How we cite our quotes: (Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Madame Aubain had married a handsome but penniless young man, who had died at the beginning of 1809, leaving her with two very young children and a mountain of debts. (1.3)
Everyone's life is marked by death in this story, including Madame Aubain's. We never meet her late husband, but his influence reigns in the household. This is partly because those mountains of debt meant that Madame Aubain had to sell everything and move into a smaller house.
Quote #2
Her father, a mason, had died in a fall from some scaffolding. Then her mother died, her sisters scattered, and a farmer took her in and employed her, small as she was, to look after the cows in the fields. (2.2)
Félicité's young life is full of death. Her father dies as a result of his job as a manual laborer (and these were long before the days of worker's comp) and her mother also dies for an unknown reason. It's these two original deaths that determine the difficulties that Félicité and her sisters will experience for the rest of their lives.
Quote #3
At first, she lived in a state of anxiety induced by the 'style of the house', where the memory of 'Monsieur' hung over everything! (2.18)
Monsieur is Madame Aubain's late husband, and she seems to be holding on to him even though he's long dead. She doesn't allow anything in the house to be changed, and even keeps a portrait of him in her bedroom. Maybe his memory makes her feel like she still has status as a widow.