Year of Wonders Chapter 3 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
"If God saw fit to send this scourge, I believe it would be His will that one faces it where one was, with courage and thus contain its evil." (2.3.48)
Not everyone thinks that suffering is a bad thing. Mompellion, true to his Puritan belief system, sees suffering as God's way of testing his people. If that's so, then consider the plague God's equivalent to the MCAT. You've got to study hard for that sucker.
Quote 2
She was a rare creature, Anys Gowdie, and I had to own that I admired her for listening to her own heart rather than having her life ruled by others' conventions. (2.3.25)
Anys refuses to accept the constraints society places on her, especially where gender is concerned. In fact, she's one of Anna's key inspirations in her quest for personal self-discovery, a quest that eventually allows her to redefine her own womanhood outside of sexist limitations. That's a pretty big win, in our book.
Quote 3
But more than her delicate beauty, Colonel Bradford appreciated her substantial connections. (2.3.40)
In other words, Colonel Bradford is a gold digger: he ain't messin' with no broke Puritans. As long as his lady will help advance his social status, he's going to put a ring on it every time.
Quote 4
"And I suppose you need to know whether I lay with George," Anys declared [...]. "Of course I did. He was too young and handsome to have to slake his fires with his fist." (2.3.20)
Unlike Anna, Anys has no hesitations about sex. She's also a pro at making up hilarious euphemisms, if this passage is any indication. Because of her free-spirited nature, Anys becomes a big inspiration to Anna as she struggles against her own repressed desires and redefines her sense of femininity in the process.
Quote 5
"We do not even know the name of the wise woman who first laid out these beds, but the garden thrived here long before we came to tend it, and it will go on long after we depart." (2.3.11)
Anys portrays herself as part of a long line of herb-loving medicine women. We're not sure how literally we're supposed to take this idea, but it certainly provides a powerful symbol of her rejection of gender roles. Anys and Mem both defy their society's expectations for them, and as a result, they have formed a very different type of community outside its walls.
Quote 6
"Why would I marry? [...] I have something very few women can claim: my freedom." (2.3.24)
In another example of her forward-thinking ways, Anys sees marriage as a property arrangement that benefits men yet subjugates women. How does that benefit her? Well, if you ask her, it doesn't.
Quote 7
I saw them that afternoon through Anys's eyes: shackled to their menfolk as surely as the plough-horse to the shares. (2.3.26)
The more time Anna spends with Anys, the more she leans toward her friend's perspective. Why should she repress her sexuality? Why should she expect some man to take care of her? Anna reckons with these questions in an intimate way.
Quote 8
Dark and light, dark and light, dark and light. That was how I had been taught to view the world. (2.3.25)
Although Anna isn't a Puritan, she was raised around enough of them to internalize their value system. They believe in absolute morality: the idea that there is only right and wrong, and nothing in between.