The Passion

“Nowadays people talk about the things he did as though they made sense. As though even his most disastrous mistakes were only the result of bad luck or hubris.” 

This quote points to the subjective nature of history. It pokes fun at the human tendency to overanalyze past events to give them inflated meaning. The quote also highlights Napoleon’s idol status in popular culture; he is perceived as incapable of making a mistake.

“It’s hard to remember that this day will never come again. That the time is now and the place is here and that there are no second chances at a single moment.” 

Henri says this when describing how invincible Napoleon makes his army feel—so much so that they must remind themselves of their own humanity.

“This is where I disagree with the philosophers. They talk about passionate things but there is no passion in them. Never talk happiness with a philosopher.” 

This quote points to Henri’s developing philosophy about the necessity of living in the present. Here he pokes fun at the intellectual field that analyzes human experience without actually living it. Henri reveals the absurdity of speaking dispassionately about happiness.

“The Blessed Virgin’s a woman too, for all that she’s Holy, and there’s no man I know can get his own way with her. You can pray all day and all night and she won’t hear you. If you’re a man, you’d much better stick with Jesus himself. Go straight to Jesus, I say (he’s got a statue near by), but they don’t heed because every man likes to think he’s got a woman listening to him.” 

Winterson underscores the ways in which religion is gendered. She also highlights how believers make choices about faith based on personal, everyday experience.

“What you risk reveals what you value.” 

Both Villanelle and Henri repeat this phrase throughout the book, pointing to the perpetual gamble of being alive.

“We are a philosophical people, conversant with the nature of greed and desire, holding hands with the Devil and God. […] This living bridge is tempting to all and you may lose your soul or find it here.” 

Villanelle characterizes Venice as a city of perpetual change. Unlike Henri’s “lukewarm” village, Venice does not adhere to the binaries of good or evil, or, as Villanelle exemplifies, male or female. Venice is portrayed as a city of endless possibility.

“I used to think that darkness and death were probably the same. That death was the absence of light. That death was nothing more than shadow-lands where people bought and sold and loved as usual but with less conviction. […] But death and darkness are not the same. The one is temporary, the other is not.” 

Here, Villanelle develops her argument against binary thinking. This quote also exemplifies Villanelle’s unique ability to be open-minded but straightforward at the same time. Though she no longer equates darkness with death, she is also under no illusions about death’s finality.

“There are women of every kind and not all of them are women

This is one of the first quotes in the book to address the theme of gender fluidity. It also further defines Venice as a place where nothing is fixed, not even polarities like male and female, good and evil.

“Bridges join but they also separate.” 

Winterson creates a maze of symbols in The Passion that shatter the reader’s understanding of binary thinking. The bridges in Venice accentuate the fluidity that the city represents.

“Somewhere between fear and sex passion is. Passion is not so much an emotion as a destiny.” 

This quote foreshadows how passion leads each character to their fate. For instance, Henri’s mother’s passion for Christ leads her to leave her family and find Henri’s father. Henri’s passion for Napoleon catalyzes his career as a soldier. Villanelle’s lust for the Queen of Spades is compounded by her fear of losing her heart.

“I never go to confession; God doesn’t want us to confess, he wants us to challenge him.” 

Villanelle claims that faith is fueled by human drama. She takes the controversial standpoint that the depth of a community’s piety is dependent upon the depth of its sin. Like risk and passion, one does not exist without the other. Villanelle’s native Venice perfectly exemplifies this argument.

“I’m never tempted by God but I like his trappings. Not tempted but I begin to understand why others are. With this feeling inside, with this wild love that threatens, what safe places might there be?” 

Villanelle builds her argument around the function of religion. She understands religion as a vehicle people use to protect themselves against the world’s unpredictability and love’s fickle nature. Villanelle herself attends church more often after she falls in love.

“It seems that Bonaparte wins his battles quickly or not at all. That’s his way. He doesn’t need quality, he needs action. He needs his men on their feet for a few days’ march and a few days’ battle. […] What does it matter if the horses are lame and the men are poisoned so long as they last so long as they’re needed?” 

Through Villanelle, we further understand Bonaparte’s ruthless leadership style. To Bonaparte, his soldiers are simply tools in his plan, means to an end. The reader increasingly understands that Bonaparte does not see his soldiers as people but tools to build his ambition.

“Memories of a single touch. How could anything so passing be so pervasive? But Christ said, ‘Follow me,’ and it was done.” 

Referring to her first encounter with the Queen of Spades, which sends her into arduous obsession, Villanelle equates romantic love to Christ’s love. Using Villanelle’s narrative and philosophical thinking, Winterson argues that religion satisfies humanity’s most base fears of death and not being loved.

“If I went to confession, what would I confess? That I cross-dress? So did Our Lord, so do the priests. That I steal? So did Our Lord, so do the priests.” 

Villanelle points to the hypocrisy of the church as well as the unreliability of binary thinking. She does not believe in dualism.

“Hopeless heart that thrives on paradox; that longs for the beloved and is secretly relieved when the beloved is not there. […] That longs for certainty, fidelity, compassion, and plays roulette with anything precious. Gambling is not a vice, it is an expression of our humanness.” 

Villanelle builds on The Passion’s risk motif, maintaining that risk is merely a facet of life. Humans are compelled to risk that which they love the most.

“Religion is somewhere between fear and sex.” 

Here, Winterson strengthens the novel’s connection between religion and passion, as passion is also equated with fear and sex in the book. This quote accentuates the book’s motif of blasphemy by connecting religion to sexual deviancy.

“Watching my comrades die was not the worst thing about that war, it was watching them live.” 

Henri details the horrors of war as well as its dehumanizing effects. The inhumane conditions emphasize what the soldiers are willing to endure for their love of Napoleon and their country.

“It’s the heart that betrays us, makes us weep, makes us bury our friends when we should be marching ahead. It’s the heart that sickens us at night and makes us hate who we are.” 

Henri details the heartless desensitization necessary to remain a soldier in Napoleon’s war, which is a major theme of The Passion.

“Future. Crossed out. That’s what war does.” 

As Domino repeats, war requires soldiers to live only in the present. However, living in the present prevents people from using foresight and can damage the future for good.

“We gamble with the hope of winning but it’s the thought of what we might lose that excites us.” 

This quote builds on the motif of risk in The Passion and links the human need for passion to our preoccupation with losing that what we are passionate about. Throughout the book, Winterson argues that they are one and the same.

“We were not especially civilised, we wanted what he wanted for a long time. We wanted glory and conquest and slaves and praise. His desire burned for longer than ours because it was never likely that he would pay for it with his life.” 

Henri details the banality of war and criticizes the common thirst for power. Thus, he warns against the dangers of nationalism and its ability to separate humans from each other.

“Why would a people who love the grape and the sun die in the zero winter for one man? Why did I? Because I loved him. He was my passion and when we go to war we feel we are not a lukewarm people any more.” 

Henri is blinded by his love for Napoleon because he adopts Napoleon’s vision for himself; it’s Henri’s way out of a “lukewarm” life. Again, Winterson highlights the power of passion and how it can be manipulated.