How we cite our quotes: Possession: A Romance. London: Vintage Books, 1991.
Quote #10
The nightdress embroidered for these nights, white cambric, all spattered with lovers' knots and forget-me-nots and roses, white on white.
A thin white animal, herself, trembling.
A complex thing, the naked male, curly hairs and shining wet, at once bovine and dolphin-like, its scent feral and overwhelming.
A large hand, held out in kindness, not once, but many times, slapped away, pushed away, slapped away. (25.162-66)
As Ellen Ash remembers her honeymoon, she (or the novel's narrator) reflects that "[a] young girl of twenty-four should not be made to wait for marriage until she is thirty-six and her flowering long over" (25.181). What should we readers take from this? Is Possession suggesting that Ellen's visceral fear of sex with Randolph Henry Ash was the result of being made to wait too long? If so, does this shut down other possible interpretations of her sexuality and sexual identity?