How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Her muscles locked. For almost a minute, she stood frozen. Once the stone was destroyed, she would be powerless. She was old, and soon she would die. She knew she would die alone. But not by fire. And she would die without asking for help from Grisini. That one humiliation she would be spared. (P.24)
The phoenix-stone is killing Cassandra, but she's still reluctant to relinquish it because she knows that once it's gone, she'll probably die of old age. It's just that she doesn't want to die in the way the other women have—in a painful, fiery blaze. Yeah, us neither.
Quote #2
"There was cholera." Clara spoke hurriedly, as if eager to get the explanation over with. "Quentin was just a baby. That's Selina by the column—she was the eldest. She was seven, and Adelaide was six, and Charles Augustus and I were five. He was my twin." She hesitated a moment and plunged on. "Papa thinks the contagion was in the watercress. I was naughty that day. I've never liked eating green things, and I wouldn't eat the watercress at tea. So I wasn't ill, but the others died." (3.34)
Even though she was only five at the time, Clara remembers clearly what happened to her siblings and how they all died. What a traumatic thing for a little girl to carry around for more than half of her life.
Quote #3
"They take plaster," Clara said very calmly, "and press it over the—the dear one's face. And then later take more plaster and make a mask. That way—" She stopped and covered her mouth with her hand. She did not seem grief stricken so much as embarrassed.
Parsefall's eyes went back to the four white casts. "That's nasty," he said. "Stickin' plaster on somebody's face wot's dead. It's 'orrible." (3.39-40)
It's clear that the Wintermutes aren't going to let their deceased children be forgotten anytime soon. They have reminders of them everywhere, which is disturbing to Parsefall when he enters their grand home.
Quote #4
Against an ivory background was a weeping willow tree, less than an inch high. Each branch and front was fashioned from snippets of human hair. "Ah, so this is for mourning! The hair is from your dead brothers and sisters, I suppose." (5.26)
What a terrible birthday gift. Instead of giving her daughter something fun or pretty, Clara's mother gives her a locket with the hair of all of her dead siblings inside. It's a morbid reminder that she's lucky to be alive.
Quote #5
"He would have been twelve years old today. We went to Kensal Green, the way we always do, because it was his birthday, and we went in the mausoleum and cried." She spoke the last word flatly; crying was an essential part of the outing. "I hate the mausoleum. I hate seeing the caskets and the space on the shelf next to Charles Augustus—I hate looking at it and thinking that I should have to lie there one day, all dark and dead and cold." (6.28)
It's impossible for Clara to move on from her siblings' deaths when she's constantly being forced to go to the cemetery and cry over them. She can't help but think that she must belong there, too.
Quote #6
"No, is 'e?" Parsefall took the photograph and peered at it narrowly. "I didn't look that close. I thought 'e was sleepin'. He's a real little swell, ain't he?"
Lizzie Rose frowned at him. "You shouldn't call him a swell now he's dead."
"It ain't my fault 'e's dead," Parsefall said, stung. "They're all dead in that family." (10.29-31)
Lizzie Rose is absolutely horrified that Parsefall stole a picture of Charles Augustus … from after he'd died. The Victorians really knew how to creepily remember the dead, didn't they?
Quote #7
Dr. Wintermute sat on the center platform, which had been erected for himself and his wife. One day, they would lie together in peace, surrounded by the children they had lost. Four of his children were already entombed here; whenever he turned his head, he saw the caskets that held their mortal remains. (12.2)
The mausoleum is a horrible place for Dr. Wintermute to pass off the ransom money because he can't help but think about his own mortality, his dead children, and whether or not Clara is still alive. What a mean place for Grisini to choose.
Quote #8
"Yes. Perhaps that was a mistake." He knew he was on dangerous ground, but he went on. "I have sometimes thought that it made Clara unhappy to visit Kensal Green every Christmas. I've often wondered if we mourned our dead children at the expense of the one who lived—" (40.11)
Dr. Wintermute realizes they've been focusing way too much on their dead children and not enough on their living daughter. They really need to figure out a way to come out of this mourning period as a family and start letting themselves experience joy and happiness.
Quote #9
Grisini screamed. He swayed back and forth like a falling tree, his arms flailing. The ice beneath him shattered and gave way. There was a loud splash. (46.26)
Throughout the book, Grisini is super smug and convinced that no one can touch him—but in the end, it's a little girl who spells his demise. When he chases after Clara, he ends up falling through the ice and drowning to death. Good riddance.
Quote #10
He couldn't cure her. Even as she clung to life, Cassandra understood that. Her body was failing. At intervals, her old nightmares returned to mock her. She cowered inside a ring of flames: scarlet and yellow and green and blue. She screamed and thrashed with terror until the doctor came and held her, murmuring nonsense, as if she were a sick child. (51.3)
Now that the phoenix-stone has been destroyed, Cassandra knows that life is leaving her. She still dreams about the stone, but she knows that she won't die in a fire like she feared. She'll die of old age and sickness, just like a normal woman.