The Fire of Light

Nothing, it seems, can compare to the sadness of a breakwater. If the ocean signified life, then the very nature of the stonewall is suspect. Depending on how one sees it, the wall could keep the water back or keep it from moving forward. Either way, the wall has a detrimental purpose.

On one such wall, one that jutted out into the ocean, stood Sarah Woodruff, the scarlet heroine of a novel by John Fowles. Every afternoon, it seemed, she would venture far out on the breakwater of Lyme, a somber figure amid violent waves, longing, waiting desperately for her French lieutenant. In a lot of ways, the act mirrored her life. She was a lonely outcast in Victorian society, surrounded by a turbulent sea of rumors and intrigue.

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