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Harriet Fenwick
Maria Fenwick is the daughter of Fenwick and Susannah. She is sweet and demure but rather naïve, especially compared to her outspoken twin sister, Harriet. Also unlike Harriet, Maria isn’t interested in science—or much of anything, it seems. She has a fiancé, Edward, who is stationed in India (at the time the play takes place, England had a colonial presence in India) on unspecified business. During scene changes, Maria walks onstage and reads aloud from her and Edward’s correspondence. Edward’s early letters are filled with romantic declarations of love and desire for Maria and for his native England. As time, passes, though, Edward’s letters become increasingly impersonal—and filled with references to a Miss Cholmondeley, a woman he meets in India. Though it’s painfully obvious to Harriet (and to the audience) that Edward has begun a romance with Miss Cholmondeley, naïve Maria remains oblivious to this until Edward slips up and mistakenly calls Maria’s eye’s blue—the color of Miss Cholmondeley’s eyes. Following this devastating revelation, Maria releases the anger and emotion she has kept suppressed all her life and orders Edward never to contact her again.
Maria Fenwick Quotes in An Experiment with an Air Pump
The An Experiment with an Air Pump quotes below are all either spoken by Maria Fenwick or refer to Maria Fenwick. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Prologue
Quotes
Susannah: Maria, show a little faith, your father would never conduct an experiment unless he was quite sure of the outcome, isn’t that so?
Fenwick: You haven’t quite grasped the subtlety of the word ‘experiment’, Susannah –
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Armstrong: This goes to prove the point I made earlier, sir: Keep infants away from the fireplace and women away from science.
Act 1, Scene 1
Quotes
But does an idyll have its basis in reality?
Harriet: Primarily because you’re playing a sheep. And besides, some people are not meant to say anything of consequence. As in life, so in a play. Certain rules must be obeyed. And one of them is you stick to your own lines. You can’t swap them round as it takes your fancy. Think of the chaos. Think of the audience.
Act 2, Scene 1
Quotes
Maria: Papa, Edward thinks my eyes are blue, he said so in a letter, and Harriet says this is because he’s a complete fool and that she never liked him anyway, but I think, perhaps he has a tropical fever and his mind is wandering or perhaps he meant brown but wrote blue –
Harriet: The future’s ours, these chimneys belch out hope,
These furnaces forge dreams as well as wealth.
Great minds conspire to cast an Eden here
From Iron, and steam bends nature to our will –
Get the entire An Experiment with an Air Pump LitChart as a printable PDF.
Maria Fenwick Quotes in An Experiment with an Air Pump
The An Experiment with an Air Pump quotes below are all either spoken by Maria Fenwick or refer to Maria Fenwick. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Prologue
Quotes
Susannah: Maria, show a little faith, your father would never conduct an experiment unless he was quite sure of the outcome, isn’t that so?
Fenwick: You haven’t quite grasped the subtlety of the word ‘experiment’, Susannah –
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Armstrong: This goes to prove the point I made earlier, sir: Keep infants away from the fireplace and women away from science.
Act 1, Scene 1
Quotes
But does an idyll have its basis in reality?
Harriet: Primarily because you’re playing a sheep. And besides, some people are not meant to say anything of consequence. As in life, so in a play. Certain rules must be obeyed. And one of them is you stick to your own lines. You can’t swap them round as it takes your fancy. Think of the chaos. Think of the audience.
Act 2, Scene 1
Quotes
Maria: Papa, Edward thinks my eyes are blue, he said so in a letter, and Harriet says this is because he’s a complete fool and that she never liked him anyway, but I think, perhaps he has a tropical fever and his mind is wandering or perhaps he meant brown but wrote blue –
Harriet: The future’s ours, these chimneys belch out hope,
These furnaces forge dreams as well as wealth.
Great minds conspire to cast an Eden here
From Iron, and steam bends nature to our will –
