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Joseph Fenwick
Susannah Fenwick is Fenwick’s wife. She spends most of the play drunk, seemingly to cope with the constant belittlement and mistreatment her husband subjects her to. Though Susannah’s situation invites sympathy, she expresses her unhappiness with frequent dramatic outbursts and passive aggressive (albeit often humorous) comments directed at her husband. Susannah didn’t receive a formal education, and though she has a passion for literature and the arts, she’s not very interested in science, and so her husband doesn’t respect or take her seriously. Meanwhile, Susannah is resentful of how Fenwick’s scientific achievements blind his colleagues to his many faults, like the way he disregards his wife and daughters, the questionable ethics of some of his experiments, and the shallowness of his lofty, idealistic rhetoric about progress and human industry. Toward the end of the play, Susannah confronts Fenwick about disrespecting and not understanding her, and they have a productive, honest conversation that parallels Ellen and Tom’s conversation that takes place in the same house 200 years later. Though Fenwick initially resists Susannah’s criticisms, he ultimately acknowledges that he has mistreated her and failed to see her for who she really is (rather than the idealized version he has projected onto her for much of their marriage), and he seems to want to change his ways—which he demonstrates when he orders a shocked Harriet to obey her mother.
Susannah Fenwick Quotes in An Experiment with an Air Pump
The An Experiment with an Air Pump quotes below are all either spoken by Susannah Fenwick or refer to Susannah 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:
Act 1, Scene 1
Quotes
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
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 –
Act 2, Scene 3
Quotes
Susannah: I am full of feeling and passion and I am wedded to a dried cod.
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Susannah Fenwick Quotes in An Experiment with an Air Pump
The An Experiment with an Air Pump quotes below are all either spoken by Susannah Fenwick or refer to Susannah 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:
Act 1, Scene 1
Quotes
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
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 –
Act 2, Scene 3
Quotes
Susannah: I am full of feeling and passion and I am wedded to a dried cod.
