How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
Yeobright had enunciated the word "her" with a fervour which, in conversation with a mother, was absurdly indiscreet. Hardly a maternal heart within the four seas could, in such circumstances have helped being irritated at that ill-timed betrayal of feeling for a new woman. (3.3.141)
Apparently, the whole cliché of mothers-in-law who have it in for their daughters-in-law is a very old one. Stylistically, we see another good example of the narrator busting in with an aphorism about "maternal hearts," and we get a bit of humor as well when the narrator takes a pot shot at Clym's stupidly "indiscreet" statement.
Quote #11
It is the effect of marriage to engender in several directions some of the reserve it annihilates in one. (4.2.23)
This is one of the best assessments of marriage that we have in the entire book – there's an idea that marriage is a living entity and it "engenders" or grows in new directions even as it "annihilates" or cuts off others.
Quote #12
"Eustacia, didn't any tender thought of your own mother lead you to think of being gentle to mine at such a time of weariness? Did not one grain of pity enter your heart as she turned away?" (5.3.59)
This entire chapter, in which Clym and Eustacia have a huge fight, is really remarkable in terms of Clym's character – we get to hear him speak as he'd never spoken up to that point. Clym is eloquent and vicious. He displays a pettiness and a sense of malice that is kind of off-putting in places. Here we see how he speaks like an interrogator, asking a series of probing and mean questions.