Signs, Omens, and Control

Simple Passion

Follows the narrator’s efforts to manage uncertainty through rituals, forecasts, and imagined causal links.

increasing

Bearing strength in each event

decreasing

Horoscopes First Horoscopes First from "Simple Passion". Horoscopes First A Magazine Habit The narrator begins reading the horoscope first in women’s magazines.

Horoscopes First from "Simple Passion". Horoscopes First A Magazine Habit The narrator begins reading the horoscope first in women’s magazines.

Horoscopes First A Magazine Habit The narrator begins reading the horoscope first in women’s magazines. Ordinary leisure becomes a search for signs relevant to her emotional future. Borrowed Certainty The practice offers a language of prediction where direct knowledge of A is unavailable. Its reassurance remains temporary and indirect.

Charity for a Call Charity for a Call from "Simple Passion". Charity for a Call Conditional Promises The narrator promises donations if A calls or visits before a chosen date.

Charity for a Call from "Simple Passion". Charity for a Call Conditional Promises The narrator promises donations if A calls or visits before a chosen date.

Charity for a Call Conditional Promises The narrator promises donations if A calls or visits before a chosen date. Giving becomes linked to the outcome she wants. Ritualized Hope The gesture lets her act when she cannot influence A directly. It turns helpless waiting into a personal bargain with chance.

The Fortune-teller Search The Fortune-teller Search from "Simple Passion". The Fortune-teller Search Names in a Directory The narrator searches for clairvoyants and feels excitement while recording their contacts.

The Fortune-teller Search from "Simple Passion". The Fortune-teller Search Names in a Directory The narrator searches for clairvoyants and feels excitement while recording their contacts.

The Fortune-teller Search Names in a Directory The narrator searches for clairvoyants and feels excitement while recording their contacts. The activity resembles earlier preparations made for A. Fear of Prediction She does not call because a fortune-teller might say A will never return. The wish for certainty is outweighed by fear of its answer.

A Wish at the Tomb A Wish at the Tomb from "Simple Passion". A Wish at the Tomb A Photograph as Offering In Padua, the narrator presses A’s photograph against a saint’s tomb.

A Wish at the Tomb from "Simple Passion". A Wish at the Tomb A Photograph as Offering In Padua, the narrator presses A’s photograph against a saint’s tomb.

A Wish at the Tomb A Photograph as Offering In Padua, the narrator presses A’s photograph against a saint’s tomb. She joins other visitors leaving objects and written prayers. Hope Materialized The act turns longing into a physical ritual. A picture and a sacred place carry a request that has no practical route to fulfillment.

The Crash Wish The Crash Wish from "Simple Passion". The Crash Wish A Catastrophic Bargain The narrator wishes the plane would crash if she is never to see A again.

The Crash Wish from "Simple Passion". The Crash Wish A Catastrophic Bargain The narrator wishes the plane would crash if she is never to see A again.

The Crash Wish A Catastrophic Bargain The narrator wishes the plane would crash if she is never to see A again. The thought gives imagined disaster a role in measuring desire. Testing the Passion She repeatedly considers whether she would accept an accident as its price. The extreme wish dramatizes how completely uncertainty has occupied her mind.

during the affair

the first period of grief after A leaves

the summer after A leaves

during the return flight from Copenhagen