Sister Carrie Marriage Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #4

When in the flush of such feelings he heard his wife's voice, when the insistent demands of matrimony recalled him from dreams to a stale practice, how it grated. He then knew that this was a chain which bound his feet. (15.3)

Matrimony as bondage… how romantic.

Quote #5

Jessica was beginning to feel that her affairs were her own… To darken it all, he saw the same indifference and independence growing in his wife, while he looked on and paid the bills. (15.40)

Aw, poor Hurstwood. His wife treats him like her personal ATM. So why does he put up with it?

Quote #6

Now, it so happened that from his observations of Carrie he began to imagine that she was of the thoroughly domestic type of mind. He really thought, after a year, that her chief expression in life was finding its natural channel in household duties […] With it came a feeling of satisfaction in having a wife who could thus be content, and this satisfaction worked its natural result […] That is, since he imagined he saw her satisfied, he felt called upon to give only that which contributed to such satisfaction. (31.15)

Oh, Hurstwood—this one's going to come back to bite you. While there's nothing wrong with enjoying domestic tasks or expressing oneself through household duties, it's probably a bad idea to just go ahead and assume that about someone. Especially if that assumption is based on the fact that said person has the anatomical parts of a female. Just sayin'.