who have allowed their lives to be gnawed away because they have fallen in love with an idea several centuries before its appointed appearance in the history of civilization. She hurled herself against the obstinacy of her time in her desire to attach a little dignity to women.
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She had talked to Pepita as to an equal. Such speech is troubling and wonderful to an intelligent child and Madre María del Pilar had abused it. She had expanded Pepita’s vision of how she should feel and act beyond the measure of her years.
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Part 5: Perhaps an Intention
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“All, all of us have failed. One wishes to be punished. One is willing to assume all kinds of penance, but do you know, my daughter, that in love—I scarcely dare say it—but in love our very mistakes don’t seem to be able to last long?”
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But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.
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The Abbess Quotes in The Bridge of San Luis Rey
The The Bridge of San Luis Rey quotes below are all either spoken by The Abbess or refer to The Abbess . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Part 2: The Marquesa de Montemayor
Quotes
She was one of those persons who have allowed their lives to be gnawed away because they have fallen in love with an idea several centuries before its appointed appearance in the history of civilization. She hurled herself against the obstinacy of her time in her desire to attach a little dignity to women.
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Explanation and Analysis:
She had talked to Pepita as to an equal. Such speech is troubling and wonderful to an intelligent child and Madre María del Pilar had abused it. She had expanded Pepita’s vision of how she should feel and act beyond the measure of her years.
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Part 5: Perhaps an Intention
Quotes
“All, all of us have failed. One wishes to be punished. One is willing to assume all kinds of penance, but do you know, my daughter, that in love—I scarcely dare say it—but in love our very mistakes don’t seem to be able to last long?”
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But the love will have been enough; all those impulses of love return to the love that made them. Even memory is not necessary for love. There is a land of the living and a land of the dead and the bridge is love, the only survival, the only meaning.
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