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Marriage Quote by Angela Carter

“She was a Victorian girl; a girl of the days when men were hard and top-hatted and masculine and ruthless and girls were gentle and meek and did a great deal of sewing and looked after the poor and laid their tender napes beneath a husband’s booted foot, and even if he brought home cabfuls of…” quote by Angela Carter
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““She was a Victorian girl; a girl of the days when men were hard and top-hatted and masculine and ruthless and girls were gentle and meek and did a great deal of sewing and looked after the poor and laid their tender napes beneath a husband’s booted foot, and even if he brought home cabfuls of half-naked chorus girls and had them dance on the rich round mahogany dining-table (rosily reflecting great pearly hams and bums in its polished depths). Or, drunk to a frenzy, raped the kitchen-maid before the morning assembly of servants and children and her black silk-dressed self (gathered for prayers). Or forced her to stitch, on shirts, her fingers to rags to pay his gambling debts. Husbands were a force of nature or an act of God; like an earthquake or the dreaded consumption, to be borne with, to be meekly acquiesced to, to be impregnated by as frequently as Nature would allow. It took the mindless persistence, the dogged imbecility of the grey tides, to love a husband.””

Angela Carter

About This Quote

Source Novel: The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter, 1979

The passage sat the oppressive, violent, and misogynistic expectations placed on Victorian women, depicting marriage as a brutal institution that demands submission and endurance.

In simple terms: Victorian women faced harsh, abusive marital expectations.

Key Takeaway

Recognize and challenge systemic gender oppression.

Themes

gender oppression marriage victorian society violence power dynamics

Mood

somber critical reflective

Type

literary feminist historical

When to use this quote

  • historical analysis
  • feminist critique
  • literary study
  • social justice advocacy

Key Concepts

patriarchy domestic abuse social control gender roles

Questions to Reflect On

  • How do modern narratives reinterpret Victorian gender norms?
  • What forms of resistance can arise under oppressive systems?
A Different Perspective

The depiction may overlook women's agency and resistance within such constraints.

4.3 out of 5 (9 ratings)

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