How we cite our quotes: (Volume.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
[Her] future life in the country parsonage, where her father and mother lived; and where her bright holidays had always been passed, though for the last ten years her aunt Shaw's house had been considered as her home. (1.1.3)
Margaret looks forward to going home to Helstone, even though she's spent the last ten years living in London with her fashionable cousin. She'll always think of Helstone as home, no matter where she goes.
Quote #2
This marring of the peace of home, by long hours of discontent, was what Margaret was unprepared for. (1.2.6)
Margaret is totally unprepared for any prolonged time of unhappiness in her home. Growing up, she always thought of Helstone as a place of uninterrupted happiness. But now things are different, and Margaret has to cope with the adult world of dissatisfaction and regret.
Quote #3
[Frederick's] room was kept exactly as he had left it; and was regularly dusted, and put into order by Dixon. (1.2.15)
You can tell that Helstone exists in some sort of time warp for the Hale family. For starters, the village is inhabited by a bunch of villagers who probably still live they way people did a hundred years earlier. On top of that, the Hales try to keep their exiled son's bedroom exactly as it was when he left. On a symbolic level, this suggests that they're not able to move on and let go of the past.
Quote #4
"I shall never see Helstone again […] While I was there, I was for ever wanting to leave it. Every place seemed pleasanter. And now I shall die far away from it. I am rightly punished." (1.16.38)
Mrs. Hale is the first to admit that you just don't know what you've got 'til it's gone. (Cue the Joni Mitchell.) Mrs. Hale has spent nearly her whole married life complaining about Helstone. But now the place feels like paradise compared to her new home in Milton.
Quote #5
[Letters] had come, making her dwell on the thoughts of home with all the longing of love. Helstone, itself, was in the dim past. (1.21.36)
Since moving to Milton, Margaret can't get past her fond memories of Helstone. She yearns to get back there someday, although it's unlikely that she'll ever call the place home again. She doesn't realize it yet, but this is all an important part of growing up for her.
Quote #6
"I remember eating sloes and crabs with a relish. Do you remember the matted-up currant bushes, Margaret, at the corner of the west-wall in the garden at home?" (2.2.27)
Margaret is doing her best to move on and make a new home in Milton. But even her dad can't stop reminiscing about how great their life used to be when they lived in Helstone village. It's like he can taste the apples and berries that used to grow around their old home.
Quote #7
Did she not? Did she not remember every weather-stain on the old stone wall; the gray and yellow lichens that marked it like a map; the little crane's-bill that grew in the crevices?" (2.2.28)
And of course Margaret remembers every last detail of her house back in Helstone. She even remembers the weather stains on an old stone wall. That may sound obsessive, but how could she forget, considering that Helstone was the last place her family was happy?
Quote #8
"I go there every four or five years—and I was born there—yet I do assure you, I often lose my way—aye, among the very piles of warehouses that are built upon my father's orchard." (2.19.64)
Mr. Bell, Margaret's family friend, was born in the town of Milton. But unlike Helstone, Milton has completely changed since he was a little boy. Where there used to be farms and meadows, there are now factories and shops. It's pretty clear too that he doesn't like the change.
Quote #9
"I am going down to Helstone to-morrow, to look at the old place. Would you like to come with me? Or would it give you too much pain?" (2.20.6)
Mr. Bell knows that returning to Helstone might cause Margaret some pain, especially since she hasn't been back since she lived there in peace with her parents. Her parents are dead now, and some other family has moved into her old house. It's all very sad, since for Margaret, home is supposed to a something stable and unchanging. But alas, things have changed so much since she left Helstone.
Quote #10
"It hurt her to see Helstone road so flooded in the sun-light, and every turn and every familiar tree so precisely the same in its summer glory as it had been in former years. Nature felt no change, and was ever young." (2.21.1)
When she finally returns to her home in Helstone, Margaret is trouble by two things: how much the place has changed and how much it hasn't. Nature, on the one hand, hasn't changed at all. But some of the people Margaret used to know are now dead, including her mother and father, and it's sad to think that her old home is now barely recognizable.