As he shook hands with the grey-haired woman who stood there with so tragic, so oppressed, a look on her face, there came across him the thought of his own long dead mother, and for a moment he was freed of the terrible happenings of the last few hours.
"Jane Oglander"
Marie Belloc Lowndes
In such tragedies death is a relief from the stormy happenings which bring it; it is not in itself represented as profoundly interesting-it is not an aim, but a result, "it is our death that guides our life," says Maeterlinck, "and life has no other aim than our death."
"Life and Writings of Maurice Maeterlinck"
Jethro Bithell
Already in The Princess Maleine the miraculous happenings could all be explained by natural causes.
"Life and Writings of Maurice Maeterlinck"
Jethro Bithell