Heart-breaking Moments in Fiction

Hello, people.  I'm here today with another 'moments in fiction' post.  (My first post like this was written back in November.  You can read it here if you're interested.)  In my last post I highlighted four story snippets which I found to be particularly relatable and true to life.  In this post I want to highlight a few of those emotional scenes which have the ability to grip your heart with an almost literal pain.  (Speaking for myself, at least.)

I've been reading David Copperfield lately--if ever there was a book full of emotion it is that book--and I came across a passage the other day which literally made me groan.  It was that sad.  Afterward I started thinking.  Are there are other scenes in books that have broken my heart in this way?  And the answer was, yes.  So I decided to put together a deliciously sad post for you all to enjoy.  ;)

Seriously, if you're anything like me you enjoy these sorts of scenes.  Because tragedy and heartache make you feel deeply for the characters you're reading about.   And one likes to feel for their characters.  A story would be boring otherwise.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens
[Note:  I had to edit a bit of this because it was so long.  Where you see "..." is where I removed a bit of the original text.  Just so you know.]  

As the door closed, little Em'ly looked at us three in a hurried manner, and then hid her face in her hands, and fell to sobbing.

     'Doen't, Em'ly!' said Ham, tapping her gently on the shoulder.  'Doen't, my dear!  You doen't ought to cry so, pretty!'

     'Oh, Ham!' she exclaimed, still weeping pitifully, 'I am not so good a girl as I ought to be!  I know I have not the thankful heart, sometimes, I ought to have!'

     'Yes, yes, you have, I'm sure,' said Ham.

     "No! no! no!' cried little Em'ly, sobbing, and shaking her head.  'I am not as good as girl as I ought to be.  Not near! not near!'

     And still she cried, as if her heart would break.

     'I try your love too much.  I know I do!' she sobbed.  "I'm often cross to you, and changeable with you, when I ought to be far different.  You are never so to me.  Why am I ever so to you, when I should think of nothing but how to be grateful and to make you happy!'

     'You always make me so,' said Ham, 'my dear!  I am happy in the sight of you.  I am happy, all day long, in the thoughts of you.'

     'Ah! that's not enough!' she cried.  'That is because you are good; not because I am!  Oh, my dear, it might have been a better fortune for you, if you had been fond of some one else--of some one steadier and much worthier than me, who was all bound up in you, and never vain and changeable like me!'

...

'Oh, pray, aunt, try to help me!  Ham, dear, try to help me!  Mr. David, for the sake of old times, do please, try to help me!  I want to be a better girl than I am.  I want to feel a hundred times more thankful than I do.  I want to feel more, what a blessed thing it is to be the wife of a good man, and to lead a peaceful life.  Oh me, oh me!  Oh my heart, my heart!'

...

I saw her do, that night, what I had never seen her do before.  I saw her innocently kiss her chosen husband on the cheek and creep close to his bluff form as if it were her best support.  When they went away together, in the waning moonlight, and I looked after them, comparing their departure in my mind with Martha's, I saw that she held his arm with both her hands, and still kept close to him.

Oh, this part.  Knowing what comes afterward makes it so terribly sad.  The description of Emily holding on to Ham and keeping close to him as if, yes!  as if he were indeed her "best support".  Oh!  It's painful!  Because it's so true, he was her best support; he was a place of safety and protection and goodness.  And she knew it.  She knew the protection and love Ham had to offer her; and it's so sad to see how she instinctively clings to it, even while preparing to throw it from her.  Ahhh!  Why Emily?  Why?  You and Ham could have been happy together.  I know you could have, if you'd chosen to.  But human nature is a complicated thing, and too often we fail to comprehend what it is we're throwing away until it's too late to get it back.


Mansfield Park by Jane Austen

By eight in the morning Edmund was in the house.  The girls heard his entrance from above, and Fanny went down.  The idea of immediately seeing him with the knowledge of what he must be suffering, brought back all her own first feelings.  He so near her, and in misery.  She was ready to sink as she entered the parlour.  He was alone, and met her instantly, and she found herself pressed to his heart with only these words, just articulate, "My Fanny-my only sister-my only comfort now."

Ahhhh. Talk about clinging to another human being for strength and support.  I love how Edmund in his sorrow, and without a second thought, turns instinctively to Fanny for comfort.  His heart-break is so real, and it is evident from the few simple words he speaks that he has full confidence in Fanny's sympathy and understanding.  I love the feelings in this passage!  The desperation and the sorrow, and yet the joy of having one faithful human being to rely on and trust.  Also the fact that Edmund is seeking Fanny for comfort.  It's just...oh!...it's just too much!  *sob*


The Return of the King by J.R.R. Tolkien

Sam knelt by him.  Faint, almost inaudibly, he heard Frodo whispering, "Help me, Sam!  help me, Sam!  I can't stop it.'  Sam took his master's hands and laid them together, palm to palm, and kissed them; and then he held them gently between his own.

Okay.  Seriously.  This part gets me every time.  The utter hopelessness in Frodo's  voice; his simple, yet urgent cry for help; and Sam's calm and quick response.  Ahh!  Way to wrip my heart out.  Also, I just want to say, that though this is a very short snippet, it's a very powerful one.  Frodo's plea is utterly helpless, and yet looking at it closer there is extraordinary strength hidden beneath it.  The sort of strength which comes from being able to recognize one's own weakness and limitations and to plead for help before it's too late.  (Whoever said Frodo was a weak character?)

 

Are there any books that are particularly emotional for you?

Do you enjoy tragic, heart-rending scenes, or do you prefer cheerful and happy ones?