--- title: "Meaning & Key Takeaway of: Five actors playing allotted parts on a…" description: "\"“Five actors playing allotted parts on a set stage; and now he, for whom no part had been written, had walked onto the stage unexpectedly, because one ..." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aa6/evangeline-walton-29048_clear-vision_five-actors-playing-allotted-parts-on-a_2782947.jpg" --- # Five actors playing allotted parts on a set stage; and now… ![“Five actors playing allotted parts on a set stage; and now he, for whom no part had been written, had walked onto the stage unexpectedly, because one of the players had turned rebel, as she had once before. He threw everything out of focus, and them into a fever. The heat and intensity of these…” quote by Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aa6/evangeline-walton-29048_clear-vision_five-actors-playing-allotted-parts-on-a_2782947.jpg) [Download](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aa6/evangeline-walton-29048_clear-vision_five-actors-playing-allotted-parts-on-a_2782947.jpg) [Open image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aa6/evangeline-walton-29048_clear-vision_five-actors-playing-allotted-parts-on-a_2782947.jpg) > ““Five actors playing allotted parts on a set stage; and now he, for whom no part had been written, had walked onto the stage unexpectedly, because one of the players had turned rebel, as she had once before. He threw everything out of focus, and them into a fever. The heat and intensity of these flying questions was enough to make a man with even partially trained clairvoyant faculties feel as if he sat in a room filled with flashing fireflies. He took warning and withdrew himself to a cold inner isolation, as he knew how to do, even while laughing and talking with surface ease. It would not do to let his mind become clouded with emotion; or open any door of his imagination. But the impressions that came across that safer inner distance did not make his companions seem less dramatic, more normal: they were still out of focus. Something about the picture was distorted, even to a clear vision. The sense of evil was as strong as ever although the lurking Presence seemed to have retreated into a far background. He saw presently what the distortion was. Their modern figures were somehow incongruous in the old house, not at home. Like actors who had somehow got onto the wrong stage, onto sets with which their voices and costumes clashed. Interlopers. Or else-actors of an old school dressed up in an unbecoming masquerade. Witch House was an old house. Not old as other houses are old, that remain beds of the continuous stream of life, of marriages and births and deaths, of children crying and children laughing, where the past is only part of the pattern, root of the present and the future. Joseph de Quincy, dead nearly a quarter of a thousand years, was still its master: he had been strong, so strong that no later personality could dim or efface him here where he had set his seal. "He left his evil here when he could no longer stay himself," Carew thought. "As a man with diphtheria leaves germs on the things he has handled, the bed he has lain in. Thoughts are tangible things; on their own plane they breed like germs and, unlike germs, they do not die. He may have forgotten; he may even walk the earth in other flesh, but what he has left here lives." As probably it had been meant to do. For the man whose malignance, swollen with the contributions of the centuries, still ensouled these walls would not have cared to build a house or found a family except as a means to an end. Witch House was set like a mold, steeped in ritual atmosphere as a temple. Dangerous business, for who could say that such a temple would not find a god? There are low, non-human beings that coalesce with and feed on such leftover forces: lair in them.”” [Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) ## About This Quote This interpretation was drafted with AI assistance. It is one reading of the quote, not the author's own explanation. A character feels out of place and overwhelmed by chaotic, alien surroundings, forcing introspection and emotional distance to maintain clarity. **In simple terms:** Feeling misplaced and overwhelmed leads to inner withdrawal for clarity. Key Takeaway Step back to observe before reacting. Themes alienation identity perception memory history Mood reflective melancholic introspective Type literary philosophical psychological When to use this quote - narrative analysis - creative writing - psychotherapy - historical research Key Concepts existentialism psychology temporal dissonance Questions to Reflect On - How do you maintain self‑awareness in chaotic environments? - What anchors keep you grounded when feeling out of place? 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I sleep…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/he-asked-looking-at-her-dark-rimmed-eyes-you-do-not-sleep-she/) [Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) > [“Outside the drizzling rain had begun again. It pattered around the house, and on the roofs and eaves, like a million, tiny, stealthy feet:…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/outside-the-drizzling-rain-had-begun-again-it-pattered-around-the/) [Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) > [“Are these black cats like the hare?" "No. They're smaller; they only want me to play with them. Fly away with them to a…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/are-these-black-cats-like-the-hare-no-they-re-smaller-they-only-want/) [Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) > [“There's only one force that's strong enough to conquer those in Witch House, and you know how to manipulate it; you turned one current…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/there-s-only-one-force-that-s-strong-enough-to-conquer-those-in-witch/) [Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) > [“Death is the one friend who never fails any man.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/death-is-the-one-friend-who-never-fails-any-man/) [Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) > [“It isn't brave to do something you're not afraid to do.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/it-isn-t-brave-to-do-something-you-re-not-afraid-to-do/) [Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) > [“To trust any man is the road to slavery.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/to-trust-any-man-is-the-road-to-slavery/) [Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) > [“The doctor from the mainland came and went. Silence settled over the island again, like a displaced curtain falling back in thickened, heavier folds.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/the-doctor-from-the-mainland-came-and-went-silence-settled-over-the/) [Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) > [“Yet woman, though she ceased to be a king\* and man protected her, was still reverenced as the source of life. Only now when…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/yet-woman-though-she-ceased-to-be-a-king-and-man-protected-her-was/) [Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) > [“Worry and improper thinking are luxuries as dangerous as drink.