How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Young women drawn to Chicago by the fair and by the prospect of living on their own had disappeared, last seen at the killer's block-long mansion, a parody of everything architects held dear. (Prologue.9)
Chicago was a place women could go to live and work on their own, and Holmes' castle offered these very opportunities. Unfortunately, the dude had other motives, and some women checked in—but never checked out.
Quote #2
Jane Addams, the urban reformer who founded Chicago's Hull House, wrote, "Never before in civilization have such numbers of young girls been suddenly released from the protection of the home and permitted to walk unattended upon the city streets and to work under alien roofs." (1.1.1)
In this modern era, women sought jobs as typists, stenographers, and seamstresses. They were making a living for themselves and experiencing freedoms before the women's rights movement really got under way.
Quote #3
It amused him that women as a class were so wonderfully vulnerable, as if they believed that the codes of conduct that applied in their safe little hometowns, like Alva, Clinton, and Percy, might actually still apply once they had left behind their dusty, kerosene-scented parlors and set out on their own. (1.5.1)
Holmes definitely takes advantage of some women's naïveté. They're in the big leagues now, and cities aren't like small towns.
Quote #4
Holmes knew he possessed great power over Julia. First there was the power that accrued to him naturally through his ability to bewitch men and women alike with false candor and warmth. (2.4.2)
Holmes is the ultimate ladies' man. He's attractive, super rich, and has a neat display of torturous surgical tools. What more could a girl want?
Quote #5
And this was Chicago. Things were different here, less rigid and formal. Everywhere [Minnie] went she found women her own age, unescorted, holding jobs, living their own lives. (2.12.18)
While women like Minnie are attracted to the prospect of living and working alone, they're also drawn to the personal freedoms the city offers.
Quote #6
Holmes was warm and charming and talkative and touched them with a familiarity that, while perhaps offensive back home, somehow seemed all right in this new world of Chicago—just another aspect of the great adventure on which these women had embarked. And what good was an adventure if it did not feel a little dangerous? (3.2.11)
Is Holmes violating the rules of personal space? That's okay: this must be what people do in Chicago. It's normal here, right?