"Women give to men the very gold of their lives. But ..."

[Regina61285]

"Women give to men the very gold of their lives. But they invariably want it back in such very small change."(O. Wilde):flare:
PLz can you help me with this quote... :bawling:what does it mean? :sick:Does it mean that women don't let men to develop or fulfull their dreams???

[Wilde woman]

Does it mean that women don't let men to develop or fulfull their dreams???

Not necessarily. You have to take that first part of the quote into account: "women give to men the very gold of their lives". One way of interpreting that is that women give to men the best years of their lives (their youth) or their most passionate love. (If you're trying to be funny, you could even say that women give men their money...aka their dowries...when they marry them.) But as the second part of the quote says, there's always a price to pay.

Perhaps "they invariably want it back in small change" means that they expect men to pay them back in small increments (like how women insist that men show their love in little ways...a kiss on the cheek when they get home from work or washing the dishes once in a while). Or perhaps the debt that men owe women is big and it takes them a long time to pay it back so that "small change" basically means they want their husband's attention forever. Which may or may not crush their dreams. :lol:

But the quote is very tongue-in-cheek, as many of Wilde's sayings are. I don't think it's meant to be read too seriously.

[Regina61285]

Not necessarily. You have to take that first part of the quote into account: "women give to men the very gold of their lives". One way of interpreting that is that women give to men the best years of their lives (their youth) or their most passionate love. (If you're trying to be funny, you could even say that women give men their money...aka their dowries...when they marry them.) But as the second part of the quote says, there's always a price to pay.

Perhaps "they invariably want it back in small change" means that they expect men to pay them back in small increments (like how women insist that men show their love in little ways...a kiss on the cheek when they get home from work or washing the dishes once in a while). Or perhaps the debt that men owe women is big and it takes them a long time to pay it back so that "small change" basically means they want their husband's attention forever. Which may or may not crush their dreams. :lol:

But the quote is very tongue-in-cheek, as many of Wilde's sayings are. I don't think it's meant to be read too seriously.

"You must admit, Harry, that women give to men the very gold of their lives."

"Possibly,"

he sighed,

"but they invariably want it back in such very small change. That is the worry. Women, as some witty Frenchman once put it, inspire us with the desire to do masterpieces and always prevent us from carrying them out."

"Harry, you are dreadful! I don't know why I like you so much."

"You will always like me, Dorian,"


That is the context of the quote. If u have another idea plz help me

[kiki1982]

I agree with Wilde Woman, but I still have something to add (otherwise I wouldn't post, right).

I think that saying might also mean that women might give men things/themselves/their dowries (although I think that by Wilde's time women could own their dowries as well acoording to the law...), but whatever they give they will get back.

The small change and the gold might be an evocation of the monetary system:
a country has whatever amount of money that is in circulation, in stock in bars of gold. If more money is printed, the value goes down (devaltuation), because the sum of all the money should be equal to the value of the amount of gold in the national stock.

All this money in circulation is just 'small change' of that gold stock. So, if women give their gold (whatever that might be), they only supply the means to a man to do what a man does. Eventually the man gives his wife 'small change' which makes up the same as the gold she gave him. It might look different, but like the stock of a country it is the same value in the end.

If she gives him her virginity, he needs to give her that little thing if he wants legitimate children. If she gievs him a dowry, he needs to supply her with money for the rest of her life... and so on.

But, even further than that: is a man a man, without a wife in that society? Is a man a man, without children in that society? Women might give their gold to men, but the men need it to have the small change, because without gold, no small change and no money. So without women, no real men?

It seems strange for an alledged homosexual like Wilde, but maybe women were for him more an obligatory counterpart, or something? an obligatory item that was to be acquired to be fully accepted in society-circles? Whether the couple loved each other, whether they would hate each other, whether they actually saw each other, etc. I don't think was important. If you had a wife, you were a complete man and if not, you were of a doubtful nature?

[peepfoot]

The quote is from "The Picture of Dorian Gray". Regina found the correct quote, since some websites like to paraphrase quotes from literature.
As a nihilist way of thinking goes, women give men a life's worth of joy in mere minutes. Which men will invariably pay for for the rest (or most) of their lives.

[SJVW]

Of course women (well! …most women) give their all to their man (the very gold of their lives)… but what they do not realise is that they should not expect too much in return. Men, on the whole, do not understand a woman’s ‘wants’ … after all, they are from Mars! Why should they have to repeatedly tell their woman that she is loved?...surely she should know that..he wouldn’t be there if he didn’t! Women thrive on compliments and do not like to feel as if they are being taken for granted. They need to be the centre of his universe. If women ‘want it back in such very small change’ then I am afraid to say the truth is that they are invariably ‘short-changed’.

[JimmyRow]

Remember that "Harry" is world-weary, contrarian, and pretty hedonistic. I think that he means that women (at least back then!) sacrifice and give everything to their men, but that men "pay" for that sacrifice by doing a thousand little things differently than they want to at their woman's request, either stated or implied.