How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Clara loved presents, but she dreaded the ceremony of opening them. It was ill-bred to show too much excitement, but if she wasn't grateful enough, she ran the risk of hurting her mother's feelings. Clara thrust the thought aside. This year she would do everything exactly right. (1.2)
Being a young lady is a total drag when you're not even allowed to act excited when opening your birthday gifts. Clara has to make sure that she reacts to everything just right, which is both difficult and confusing.
Quote #2
It was a beautiful dress, but childish; next year, when she was thirteen, she would wear longer skirts and a whalebone corset. Clara wasn't looking forward to that. Her present clothes were constrictive enough. (1.6)
Clara isn't just restricted in what she does and says—she's also restricted in how she moves because her clothes are so stiff. How is she supposed to enjoy herself or play like a normal kid if she has to wear a whalebone corset?
Quote #3
Most of the time when she eavesdropped, she heard about how spoiled she was. She supposed it was true. She made extra work for the servants, and her parents cosseted her, worrying endlessly about her health. Her father inspected the nursery weekly, using his pocket handkerchief to check for drafts, and the nursery fire was kept burning even in the summer. Clara's birthday frock had been made by the finest dressmaker in London, and she knew her presents would be many and expensive. (1.22)
There's no doubt about it: Clara comes from a pretty loaded family. Her parents lavish her with gifts and pretty things, but at the end of the day, their affection is withheld. That's tougher for her than not getting all of the material belongings she wants.
Quote #4
Agnes's mouth twisted. At Clara's age, Agnes had been a scullery maid. She saw no romance in earning a living. "You know that's wrong, miss. Your mother wouldn't like it a bit. And what would your little friends think, having to take tea with common children like those Greaseenies?" (1.50)
Clara thinks that it must be so exciting and romantic for children to work for their living—like Lizzie Rose and Parsefall do—but that's because she's never had to work a day in her life. If she did, she'd probably understand how hard and exhausting it is.
Quote #5
Whoever lived here had money enough for fires in every room, and an army of housemaids to stoke them. Lizzie Rose tried to imagine what it would be like to live year-round in a house like this one, with ample coal in winter and a garden in the spring. (2.18)
When Lizzie Rose first shows up at the Wintermute home, she can't even imagine what it would be like to live in such a grand house. The idea of being warm all of the time and having enough to eat is incredible to her.
Quote #6
Then Miss Cameron turned on Clara. "What on earth possessed you? How could you laugh in such an unladylike manner?"
"I don't know," said Clara.
Miss Cameron's frown deepened. "Skeletons and cemeteries—! And in a house of mourning! Nothing could be in worse taste!" (4.22-24)
Poor Clara gets sent to bed without dinner on her birthday because she doesn't behave in a ladylike fashion during the puppet show. She doesn't ever get a break from acting like a young lady—she always has to be on her best behavior, no matter what.
Quote #7
What Lizzie Rose called her bedroom was in fact nothing of the kind. Grisini's lodgings consisted of two rooms: his private bedroom, and a large parlor. Parsefall slept in a nest of blankets before the parlor fire. When Lizzie Rose joined the household, Grisini—with the air of one offering the jewels of the Orient—purchased a straw mattress and invited her to share the hearth with Parsefall. (8.10)
Lizzie Rose and Parsefall live in circumstances quite different from those of Clara Wintermute. They don't even get their own rooms or nice mattresses, and they're lucky if there's a fire to warm them at all.
Quote #8
It was a mistake. Lizzie Rose raised her chin and reproached him with her eyes. "No, thank you, sir. That isn't what I came for." She gave the leashes a jerk, gathering the dogs into a pack. "Good evening, sir." And by the time the constable had found the appropriate coin, she had gone, her dignity hampered but not overcome by her retinue of unmanageable dogs. (11.25)
Lizzie Rose may be just a poor orphan, but that doesn't mean she'll act like a street urchin. When the policeman offers her money in exchange for information, she refuses, choosing to hang on to her dignity instead.
Quote #9
Lizzie Rose clasped the letter to her breast. She felt as if she were living in a play. In the theater, legacies arrived during the fifth act, when everything was at its worst. Some offstage person would die, clearing the pathway for a happy ending. A legacy meant rescue, luxury, and the promise of happiness. (24.13)
When Cassandra writes the letter to Lizzie Rose and Parsefall, she knows it will be irresistible. After all, these are poor orphans without many opportunities in life—they are delighted by the idea of being rich and well fed.
Quote #10
"But Lizzie Rose can be a lady," Clara said coaxingly, "because she's going to inherit Strachan's Ghyll. Madama—the woman who lives here—is going to leave her estate to Parsefall and Lizzie Rose. So Lizzie Rose will be an heiress, and we can have lessons together from Miss Cameron. And Parsefall will work during the day, but he'll come home every evening, so we can be together." (50.71)
All of Lizzie Rose's practicing of good manners and proper speech pays off in the end when she comes to live with the Wintermutes. Now, she'll be seen as a real lady by everyone instead of just by herself.