How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
"A man needed support and comfort. A man needed to have an anchor in the safe world. A man needed a wife." (1.37)
Clifford gets married because that's just what men do. There's nothing in it about what Clifford wants, or—gasp!—what Connie wants. Men are men, ergo they take wives to be supports, comforts, and anchors. (No word about what the ladies get out of it.) Gee, something about his attitude seems off.
Quote #2
But that is how men are! Ungrateful and never satisfied. When you don't have them they hate you because you won't; and when you do have them they hate you again, for some other reason. Or for no reason at all, except that they are discontented children, and can't be satisfied whatever they get, let a woman do what she may. (1.22)
Connie and Hilda love being liberated modern women right up until they realize that all they get to be liberated with is overgrown children who play their Xboxes all day while complaining that you're way too harsh on them.
Quote #3
The four men smoked. And Connie sat there and put another stitch in her sewing...Yes, she sat there! She had to sit mum. She had to be quiet as a mouse, not to interfere with the immensely important speculations of these highly-mental gentlemen. But she had to be there. They didn't get on so well without her; their ideas didn't flow so freely. (4.40)
When Clifford's friends are at Wragby, Connie sits in the room like a good little wifey so the gathering won't turn into a sausage fest. They don't want her to talk, of course; they just want her to be decorative and bring them sandwiches.