How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
In the streets of the city she noted for the first time the architecture of hurry, and heard the language of hurry on the mouths of its inhabitants--clipped words, formless sentences, potted expressions of approval or disgust. Month by month things were stepping livelier, but to what goal? The population still rose, but what was the quality of the men born? (13.3)
The "she" here is Margaret, and her observations about the kind of people she encounters in the streets of rapidly changing London are provocative. She wonders (and we wonder with her) what sort of people modern urban life is producing – they barely sound like humans at all, the way they're described here. What is this doing to the overall shape of British society?
Quote #5
He did not want Romance to collide with the Porphyrion, still less with Jacky, and people with fuller, happier lives are slow to understand this. To the Schlegels…he was an interesting creature, of whom they wanted to see more. But they to him were denizens of Romance, who must keep to the corner he had assigned them, pictures that must not walk out of their frames. (14.3)
The Schlegels mean a lot more to Leonard than he does to them – to him, they're symbols of a kind of life he's only glimpsed, but can never really experience. The social gulf between them is impossible to bridge from his perspective, looking up from the abyss of poverty, but to them, it doesn't seem that vast.
Quote #6
A short-frocked edition of Charles also regards them placidly; a perambulator edition is squeaking; a third edition is expected shortly. Nature is turning out Wilcoxes in this peaceful abode, so that they may inherit the earth. (21.3)
This comical, yet rather horrifying vision of the junior Wilcoxes demonstrates just what we've been learning all the way through the novel – society is paving the way for more Wilcoxes, and they're the upcoming, hardy business class that's going to survive in the twentieth century.