Meryl Streep: Sarah and Anna
Photos
Quotes
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Sarah : I knew it was ordained that I should never marry an equal; so, I married shame. It is my shame that has kept me alive - my knowing that I am truly not like other women. I - I shall never, like them, have - children and a husband, and the pleasures of a home. Sometimes I pity them. I have a freedom they cannot understand. No insult, no blame, can touch me. I have set myself beyond the pale. I am nothing. I am hardly human any more. I am the French lieutenant's - whore!
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Anna : [reads from a book] In 1857, it's estimated there were 80,000 prostitutes in the county of London.
Mike : Yeah?
Anna : Out of every 60 houses, one was a brothel.
Mike : Hoo, hoo, hoo.
Anna : At a time when the male population of London of all ages was one and a quarter million, the prostitutes were receiving clients at a rate of two million per week.
Mike : Two million?
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Sarah : I have sinned. You cannot imagine my suffering. My only happiness is when I sleep. When I wake, the nightmare begins.
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[describing how she became the French Lieutenant's mistress]
Sarah : Soon he no longer bothered to hide the nature of his intensions towards me. Nor could I pretend surprise. My innocence was false from the moment I chose to stay. I could tell you that he overpowered me, or that he drugged me. But it is not so. I gave myself to him. I did it - so that I should never be the same again.
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Mrs. Poulteney : You are a cunning, wicked creature!
Sarah : May I know of what I am accused?
Mrs. Poulteney : You have been seen walking on the Undercliff! Not twice, but thrice!
Sarah : But what, pray, is the sin in that?
Mrs. Poulteney : The sin? You, a young woman alone, in such a place?
Sarah : It is nothing but a large wood.
Mrs. Poulteney : I know very well what it is. And what goes on there, the sort of person who frequents it.
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Sarah : [describing how she became the French Lieutenant's mistress] He was all that a lover should be. I had not eaten that day, he took me to a private sitting room, ordered food. But, he had changed. He was full of smiles and caresses, but, I knew at once that he was insincere. I saw that I had been - an amusement for him. Nothing more. I saw all this within - five minutes of our meeting. Yet I stayed.
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Sarah : Do what you will. Or what you must. Now that I know there was truly a day upon which you loved me, I can bear anything.
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Sarah : I have long imagined a day such as this. I have longed for it. I was lost from the moment I saw you.
Charles Henry Smithson : I too.
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Sarah : Do what you will or what you must. Now that I know there was truly a day upon which you loved me, I can bear anything. You have given me the strength to live.
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Mrs. Poulteney : You speak French, I believe?
Sarah : I do, ma'am.
Mrs. Poulteney : I do not like the French.
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Mrs. Poulteney : Mr Forsythe informs me that you - retain an attachment to a - foreign person. I have heard from the most impeccable witnesses that you're always to be seen at the same place when you're out. You stand on the Cobb and look to sea. I have been encouraged to believe that you're in a state of repentance; but, I must emphasize that such staring out to sea is provocative, intolerable, and sinful.
Sarah : If you consider me unsuitable for this position, Mrs. Poulteney, do you wish me to leave the house?
Mrs. Poulteney : I wish you to show - that this person - is expunged from your heart!
Sarah : How am I to show it?
Mrs. Poulteney : By not exhibiting your shame!
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Charles Henry Smithson : It's really not necessary to hide.
Sarah : No gentleman who cares for his good name can be seen with the scarlet woman of Lyme.
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Anna : This man says that hundreds of the prostitutes were nice girls, like governesses, who'd lost their jobs. That's it. You offend your boss, you lose your job, you've got no choice, you're out on the streets. That's the reality.
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Sarah : He was handsome. No man had ever paid me the kind of attentions he did as he was - recovering. He told me I was beautiful - and that he could not understand why I was not married. Such things. He would mock me - lightly. I took *pleasure* in it.
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Charles Henry Smithson : Pray control yourself.
Sarah : I cannot! I cannot!
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Charles Henry Smithson : You are a remarkable person, Miss Woodruff.
Sarah : Yes, I am a remarkable person.
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Sarah : I did follow him to Weymouth, to the inn. As I drew near I saw him come out with a woman. The kind of woman one cannot mistake.
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Sarah : I have long imagined a day such as this. I have longed for it. I was lost from the moment I saw you.
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Sarah : I called you here to ask your forgiveness. You loved me once. If you still love me, you can forgive me. I know - I know it is your perfect right to damn me.
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Sarah : There was madness in me at that time. A bitterness, an envy. I forced myself on you, knowing that you had other obligations. It was unworthy! I suddenly saw after you had gone that I had to destroy what had begun between us!
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Sarah : You misjudge me! It has taken me this time to find my own life! It has taken me this time to find - my freedom.
