What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
K. C. Mulville mentioned a couple of days ago that we’ve become a bit too obsessed with politics, what with the conventions and all. He also mentioned that we need more discussions of literature, culture, and other issues. I agree. I just can't handle any more politics this weekend. So, taking my lead from K. C., here’s a post on literature.
I belong to the Joseph Epstein school of fiction reading. Epstein, a great essayist and a staunch advocate for the great literature, defined “good readers” as those “who read not only intelligently–with mental acuity, an ardor for language, a sense of humor—but also in the hope of having their souls stirred by literature.” (Plausible Prejudices, 40) Epstein defined the characteristics of a good reader, but the same attributes are also a reasonable proxy for the elements of good writing. Using this definition, at least four questions should be asked as a reader approaches a fictional work: Is it written with acuity—that is, with insight, but also with precision and clarity? Does the writer demonstrate a love for language? Does the novel or story, even one that is deeply serious, convey a recognition of life’s humorous absurdities? Does it stir and enlighten the reader’s soul?
Of these four separate elements, the most important to me is the last one: does the work of fiction stir my soul? With that in mind, my question to the Ricochetti is:
In your experience, what is the most moving scene in fiction?
Let me give you mine. Anyone who’s read many of my posts knows that I believe Vasily Grossman’s Life and Fate is the greatest work of fiction in the last half of the twentieth century.
Grossman, a Jew, was one of the great Soviet war correspondents in World War II. After World War II, Grossman got in trouble with the Soviets when he combined his real-life experiences with other imagined ones to create Life and Fate. The Soviets tried to suppress the novel. But for some good luck, all manuscripts of the novel would have been destroyed, and the world would have been denied a masterwork.
Grossman’s mother was murdered by the Nazis in a death camp (and he always felt guilty because he was powerless to rescue her before the Germans overran her home town). In what may have been an act of penance, Grossman creates a longish set piece within Life and Fate in which an unmarried, middle-aged female doctor, Sofya, and all of her fellow Jews in their small Ukrainian town are first surrounded and confined, and then later herded onto a train bound for a death camp.
During the horrific journey, a young boy, David, is abandoned by his frivolous, selfish aunt and Sofya assumes responsibility for him. As they arrive at the camp, most are sent to the “showers,” including Sofya and David. Sofya knows that if she identifies herself as a doctor she will likely be spared, at least for a time. But she refuses to abandon him to a terrifying, lonely death. As they are pushed into the gas chamber, Sofya keeps a tight grip on David’s hand so they will not be separated. Then, as the gas enters the sealed room, Sofya holds and comforts David:
“All this time David was being clasped by strong warm hands. He didn’t feel his eyes go dark, his heart become empty, his mind grow dull and blind. He had been killed; he no longer existed.
Sofya Levinton felt the boy’s body subside in her arms. Once again she had fallen behind him. In mine-shafts where the air becomes poisoned, it is always the little creatures, the birds and mice, that die first. This boy, with his slight, bird-like body, had left before her.
‘I’ve become a mother,’ she thought.
That was her last thought.”
Nothing here is contrived, yet it is intensely emotional. The reader is not manipulated. There is no overwrought language or sentimentality. There is just the straightforward recounting of a courageous, human act of love by Sofya—an act, in the midst of unimaginable horror, that qualifies her to be called a “mother.”
Of all the scenes in all the hundreds of novels I have read, this scene stirs my soul the most—and it teaches a great truth about the sanctity of woman’s greatest role.
Please share yours.
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Aug '10
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
When Gulliver puts out the fire in the Empress' bedchamber.
The heroism of it all is very moving.
Dec '11
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
Author: Jane Austen
Novel: Emma
Scene: Emma and George Knightley finally admit their love for one another.
Best version: Gwyneth Paltrow : Emma (9/10) Movie CLIP - More than a Friend (1996) HD - YouTube
Jun '10
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
EThompson:Author: Jane Austen
Novel:Emma
Scene: Emma and George Knightleyfinallyadmit their love for one another.
Best version: Gwyneth Paltrow : Emma (9/10) Movie CLIP - More than a Friend (1996) HD - YouTube · 0 minutes ago
That is a great scene.
Here's another candidate from Austen. The confrontation scene between Lizzy and Lady Catherine De Bourgh near the end of Pride and Prejudice. Lizzie has finally decided she loves Darcy and she's not going to let a pompous, aristocratic twit make her stop loving him.
Men who won't read Austen are, as they used to say in the little town I grew up in, dumber than a box of rocks.
Edited on September 9, 2012 at 12:54amOct '11
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
The end of A Tale of Two Cities when the one guy goes to the guillotine for the other guy. It's been 15 years since I read that book, I can't remember the names of the characters, but I still remember the scene. So, it was moving.
Jun '10
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
Sidney Carton goes in place of Charles Darnay: "Tis a far far better thing I do than I have ever done before."
Edited on September 9, 2012 at 12:57amJun '12
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
The final scene in Charles Frazier's Cold Mountain comes to mind. And also the scene in Moby Dick where the Pequod encounters the Rachel.
