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The ship struck at ten minutes after four A.M., and all hands, being mostly in their nightclothes, made haste to the forecastle, the water coming in at once. There they remained; the passengers in the forecastle, the crew above it, doing what they could. Every wave lifed the forecastle roof and washed over those within. The first man got ashore at nine; many from nine to noon. At flood-tide, about half past three o'clock, when the ship broke up entirely, they came out of the forecastle, and Margaret sat with her back to the foremast, with her hands on her knees, her husband and child already drowned. A great wave came and washed her aft. The steward had just before taken her child and started for shore. Both were drowned.

Margaret Fuller#120

PsychologyHistoryDisasterStoicism

About this quote

What does it mean?
During a shipwreck, Margaret faced the loss of husband and child, yet remained composed, illustrating stoic endurance amid catastrophe.
In plain terms
She stayed calm despite personal tragedy.
What can you take from it?
Composure can be a source of strength in disaster.

Where it applies

  • survival narratives
  • psychology of trauma

Putting it to work

  • study of coping mechanisms

Questions to consider

  • How does stoicism affect grief processing?

Another view

Details are dramatic and may be romanticized.

More from Margaret Fuller

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  2. If our imagination is challenged to picture what Margaret Fuller would have been like had she remained in Boston, it is positively staggered at trying to conce…

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  3. Margaret had done her strenuous work under fire while her husband stood in daily peril of death and while she herself was cut off from all communication with h…

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