Splendors and Glooms Transformation Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #1

None of this showed on his face. Like Clara, Thomas Wintermute could make his countenance a mask. He regarded Miss Cameron with a look of courteous interest. "What is the matter, Miss Cameron?" (6.3)

Clara and Dr. Wintermute have both gotten really good at transforming their faces so that they reveal none of their inner emotions. After living in a house of mourning for so long, sometimes it's necessary to hide what they're thinking, especially if they're tired of all the grief and crying.

Quote #2

Clara slept. Never in her life had she known so dense a sleep, a sleep without dreaming without the slightest twitch of finger or eyelid. She was as lifeless as a pressed flower. If she had been awake, she could not have said whether her eyes were open or shut. Her mind was empty, freed from guilt and terror and grief. (9.44)

Clara doesn't yet know what has happened to her—she doesn't even know where she is. That's a good thing because there will be plenty of time for freaking out when she wakes up and realizes that she's now an inanimate puppet.

Quote #3

Her anguish over Clara's disappearance had been so great that he had feared for her reason. Then the letter arrived. The dazzling, improbable hope that Clara might be ransomed had changed Ada into a woman he had never seen. Her eyes were tearless; she was charged with energy and decision. There was only one thing to do, she stated: get the money and pay the ransom. (12.8)

For years now, Mrs. Wintermute has been a hysterical, crying mess. But when the ransom note about Clara comes, she somehow gets stronger, perhaps because she has something to focus on now. She has a task that needs to be completed.