Dec '11
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
tabula rasa
EThompson:Author: Jane Austen
Novel:Emma
Scene: Emma and George Knightleyfinallyadmit their love for one another.
Best version: Gwyneth Paltrow : Emma (9/10) Movie CLIP - More than a Friend (1996) HD - YouTube · 0 minutes ago
That is a great scene.
Here's another candidate from Austen. The confrontation scene between Lizzy and Lady Catherine De Bourgh near the end of Pride and Prejudice. Lizzie has finally decided she loves Darcy and she's not going to let a pompous, aristocratic twit make her stop loving him.
Men who won't read Austen are, as they used to say in the little town I grew up in, dumber than a box of rocks.
Jane Austen is truly one of the greatest of romantic writers.
Apr '11
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
Lear's reunion with Cordelia. "If you have poison for me, I will drink it. I know you do not love me..."
Jun '10
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
Cold Mountain is a real throw-back, and its ending was moving. Too bad Frazier's subsequent novels haven't been as good.
Jun '10
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
EThompson
tabula rasa
Here's another candidate from Austen. The confrontation scene between Lizzy and Lady Catherine De Bourgh near the end of Pride and Prejudice. Lizzie has finally decided she loves Darcy and she's not going to let a pompous, aristocratic twit make her stop loving him.
Men who won't read Austen are, as they used to say in the little town I grew up in, dumber than a box of rocks.
Jane Austen is truly one of thegreatest of romantic writers. · 22 minutes ago
She wrote wonderful romantic novels, yet she was not Romantic in the sense of over-the-top emotions and absurd sentimentality. Underneath it all, Austen understood real people very well.
Nov '10
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
It's been twenty years since I've read it -- I admit, I've read almost no novels since college; as far as literature goes, only occasional poetry -- but there's a scene in Faulkner's As I Lay Dying: where the mother's voice finally makes its appearance and discusses love and her children. It's something that hit me hard. Beautiful and poignant. I'd say that novel as a whole gripped me like few other novels ever have.
Jun '10
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
It's pretty hard to find a Shakespeare play that does not have at least one moving scene in it. I'm a real sucker for Romeo and Juliet. I can think of at least four scenes that were deeply moving.
Shakespeare and Austen were the most consistent writers--it was almost as though they could move the reader or theater-goer at will. That talent is, I think, real genius.
Apr '11
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
The Sparrow, by Mary Doria Russell, when Father Emilio starts to communicate with the alien children. Beautiful scene.
Jan '11
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 3
Macduff learns that his family has been massacred on Macbeth's orders.
MACDUFF
216 He has no children. All my pretty ones?
217 Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
218 What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
MALCOLM
220 Dispute it like a man.
MACDUFF
I shall do so;
221 But I must also feel it as a man:
222 I cannot but remember such things were,
223 That were most precious to me.
Nov '10
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
Regarding Epstein, his essays are marvels. I have to admit though, I've always held his judgments regarding literature ever so slightly suspect, ever since he slagged the great Viennese novelist Robert Musil's The Man Without Qualities. Roger Kimball's review of Musil here. George Steiner's masterful review here.
Jun '12
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
tabula rasa
Cold Mountain is a real throw-back, and its ending was moving. Too bad Frazier's subsequent novels haven't been as good. · 16 minutes ago
True, terribly disappointing follow up.
Jul '12
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
How about Priam reclaiming Hector's body from Achilles in the Iliad?
Feb '12
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
The most moved I have ever been was during the opening credits of the film, "Tears of the Sun". It only lasts a few seconds, but there is what I think is actual news reel footage of a soldier in Nigeria slapping a young boy because he is crying. The country is in the upswells of a horrific civil war and this boys village is presumeably raided and all the adult men are killed, women raped and murdered, and children taken to be made into child soldiers. What struck me is the look on the boys face...he has, most assuredly watched his father be killed in front of him, his mother dragged off to be raped before she is killed and this small boy of 5-6 is sobbing, imploringly looking into the camera with the question behind his eyes of, "What happend to my mommy?" I still cry whenever I think about it. I know it wasn't part of the script, it was footage from a news reel, but it was a really powerful piece of editing.
Mar '11
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
For me personally, it was in Turgenev's Fathers and Sons, where Arkady's father breaks down and cries while telling his son how much he loves him.
Jun '10
Re: What is The Most Moving Scene in Literature?
Given that no two people's taste in literature seems to be identical, I've found Epstein to be a guy who's "mostly right" most of the time. For example, Epstein argues that Henry James is one of the great ones. Try as I might, I've never been able to like James.
A nice thing about Epstein is that, while his views are pretty rigid and he really dislikes some writers, he does not claim omniscience. He tells you why he like or dislikes a writer (and does so without academic jargon), but does not speak as a god (see, e.g., Harold Bloom and hundreds of other academic types).
Bloom's praise of Shakespeare almost makes me not like Shakespeare (Bloom is incomprehensible).