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/worry-and-improper-thinking-are-luxuries-as-dangerous-as-drink/) [Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) > [“For cleverness and wisdom are as different as are the circuitous passages of a labyrinth and the straight, upward flight of a bird.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/for-cleverness-and-wisdom-are-as-different-as-are-the-circuitous/) [Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) > [“Only a fool is humiliated by having been weak enough to have to overcome obstacles.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/only-a-fool-is-humiliated-by-having-been-weak-enough-to-have-to/) [Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) > [“It was so awful! And he kept on looking at me and I knew I must get out of bed or he'd come and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/it-was-so-awful-and-he-kept-on-looking-at-me-and-i-knew-i-must-get/) [Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) > [“Also another time she had wakened in dead of night, thinking that something touched her, and when she looked she saw that a black…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/also-another-time-she-had-wakened-in-dead-of-night-thinking-that/) [Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) > [“Quincy laughed. "If I were Elizabeth I shouldn't thank either of you for that comforting diagnosis. Would it do any good to open Aunt…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/quincy-laughed-if-i-were-elizabeth-i-shouldn-t-thank-either-of-you/) [Evangeline Walton](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) [Explore all 16 Evangeline Walton quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/) ## More Clear vision quotes > [In many traditions, hawks are sacred: Apollo's messengers for the Greeks, sun symbols for the ancient Egyptians and, in the case of the Lakota…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/john-burnside/in-many-traditions-hawks-are-sacred-apollo-s-messengers-for-the/) [John Burnside](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/john-burnside/) > [We are immensed in beauty, but our eyes have no clear vision.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/ralph-waldo-emerson/we-are-immensed-in-beauty-but-our-eyes-have-no-clear-vision/) [Ralph Waldo Emerson](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/ralph-waldo-emerson/) > [First of all, anything Ryan Murphy is a part of is a good idea to be a part of. 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I would…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/toto-wolff/marchionne-has-a-clear-vision-of-what-f1-should-represent-for-ferrari/) [Toto Wolff](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/toto-wolff/) [Browse all 171 Clear vision quotes ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/clear-vision/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Five actors playing allotted parts on a set stage; and now he, for whom no part had been written, had walked onto the stage unexpectedly, because one of the players had turned rebel, as she had once before. He threw everything out of focus, and them into a fever. The heat and intensity of these flying questions was enough to make a man with even partially trained clairvoyant faculties feel as if he sat in a room filled with flashing fireflies. He took warning and withdrew himself to a cold inner isolation, as he knew how to do, even while laughing and talking with surface ease. It would not do to let his mind become clouded with emotion; or open any door of his imagination. But the impressions that came across that safer inner distance did not make his companions seem less dramatic, more normal: they were still out of focus. Something about the picture was distorted, even to a clear vision. The sense of evil was as strong as ever although the lurking Presence seemed to have retreated into a far background. He saw presently what the distortion was. Their modern figures were somehow incongruous in the old house, not at home. Like actors who had somehow got onto the wrong stage, onto sets with which their voices and costumes clashed. Interlopers. Or else-actors of an old school dressed up in an unbecoming masquerade. Witch House was an old house. Not old as other houses are old, that remain beds of the continuous stream of life, of marriages and births and deaths, of children crying and children laughing, where the past is only part of the pattern, root of the present and the future. Joseph de Quincy, dead nearly a quarter of a thousand years, was still its master: he had been strong, so strong that no later personality could dim or efface him here where he had set his seal. \"He left his evil here when he could no longer stay himself,\" Carew thought. \"As a man with diphtheria leaves germs on the things he has handled, the bed he has lain in. Thoughts are tangible things; on their own plane they breed like germs and, unlike germs, they do not die. He may have forgotten; he may even walk the earth in other flesh, but what he has left here lives.\" As probably it had been meant to do. For the man whose malignance, swollen with the contributions of the centuries, still ensouled these walls would not have cared to build a house or found a family except as a means to an end. Witch House was set like a mold, steeped in ritual atmosphere as a temple. Dangerous business, for who could say that such a temple would not find a god? There are low, non-human beings that coalesce with and feed on such leftover forces: lair in them.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Evangeline Walton" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/five-actors-playing-allotted-parts-on-a-set-stage-and-now-he-for-whom/", "about": { "@type": "Thing", "name": "Clear vision" }, "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/five-actors-playing-allotted-parts-on-a-set-stage-and-now-he-for-whom/#quotation", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aa6/evangeline-walton-29048_clear-vision_five-actors-playing-allotted-parts-on-a_2782947.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aa6/evangeline-walton-29048_clear-vision_five-actors-playing-allotted-parts-on-a_2782947.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/aa6/evangeline-walton-29048_clear-vision_five-actors-playing-allotted-parts-on-a_2782947.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Five actors playing allotted parts on a set stage; and now he, for whom no part had been written, had walked…” — Evangeline Walton", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Evangeline Walton", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/evangeline-walton/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "“Five actors playing allotted parts on...", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/five-actors-playing-allotted-parts-on-a-set-stage-and-now-he-for-whom/" } ], "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/evangeline-walton/five-actors-playing-allotted-parts-on-a-set-stage-and-now-he-for-whom/#breadcrumb" }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```