How we cite our quotes: Volume.Part.Chapter.Paragraph
Quote #1
"My sister is in her own room, nursing that essentially feminine malady, a slight headache." (1.1.6.8)
Whoa, dated. Marian is either being snarky here (we hope that's the case) or really believes that headaches are pretty much a chick thing.
Quote #2
Miss Fairlie plays delightfully. For my own poor part, I don't know one note of music from the other; but I can match you at chess, back-gammon, accurate, and (with the inevitable female drawbacks) even at billiards as well. (1.1.6.10)
Critics over the years have made a lot out of Marian's androgynous nature and her "masculine" traits, from her fondness for chess to her mustache (the Victorians obviously didn't have laser hair removal, deal with it). Marian really carves out a unique gender space for herself in the novel by mixing together feminine and masculine traits with aplomb.
Quote #3
"Crush it!" she said, "Here, where you first saw her, crush it! Don't shrink under it like a woman. Tear it out; trample it under foot like a man!" (1.1.10.43)
Marian gets downright scary here when she orders Walter to stop being a namby-pamby crybaby. The idea that men shouldn't express their emotions and should "control" them is a rather dangerous stereotype, though one that proliferated in the Victorian era for sure.