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The Bartender
The woman in black is a figure that the narrator claims he encountered late one night on a bridge in Paris. Shortly after the narrator walks past her, he hears her attempt suicide by jumping into the water and then begin crying out, possibly for help. Rather than help her, the narrator first freezes and then walks on. Resurfacing memories of this encounter precipitate the narrator’s moral and existential crisis several years later. Yet as readers know about the woman in black only through the stories of the unreliable narrator, it is unclear whether the incident truly happened—especially since, at the novel’s end, the narrator exhorts his listener to confess having the same encounter with the woman in black. Given this ending, the woman in black may not be a “real” person but a symbol of the narrator and listener’s shared guilt, loss of innocence, and need to confess.
The Woman in Black Quotes in The Fall
The The Fall quotes below are all either spoken by The Woman in Black or refer to The Woman in Black. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Pages 17-41 Quotes
That’s the way man is, cher monsieur. He has two faces: he can’t love without self-love.
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The narrator has mentioned a fateful evening that permanently changed his sense of himself—but rather than tell the curious listener what happened on that evening right away, he digresses, arguing that all human beings’ love for their friends is fundamentally egotistical to the point that we enjoy our friends’ deaths because such deaths give us the opportunity to grieve self-indulgently. He summarizes the point of this digression by saying that “man,” by nature, “has two faces: he can’t love without self-love.” Through this digression, the narrator yet again seeks to persuade the listener that humankind in general is egotistical and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. N
Pages 42-71 Quotes
Oh, I don’t know. Really, I don’t know. The next day, and the days following, I didn’t read the papers.
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The narrator has just recounted to his unnamed listener the fateful event that destroyed his unconsidered self-esteem and precipitated his existential crisis: one night, he was crossing a bridge when he passed by a woman in black—who jumped into the water. Though she cried out afterward, he didn’t try to help her but simply froze and then walked on. At the end of the conversation, as the narrator and the listener are saying their goodbyes, it is implied that the listener asks the narrator what happened to the woman—to which the narrator admits that he “didn’t read the papers” and Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt.
Pages 97-118 Quotes
I realized likewise that it would continue to await me on seas and rivers, everywhere, in short, where lies the bitter water of my baptism.
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The narrator is explaining to his unnamed listener how, after he remembered the incident in which he failed to intervene in a young woman’s suicide by drowning, he attempted to block out his own sense of inadequacy through sexual excess and alcoholic abuse—and he thought he had succeeded until, one day, he went on a cruise and panicked when he mistook a piece of trash in the water for a drowning person. This experience let him to realize that he would never block out his memory of the woman in black, which would follow him “everywhere […] where lies the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut maxime. Adipisci voluptate et. Voluptas suscipit alias. In et eveniet. Eaque et repellendus. Dolores aut vo
I had to submit and admit my guilt. I had to live in the little-ease. To be sure, you are not familiar with that dungeon-cell that was called the little-ease in the Middle Ages. In general, one was forgotten there for life. That cell was distinguished from others by ingenious dimensions. It was not high enough to stand up in nor yet wide enough to lie down in.
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The narrator is explaining to his unnamed listener his state of mind after he realized that he would never successfully repress his guilty memories of failing to save the woman in black from suicide by drowning. He compares this state of “submit[ting] to guilt” with “liv[ing] in the little-ease,” a Medieval torture device that consisted of a tiny room “not high enough to stand up in nor yet wide enough to lie down in.” Here, the narrator is self-consciously using the little-ease as a symbol of egotism’s torturous Catch-22. Due to his egotism, the narrator is intensely preoccupied with himself Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Volupta
Pages 119-147 Quotes
Brr . . . ! The water’s so cold! But let’s not worry! It’s too late now. It will always be too late. Fortunately!
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At the novel’s very end, the narrator encourages the listener to confess that he (the listener) failed to save the young woman in black from her suicide by drowning—that is, confess to the exact same guilt that the narrator claims precipitated his own existential crisis—and suggests that the listener should ask the woman in black to jump into the water again so that he might have a second chance of saving her. Then the narrator, bizarrely, adds that “fortunately” it “will always be too late” to save her because “the water’s so cold.” There are two ways to interpret this Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut maxime. Adipisci voluptate et. Voluptas suscipit alias. In et eveniet. Eaque et repellendus. Dolores aut voluptatibus. Voluptatem qui voluptatum. Voluptatibus sed placeat. Aut tenetur autem. Fugit voluptates in. Quidem impedit sunt. Excepturi ullam nobis. Ducimus odio quo. Ut autem harum. Omnis vel voluptatum. Assumenda officia maiores. Voluptatem sint velit. Quod quia sapiente
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The Woman in Black Character Timeline in The Fall
The timeline below shows where the character The Woman in Black appears in The Fall. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Pages 42-71
...ever since one incident he remembered. Several years before the mysterious laughter, he passed a woman in black on the Pont Royal at night. He had already crossed the bridge when he heard...
(full context)
Pages 119-147
...“on the quays of the Seine.” He exhorts the listener to cry out to the woman in black to attempt suicide again so that the listener will have an opportunity to save them...
(full context)
