"Let us embrace, and from this very moment vow an eternal misery together"
About this Quote
Romance, here, is a trap sprung with a kiss. Otway’s line takes the most ritualized gesture of intimacy - “Let us embrace” - and spikes it with an oath to “eternal misery,” turning the love vow inside out. The intent isn’t to dismiss affection; it’s to expose how devotion can become a mutual contract for suffering when circumstances, politics, or personal ruin make happiness impossible. It’s a wedding formula rewritten for the tragedy stage.
What makes it work is the speed of the pivot. “From this very moment” has the urgent click of a decision made under pressure, as if the speakers are choosing each other against the world. But the vow is not to survive, or to hope; it’s to misery itself, phrased as something durable and almost holy. “Eternal” borrows the language of salvation and uses it to sanctify despair. That’s Restoration tragedy in miniature: high emotion, moral extremity, and a hard-eyed awareness that passion doesn’t rescue you from consequences - it drags you deeper into them.
Subtextually, the line suggests complicity. Misery is not merely endured; it’s embraced as a shared identity, a kind of erotic fatalism. Otway’s era was steeped in theatrical excess and political instability, and his plays often insist that private love is never private for long. The embrace becomes both comfort and surrender: if the world won’t permit a livable future, the lovers can at least choose the terms of their doom, together.
What makes it work is the speed of the pivot. “From this very moment” has the urgent click of a decision made under pressure, as if the speakers are choosing each other against the world. But the vow is not to survive, or to hope; it’s to misery itself, phrased as something durable and almost holy. “Eternal” borrows the language of salvation and uses it to sanctify despair. That’s Restoration tragedy in miniature: high emotion, moral extremity, and a hard-eyed awareness that passion doesn’t rescue you from consequences - it drags you deeper into them.
Subtextually, the line suggests complicity. Misery is not merely endured; it’s embraced as a shared identity, a kind of erotic fatalism. Otway’s era was steeped in theatrical excess and political instability, and his plays often insist that private love is never private for long. The embrace becomes both comfort and surrender: if the world won’t permit a livable future, the lovers can at least choose the terms of their doom, together.
Quote Details
| Topic | Heartbreak |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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