The Man in the Iron Mask Family Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

He was a man of great taste in elegant stuffs, embroideries, and velvet, being hereditary tailor to the King. The preferment of his house reached as far back as the time of Charles IX; from whose reign dated, as we know, fancies in bravery difficult enough to gratify. The Percerin of that period was a Huguenot, like Ambroise Pare. (3.1)

This demonstrates the importance of heritage in King Louis XIV's court.

Quote #2

If there be one saying more true than another, it is this: great griefs contain within themselves the germ of their consolation. This painful wound inflicted upon Raoul had drawn him nearer to his father; and God knows how sweet were the consolations that flowed from the eloquent mouth and generous heart of Athos. (25.28)

If Raoul hadn't been dumped, he might not have spent so much time with his dad.

Quote #3

Philippe did not raise his eyes towards Heaven, nor stir from the spot, where he seemed nailed to the floor, his eye intently fixed upon the King, his brother. He reproached him by a sublime silence with all his misfortunes past, with all his tortures to come. Against this language of the soul Louis XIV felt he had no power; he cast down his eyes, and led away precipitately his brother and sister, forgetting his mother, sitting motionless within three paces of the son whom she left a second time to be condemned to death.

Philippe approached Anne of Austria, and said to her in a soft and nobly agitated voice, "If I were not your son, I should curse you, my mother, for having rendered me so unhappy." (24.84 – 24.85)

Clearly this family has strange dynamics. We speculate 1) that Louis does not love his mother, 2) that Louis is capable of feeling guilty about locking up his own brother, and 3) Philippe takes it easy on his mother.