Original artwork, not a still
The Quality of Mercy · 1900
In a few generations more, there will probably be no room at all allowed for animals on the earth: no need of them, no toleration of them. An immense agony will have then ceased, but with it there will also have passed away the last smile of the world’s youth.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Ouida imagines a future with no place for animals. She suggests their agony would end, but the world would also lose something joyful. Her grief is bittersweet, treating animals as the world's last smile of youth.
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