How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
'There, there.' He patted her on the shoulder. 'You must try to be sensible. Try to be modern. An intelligent woman like you. Leave motherhood to the lower orders, as nature intended.' (1.1.9)
Dr. Acheson tells Beatrice-Joanna that "nature" intends for lower-class citizens to do the job of bearing children; however, The Wanting Seed makes it clear that social expectations concerning reproduction and child-rearing aren't "natural"—they are fundamentally classed.
Quote #2
He was thirty-five and had been a schoolmaster for nearly fourteen years. He earned just over two hundred guineas a month but was hoping, since Newick's death, to be promoted to the headship of the Social Studies Department. That would mean a substantial increase in salary, which would mean a bigger flat, a better start in the world for young Roger. (1.2.8)
Overpopulation in Beatrice-Joanna and Tristram's world means that there isn't a lot of extra space to go around—especially in the cities. But, even so, it seems that the wealthiest and most powerful people in England are able to afford more space for themselves. This isn't a strictly egalitarian society: those with more, can afford more.
Quote #3
Even though she had no real standards of comparison, she was always, on each entrance, struck afresh and aghast by the exiguity of the living-space (standard for people of their income-group)—the box of a bedroom, kitchen-coffin, bathroom almost to be worked into like a dress. (1.7.2)
Although we've already been told that Tristram and Beatrice-Joanna's apartment isn't very big, this passage reveals just how uncomfortable and oppressively tiny it really is. If someone has to describe their living space as a "coffin," you know it's pretty bad.