Caroline goes through a period of malaise and fear for her future, with illness en route.

I believe in my heart we were intended to prize life and enjoy it, so long as we retain it.  Existence never was originally meant to be that useless, blank, pale, slow-trailing thing it often becomes to many, and is becoming to me, among the rest.

Prize life and enjoy it, as Caroline later succeeds in doing.

Source: Charlotte Bronte, Shirley (London: Collins, 1968), p. 315

Photo credit: Mohamed Nohassi at unsplash