A Great and Terrible Beauty Power Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #7

"Magic?" Elizabeth asks. "They were witches?"

"Not as we've come to think of witches. They would have been mystics and healers, women who worked with herbs and delivered babies. But it would have made them suspect. Women who have power are always feared," she says sadly. (12.15-16)

In patriarchal society, women are kept quiet, weak, and dependent in order to be easier to control—because nothing's harder to control than empowered people.

Quote #8

I've underestimated Felicity's need for control. She'd rather be seen with Ann and me than admit defeat to her acolytes. She's an admiral's daughter, after all. (12.116)

Felicity is pretty obsessed with power, and she'd rather maintain the illusion of control than admit to not running the show, no matter the cost.

Quote #9

We're alive with our new secret, with the way we belong to each other and to something other than the dull passing of hours with nothing to look forward to besides our routines. It makes me feel even more powerful than the whiskey, and I want it to go on forever. (13.49)

Belonging to a club or group of people is powerful because you feel like one large being, instead of just one small you. Maybe that is why there are so many different clubs, groups, religions, and such.