How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"He has never seemed to me a very sensible man," said Lady Mallinger, in excuse of herself. She had a secret objection to meeting Grandcourt, who was little else to her than a large living sign of what she felt to be her failure as a wife—the not having presented Sir Hugo with a son. (25.4)
We don't get to know Lady Mallinger extremely well, but one thing that we do know about her is that she feels bad for not bearing Sir Hugo a son (though modern science actually puts the blame on the dudes). Her concerns teach us all about the ways that Victorian society often privileged men and left women in the dust – even though Grandcourt is only Sir Hugo's cousin, he gets to inherit all of his property because he's a man.
Quote #8
Perhaps the person least complacently disposed towards [Grandcourt] at that moment was Lady Mallinger, to whom going in procession up this country-dance with Grandcourt was a blazonment of herself as the infelicitous wife who had produced nothing but daughters, little better than no children, poor dear things, except for her own fondness and for Sir Hugo's wonderful goodness to them. (36.81)
Lady Mallinger and her daughters are in a rough spot, because as soon as Sir Hugo dies, they'll be stuck having to kiss up to Grandcourt in order to make sure they have a home over their heads. Life for women in the Victorian era was not always tea parties and sunshine.
Quote #9
"Though my own experience has been quite different, I enter into the painfulness of your struggle. I can imagine the hardship of an enforced renunciation."
"No," said the Princess, shaking her head, and folding her arms with an air of decision. "You are not a woman. You may try—but you can never imagine what it is to have a man's force of genius in you, and yet to suffer the slavery of being a girl. To have a pattern cut out—'this is the Jewish woman; this is what you must be; this is what you are wanted for; a woman's heart must be of such a size and no larger, else it must be pressed small, like Chinese feet; her happiness is to be made as cakes are, by a fixed receipt.' That was what my father wanted. He wished I had been a son; he cared for me as a makeshift link. His heart was set on Judaism. He hated that Jewish women should be thought of by the Christian world as a sort of ware to make public singers and actresses of. As if we were not the more enviable for that! That is a chance of escaping from bondage." (51.35-36)
Sorry Dan, you can't relate to the choices women in your time have to make.