How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
The healthy boy with his fresh, clumsy sensuality that she had then been so scornful of! Where would she find it now? It was gone out of men. They had their pathetic, two-seconds spasms like Michaelis; but no healthy human sensuality, that warms the blood and freshens the whole being. (7.8)
By the time she finishes with Michaelis, Connie is so totally over men. Boys might still have a healthy sexuality—she's remembering her high school boyfriend, although if she's concerned about "two-second spasms," boys might not be the way to go—but not men. At least not the ones she knows.
Quote #5
But never warm as a man can be warm to a woman, as even Connie's father could be warm to her, with the warmth of a man who did himself well, and intended to, but who still could comfort a woman with a bit of his masculine glow. (7.16)
What really stinks about modern men is that they're not living up to their potential. When men do masculinity right, they have so much "masculine glow" that some of it spills over onto women, even if the man is just contemplating his own awesomeness. How generous.
Quote #6
She liked handling him. She loved having his body in her charge, absolutely, to the last menial offices. She said to Connie one day: 'All men are babies, when you come to the bottom of them. Why, I've handled some of the toughest customers as ever went down Tevershall pit. But let anything ail them so that you have to do for them, and they're babies, just big babies. Oh, there's not much difference in men!' (9.22-23)
Mrs. Bolton is a nurse, so she sees men when they're sick and in pain. No wonder she thinks they're babies. Might we suggest that part of the problem is Mrs. Bolton infantilizing men by treating them like babies?