How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
She dreads her lapses into pain and light and she suspects they are necessary. She has been free for quite some time now, for years. She knows how suddenly the headache can return but she discounts it in Leonard's presence, acts more firmly healthy than she sometimes feels. She will return to London. Better to die raving mad in London than evaporate in Richmond. (5.4)
Virginia Woolf's dislike for Richmond goes deeper than mere boredom: being stuck in the suburbs makes her feel like she's slowly disappearing from the world.
Quote #8
It seems possible (it does not seem impossible) that she's slipped across an invisible line, the line that has always separated her from what she would prefer to feel, who she would prefer to be. […] It seems she will be fine. She will not lose hope. She will not mourn her lost possibilities, her unexplored talents (what if she has no talents, after all?). She will remain devoted to her son, her husband, her home and duties, all her gifts. She will want this second child. (6.26)
What does Laura Brown's second child represent to her? Another responsibility, and another tie that tethers her to marriage and to motherhood. It isn't just the child that Laura doesn't want: it's the entire package of the life that goes with it.
Quote #9
The cake is less than she'd hoped it would be. She tries not to mind. It is only a cake, she tells herself. It is only a cake. (9.1)
Actually, it isn't only a cake. Laura Brown's disappointment with the cake she makes for her husband is just like the dissatisfaction she feels for her life in general. (Oooh, symbolism.) Laura dreamed of something "more" than what she has, and reality simply hasn't measured up.