Heaven knows we need never be ashamed of our tears, for they are rain upon the blinding dust of earth, overlying our hard hearts.
Charles Dickens Great Expectations, Chapter XIX (1861)
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When and why it was written
- When
- From Great Expectations, published in 1861.
- Why
- Pip cries after leaving home for London and his new life.
What it means
Pip discovers that tears soften him and show him what he had stopped seeing. Dickens defends crying as a kind of clearing.
Some pages are written best after the rain.
Our reading of the passage cited above, not a quotation from a commentary.
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Great Expectations, 1861
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