Quote 1
"There's to be no more scribbling, no more foolishness. You're to come home and take up your duties and responsibilities. If you do, I promise I will do my best to forget any of this ever happened."
"I can't. You know I can't." (25.malediction.8-9)
Mattie overhears a conversation between Miss Wilcox and her husband through an open window; he insists on asserting his husbandly rights, but she refuses. We think it's because she thinks she has a duty to her craft of writing and to women who might want to follow in her steps. It might not seem like it at first, but Miss Wilcox is willing to sacrifice the safety and security of marriage—remember, we're in 1906—in the name of pursuing her dreams and helping change the world, one poem at a time.
Quote 2
"My husband is on his way, Mattie. My sister wired that he's a day away at most. If I'm still here when he arrives, the next stop for me is a doctor's office. And then a sanatorium and so many drugs pushed down my throat, I won't be able to remember my own name, much less write."
"He can't do that."
"He can. He's a powerful man with powerful friends." (38.threnody.37-39)
It's not just the men in rural New York who have power, and here Miss Wilcox admits that her husband will do everything to keep her from writing and embarrassing him and his reputation. To him, she's no more than a problem that must be dealt with. And it's scary to Mattie how much power a husband has over his wife. Heck, it's scary to us over a hundred years later.
Quote 3
"She wants to go, Mr. Gokey. Very badly," Miss Wilcox said.
"Well, I blame you for that, ma'am. You went and put ideas in her head. I haven't got the money to send her. And even if I did, why would I send my girl where she don't know anyone? Away from her home and her family, with nobody to look after her?" (17.furtive.34-35)
One of the greatest obstacles to social mobility is the lack of money (which remains as true today as it was during 1906), but Pa seems to be hiding behind this reality. Of much greater worry to him is the fact that he would be sending his oldest daughter into the unknown world, one where he fears he might lose her and she might lose herself. Fear of the unknown is a powerful motivator to stay put in society.