How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"Oh! Well, I took you for Ruth Wilcox."
Margaret stammered: "I--Mrs. Wilcox--I?"
"In fancy, of course--in fancy. You had her way of walking. Good-day." And the old woman passed out into the rain. (23.36-37)
Mrs. Avery's confusion of Margaret with Mrs. Wilcox reminds us that the two women (the two Mrs. Wilcoxes, really) are growing closer and closer – Margaret is becoming more and more like her predecessor. Feel free to be a little creeped out. We are.
Quote #8
When a young man is untroubled by passions and sincerely indifferent to public opinion, his outlook is necessarily limited. Tibby neither wished to strengthen the position of the rich nor to improve that of the poor, and so was well content to watch the elms nodding behind the mildly embattled parapets of Magdalen. There are worse lives. Though selfish, he was never cruel; though affected in manner, he never posed. Like Margaret, he disdained the heroic equipment, and it was only after many visits that men discovered Schlegel to possess a character and a brain. (30.1)
Tibby takes Schlegel individuality to an extreme; he's more isolated than his two sisters in his true disregard for the rest of society. Unlike Margaret, he doesn't care about fitting in, and unlike Helen, he doesn't even care about rebelling in a dramatic way.
Quote #9
Why has not England a great mythology? Our folklore has never advanced beyond daintiness, and the greater melodies about our country-side have all issued through the pipes of Greece. Deep and true as the native imagination can be, it seems to have failed here. It has stopped with the witches and the fairies. It cannot vivify one fraction of a summer field, or give names to half a dozen stars. England still waits for the supreme moment of her literature--for the great poet who shall voice her, or, better still, for the thousand little poets whose voices shall pass into our common talk. (33.2)
One of the biggest unspoken (or partially spoken) questions in this book is that of England's identity – we have to wonder what England and its people have in store for them, and who will tell their stories.