Follow Your Heart
Follow Your HeartThe novel is titled Follow your Heart because Olga, the grandmother who wrote the letters, tried to convey to her Granddaughter that unless she follows her heart, she will never be happy. Olga has this viewpoint because during her life she didn't follow her heart, and made decisions based upon what other people had to say, no matter what she felt.
There were many times throughout Olga's life where she didn't follow her dreams. One example of this was when she married Augusto. Olga didn't really love Augusto. Her mother and father adored Augusto, and to make her parents happy, she married him. Olga though, was unhappy, and the quote "After three years of marriage, my one and only thought was of death" describes Olga's unhappiness and how she didn't follow her heart when she married Augusto. Olga would have happily left him and moved back to Trieste, but the quote "Why didn't I pack my bags and return to Trieste? Because at that time neither separation nor divorce existed" explains why she didn't leave. At that time marriages "could only be ended in the case of very serious ill treatment." Augusto never hurt Olga, so she had no decent reason to leave him, although her heart was against staying with him.
Another time where Olga didn't follow her heart was when she didn't go to University. Olga dearly wanted to go to University to receive a "classical education." Her father though, believed there was no point to it and felt that if she wanted to go study something, she should study languages. After Olga finished Grammar School she told her father that she "intended to go to the University of Rome." Her father wouldn't consider sending his daughter to the University, and the quote "as was custom in those days, I obeyed without a murmur" proves to us that Olga really wanted to go to University, but didn't follow her dreams because her father wouldn't allow her to.
When Olga went to visit Ilaria at the University, she didn't follow her heart because she knew she should have stayed. Olga felt that if she had of stayed in Padua, she might have been able to get back into Ilaria's life and become part of it again. The quote "when she said I had to go, I should have stayed. I should have rented a room in an nearby hotel and knocked on her door everyday, persisting until that tiny fissure became a passageway" describes how Olga knew what to do, but didn't follow what her heart had to say and went back home.
When Ilaria died, Olga knew that she should apologised to her for what she did with Ernesto, and for not telling her about her true father. Olga said that she would eventually get around to telling her, but Ilaria died before she got the chance and Olga regretted not doing what she felt she should have done. The quote "hoping that she would at leat open her eyes for a moment, that she would give me one last chance to ask her forgiveness" proves to us that Olga wanted to tell her, top say sorry, but Ilaria's life ended too soon.
The novel Follow Your Heart has many reasons for why it is so titled. There are many times where Olga believed she should have followed her heart and she didn't. She believed many times that if she had of, her life would have been very different to how it turned out. Olga admired her Granddaughter because she follows what she believes, where Olga was unable to.