Interperation of classic Bette Davis movie NOW VOYAGER ?

Question

I could never under stand the quote from the poem it was named after. Would you explain if their are anyone that saw it on Turner Classic Movies .Beautiful movie and a real tear jerker gals.

Answer 1

The title comes from the Walt Whitman poem, "The Untold Want". Here it is in its entirety:

"THE untold want, by life and land ne'er granted,
Now, Voyager, sail thou forth, to seek and find".

The poem expresses the desire of one to live life to it's fullest, yet for whatever reason it has been unattainable. The person now sets off on a journey to seek and find that life.

It is acted out beautifully in this movie as Bette Davis plays a middle-age spinster who never lived the life she wanted as she was repressed by an overbearing & dominating mother. She eventually ends up in a sanatorium, where she meets and falls in love with her psychiatrist. On a cruise they have an affair, and so basically she begins to "find herself". If I remember though, it's almost too late.