“Disturbance only comes into the heart from something that has been seen or heard, tasted or smelled, and felt outwardly.”
Sarah has taken the bold choice to detach from society and lead an enclosed life with very minimal human interaction. Her decision is essentially driven by the grief she is undergoing of losing her sister and mother. The life of solitude gives her hope that distractions of the outside world will not affect her but somehow she seems to not fully detach. While she engages with two servants and the priests she is still attached to the stories and developments outside. The dynamics of her small cell while different and secluded still cannot fully protect her from the impact of the world.
“I hadn’t thought suffering would be like this, so ordinary, so dull, and so endless.”
In her vocation, as an anchoress, Sarah hopes to assume the pain and suffering of the cell to be closer to God. The life of constant prayers and dedication to Christ is her path to freeing her soul from the weakness of the body. In the chamber, she undergoes physical suffering due to the poor conditions especially during the cold. Therefore, she hopes for her cold and pain to gain meaning in the same way Christ’s suffering takes meaning. However, she finds the path to disciplining her body does not yet amount to take meaning and share Christ’s suffering.
“Tend your grief like hard ground, and wait. One day, something will grow; there won’t be an answer, but you will see you’ve found a way to live, and to live with death.”
Sarah’s conviction is born out of hope in freeing herself from the feebleness of the body such as desire and grief. Initially, before her decision, she visits the anchoress parlor to discover how to deal with the grief of losing her mother. She finds the answer unsatisfactory as it does not help her forget the pain which is worsened when her sister Emma also dies. After deciding to be an anchoress and understand the process of grief, the words resonate more and prove to be accurate.
