How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I was the baby at fourteen to Anne's fifteen and George's nineteen years. We were the closest of kin and yet almost strangers. (2.90)
This line introduces us to the core of the Boleyn family, and to the time period when families didn't grow up together. They consider themselves close siblings even though some of them were raised on different continents. What accounts for their closeness?
Quote #2
"Oh, don't think I'm doing it for you. I am doing this for the advancement of the family." (4.20)
The Boleyns are expected to act not out of their own interests but in the interest of their family. Their family is more like a small political party than the Brady Bunch; they're the Boleyn super PAC. But how do politics and family relations really mesh? Is this a healthy thing?
Quote #3
"But she was my little girl." (9.37)
Throughout the book, we are told that girls are useless, especially when if they're in the royal family; Henry wants a male heir above anything else, after all. Mary, on the other hand, changes her mind when she has a daughter of her own. The bond between mother and daughter is unbreakable to her. Maybe it's partly because she understands from experience what her daughter will go through.