Previous

“For a moment that seems extended in time, before gravity catches up, Marcellus's arm remains wrapped around her hand as his strange otherworldly body hangs in midair, his eye fixed to hers. Just as she’s about to be pulled down with him, he releases, and lands with a heavy splash in the night-black water.”

This quote makes up the ending of “The Very Low Tide,” when Tova releases Marcellus back into the ocean and the two share a moment before never seeing one another again. The physicality of the final sentence represents not only the physical experience the two characters share while parting, but the emotional one as well. Tova is so close to being dragged down into the ocean along with Marcellus, but he lets go just in time to leave her, unscathed, on the pier. This can be read as a metaphor representative of their relationship—as Tova is saving Marcellus throughout the story, supporting him in the aquarium and giving him something to live for, Marcellus is bringing her closer the to the truth of her past, a past that is inexorably linked to the sea itself. In this moment, Marcellus drags her down towards the sea, towards the truth, but lets go before it swallows her whole, leaving her with the knowledge she longed for and, through that knowledge, a family for whom to keep on living.

Previous section Famous Quotes Explained Page 3

Take a Study Break