Nonverbal Magic

"You don't speak, but I hear you."

These words were uttered by Sofya Andreyevna to Leo Tolstoy on his deathbed, as portrayed in the biopic film "The Last Station" starring Helen Mirren and Christopher Plummer. Needless to say, it moved me to tears.

Scene from The Last Station

I am writing not to comment on how beautifully made the film was, or how it has been the ultimate factor to persuade me into reading Anna Karenina and War and Peace. I am writing because that particular scene between the dying Tolstoy and his muse had created a turmoil inside me that must be let out.

Isn't it such a beautiful thing to not speak and yet still be understood? To just look into each other's eyes, not uttering a syllable, and yet a great many feelings have already been evoked? That is the language of love. It doesn't require words because it communicates directly to the heart. Oh, what joy it is to have that person whom you can enjoy comfortable silence with! True, what's said matters, but the things that are expressed through a simple squeeze of the hand or a meaningful gaze are also equally important. In fact, sometimes, they say a lot more than words can ever do.

On 'Pride and Prejudice'

Jane Austen was first introduced to me by the 2005 movie adaptation of Pride and Prejudice starring Matthew McFadyen and Keira Knightley. I was very much drawn to the story that I almost read the book. But being not much of a reader then, the temptation was not enough to overcome my indolence and induce me in doing the act. I satisfied myself by watching more films and miniseries based on the other works written by Austen such as Sense and Sensibility, Emma, Persuasion and Mansfield Park. I felt like by just knowing the story through these adaptations, I could pass myself off as an Austenite. Haha. But when my group in Goodreads decided to have P&P as the book to be discussed for the month of October, I knew it to be my perfect motivation to finally, truly, be acquainted with Austen's fictional world.

Originally, I only saw P&P as a love story between a man and a woman of different classes in society. They weren't much in love at the beginning because of misleading first impressions but eventually grew on each other after realizing these first impressions to be untrue. This, I got from too much watching and swooning over Matthew McFadyen's version of Darcy.