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Monsieur Valmondé discovers baby Désirée in the shadow of a stone pillar at the gate of his plantation. The baby’s position in the shadows of this pillar symbolizes her mysterious origins. Her past is shadowed because little is known about who she is or where she comes from. Désirée is standing near this same stone pillar eighteen years later when Armand sees her and falls in love at first sight. The stone pillar is a marker of Désirée unexplained past, but also a marker of the estate of the Valmondés, which provides Désirée with care and love in her youth. Armand’s encounter with Désirée at the same spot marks the beginning of a new type of love. The stone pillar, therefore, is the setting of the two most important encounters in Désirée’s life and symbolizes transitions and acts of love, but also the mysterious past that comes to color those loves.
Stone pillar Quotes in Désirée’s Baby
The Désirée’s Baby quotes below all refer to the symbol of Stone pillar. 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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Désirée’s Baby
Quotes
It was no wonder, when she stood one day against the stone pillar in whose shadow she had lain asleep, eighteen years before, that Armand Aubigny riding by and seeing her there, had fallen in love with her.
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The passion that awoke in him that day, when he saw her at the gate, swept along like an avalanche, or like a prairie fire, or like anything that drives headlong over all obstacles.
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Get the entire Désirée’s Baby LitChart as a printable PDF.
Stone pillar Symbol Timeline in Désirée’s Baby
The timeline below shows where the symbol Stone pillar appears in Désirée’s Baby. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Désirée’s Baby
...baby herself. Her husband, Monsieur Valmondé, found the baby asleep in the shadow of the stone pillar at the gate of their plantation.
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...neighbors speculated about her origins: did she crawl or walk to the base of the stone pillar herself? Did the party of Texans who had crossed the river near the planation that...
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...She became beautiful, kind, and loving. Eighteen years later, she was standing near the same stone pillar where she was found when Armand Aubigny rode by and fell in love with her...
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