The Titanic
The Titanic in the novel is described as being intact (the accepted version of the sinking, at the time of the writing and before the wreck was found, was that she sank intact) with both forward and aft mast collapsed, and all the smokestacks (with the exception of the fourth stack) missing. The fourth stack lies on the Titanic's upper deck. The masts, smokestack and any other hazard are removed before the ship was raised. The ship when she appeared on the surface was said to have looked naked without her towering smokestacks. After surviving a hurricane she arrives in New York with a huge welcome. The last mention of the Titanic is that she was in a New York dry-dock. The reader is left to decide what happens to her.


On the ship is also the young artist Jack Dawson. He won is ticket to Titanic in a card game, right when the ship was about to go off. He happens to be on the deck when Rose runs past him and begin climbing the the front to jump in the water. He calms her and convinces her not to jump, but right when she is climbing back on the ship she slips. He helps her up, and as a thanks he is invited on dinner at first class.
The friendship between Rose and Jack deepens, and both her fiancé and her mother starts getting suspicious. But finally Rose decide to choose freedom and poverty before misery and safety. Rose and Jack recognize the love between them and are very happy for some hours...until the ship hits an ice berg.
Jack: Don't do it.Rose: Stay back!
Don't come any closer!
Jack: Come on, just give me your hand. I'll pull you back over.
Rose: No, stay where you are! I mean it! I'll let go!
Jack: [He approaches slowly, gesturing to his cigarette to show that he is approaching merely to throw it over the side into the ocean] No, you won't.
Rose: What do you mean, "No, I won't"? Don't presume to tell me what I will and will not do, you don't know me!
Jack: Well, you woulda done it already.
Rose: You're distracting me! Go away!
Jack: I can't. I'm involved now. You let go, and I'm, I'm 'onna have to jump in there after you.
Rose: Don't be absurd. You'd be killed!
Jack: I'm a good swimmer.
Rose: The fall alone would kill you.
Jack: It would hurt. I'm not saying it wouldn't. Tell you the truth, I'm a lot more concerned about that water being so cold. [pause. She looks down at the water. Jack is slowly removing his boots]
Rose: How cold?
Jack: Freezing. Maybe a couple degrees over. You ever, uh, you ever been to Wisconsin? Rose: What?
Jack: Well, they have some of the coldest winters around. I grew up there, near Chippewa Falls. I remember when I was a kid, me and my father, we went ice fishing out on Lake Wissota. Ice fishing is, you know, where you...
Rose: I know what ice fishing is! Jack: Sorry. You just seem like, you know, kind of an indoor girl. Anyway, I, uh, I fell through some thin ice; and I'm telling you, water that cold, like right down there... [He gestures with his chin down toward the Atlantic Ocean]
Jack: ... it hits you like a thousand knives stabbing you all over your body. You can't breathe. You can't think. At least, not about anything but the pain. Which is why I'm not looking forward to jumping in there after you. [They exchange glances]
Jack: Like I said, I don't have a choice. I guess I'm kinda hoping you'll come back over the railing, an' get me off the hook here.
Rose: You're crazy.
Jack: That's what everybody says but, with all due respect, Miss, I'm not the one hanging off the back of a ship here. Come on. C'mon, give me your hand. You don't want to do this. [She reaches her hand back, he reaches his forward, and he helps her back onto the deck]
Jack: Whew! I'm Jack Dawson.
Rose: Rose De Witt Bukater.
Jack: I'm gonna have to get you to write that one down
.

Jack: Shhh. Gimme your hand. Now close your eyes, go on. Now step up. Now hold on to the railing. Keep your eyes closed, don't peek.
Rose: I'm not.
Jack: Step up on the railing. Hold on, hold on. Keep your eyes closed. Do you trust me? Rose: I trust you. [Jack opens Rose's arms] Jack: All right. Open your eyes.
Rose: [gasp] I'm flying, Jack! [Jack starts singing]
Jack: Come, Josephine, in my flying machine, going up, she goes up, up she goes. [they kiss]

Jack: Neither do I! Just go with it!
Jack: This is crazy. Rose: I know. It doesn't make any sense. That's why I trust it. Rose: I love you, Jack.
Jack: Don't you do that, don't say your good-byes.
Rose: I'm so cold.
Jack: Listen, Rose. You're gonna get out of here, you're gonna go on and make lots of babies, and you're gonna watch them grow. You're gonna die an old... an old lady warm in her bed, but not here, not this night. Not like this, do you understand me?
Rose: I can't feel my body.
Jack: Winning that ticket, Rose, was the best thing that ever happened to me... it brought me to you. And I'm thankful for that, Rose. I'm thankful. You must do me this honor, Rose. Promise me you'll survive. That you won't give up, no matter what happens, no matter how hopeless. Promise me now, Rose, and never let go of that promise.
Rose: I promise.
Jack: Never let go.
Rose: I'll never let go. I'll never let go, Jack.
Rose: [letting go of Jack's hand] I'll never let go, Jack. I promise.
[she kisses his hand and watches him sink, almost falling apart before she finally climbs back into the water to call the lifeboat back]
Old Rose: I saw my whole life as if I had already lived it. An endless parade of parties and cotillions, yachts and polo matches. Always the same narrow people, the same mindless chatter. I felt like I was standing at a great precipice, with no one to pull me back, no one who cared... or even noticed.
Lewis Bodine: We never found anything on Jack... there's no record of him at all.
Old Rose: No, there wouldn't be, would there? And I've never spoken of him until now... Not to anyone... Not even your grandfather... A woman's heart is a deep ocean of secrets. But now you know there was a man named Jack Dawson and that he saved me... in every way that a person can be saved. I don't even have a picture of him. He exists now... only in my memory.
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