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My heart was wrapped in paper

English translation: My emotions were close to the surface

04:35 Dec 30, 2021
English language (monolingual) [PRO]
Art/Literary - Idioms / Maxims / Sayings
English term or phrase: My heart was wrapped in paper
Hello,
the sentence "my heart was wrapped in paper" what does it mean?
Mona
Selected answer:My emotions were close to the surface
Explanation:
This is literature, so open to interpretation, but as I understand it, the woman is feeling vulnerable and does not know what to expect. A mixture of fear and hope, expectation and dread.

Something valuable and delicate would normally be carefully packed and protected in a box, not just covered in flimsy paper, which perhaps reveals what is inside.

A more widely known expression is ´my heart was in my mouth´.
Selected response from:

Christine Andersen
Denmark
Local time: 14:16
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.
4 KudoZ points were awarded for this answer



SUMMARY OF ALL EXPLANATIONS PROVIDED
3 +3My emotions were close to the surface
Christine Andersen
4 +2it was as if my heart was giftwrapped for her
Yvonne Gallagher
4My heart was comminuted / crushed / devastated /knotted
Anastasia Kalantzi


Discussion entries: 11





  

Answers


6 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 3/5Answerer confidence 3/5 peer agreement (net): +3
my heart was wrapped in paper
My emotions were close to the surface


Explanation:
This is literature, so open to interpretation, but as I understand it, the woman is feeling vulnerable and does not know what to expect. A mixture of fear and hope, expectation and dread.

Something valuable and delicate would normally be carefully packed and protected in a box, not just covered in flimsy paper, which perhaps reveals what is inside.

A more widely known expression is ´my heart was in my mouth´.


Christine Andersen
Denmark
Local time: 14:16
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 4
Grading comment
Selected automatically based on peer agreement.

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  Tina Vonhof (X): Vulnerable, afraid of what to expect. That was my impression as well.
5 hrs
agree  Rocsana Guignaudeau
7 hrs
agree  Badri Seyed Jalali
18 hrs
neutral  Yvonne Gallagher: NO. This is guesswork. Of course she is emotional but this is not what it means when you actually read the story prior to this line. Then it's 100% clear
1 day 6 hrs
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9 hrs   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5 peer agreement (net): +2
my heart was wrapped in paper
it was as if my heart was giftwrapped for her


Explanation:
her babty had just been born but was taken away from her almost immediately. I read a bit of the next chapter to discover she was a young unmarried mother in appalling circumstances, missing her own moither who had died when she herself was a child...

So, to me, "wrapped in paper" is like saying that her heart has been given to this baby, like a gift, although she has been taken away from her

https://books.google.ie/books?id=UqOZDwAAQBAJ&pg=PT18&lpg=PT...

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Note added at 9 hrs (2021-12-30 14:31:27 GMT)
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and yes, "wrapped in paper", implies her heart is delicate and fragile. Probably broken too given her circumstances

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Note added at 23 hrs (2021-12-31 03:47:22 GMT)
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OK I went back and read the first chapter and am now 100% sure what this refers to.

When she (Bess) is leaving her baby Clara at the Foundling hospital she is asked if she has a token to leave as an identifier, in case she wants to reclaim the baby later. She leaves half a heart, made from whalebone (the child's father has the other half she explains) with her initial B and the baby's C scratched on it. The clerk makes a record and folds the record paper over the heart

So this means: "my identifier token for my baby, half a heart, made of whalebone, was wrapped in the record paper (by the Foundling hospital clerk)

Yvonne Gallagher
Ireland
Local time: 13:16
Native speaker of: Native in EnglishEnglish
PRO pts in category: 56

Peer comments on this answer (and responses from the answerer)
agree  philgoddard: Well done - you got there eventually, and it looks like the asker hadn't seen (or remembered) the additional context that you found. I think it's also probably metaphorical. Sadly, you probably won't get any thanks or points.
21 hrs
  -> Thanks. there is an image of the (half) heart at top of each chapter! And explained in the early pages (Chapter 1), so really clear enough...
agree  Anastasia Kalantzi
9 days
  -> Thanks. I've given the link to the e-book above if you want to read it.
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9 days   confidence: Answerer confidence 4/5Answerer confidence 4/5
My heart was comminuted / crushed / devastated /knotted


Explanation:
And after having read some good part of the book's contexte fortunately provided below in the discussion by Philgoddard and this is truly an excellent literary work. I'd like to find it and e-read it at the very least.

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Note added at 9 ημέρες (2022-01-08 23:15:39 GMT)
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But there again, now I've read Yvonne's point of view I tend to agree with her.

Anastasia Kalantzi
Greece
Local time: 15:16
Specializes in field
Native speaker of: Greek
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