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Harry Carson
Esther is sister to Mrs. Barton, sister-in-law to John Barton, and aunt to Mary Barton. A pretty, strong-willed factory worker, Esther “disappears” when Mary is 13 years old. In fact, Esther has run off with an army officer who has promised to marry her. The army officer doesn’t marry Esther but does impregnate her. After three years of cohabitation, the officer abandons Esther when he is stationed abroad in Ireland. Eventually impoverished, Esther turns to sex work to buy medicine when her daughter gets sick. Her daughter dies anyway. Esther, poor and devastated, becomes a homeless alcoholic sex worker. She moves back to Manchester and spies on her family from afar. When she learns of Mary’s flirtation with Harry Carson, she becomes convinced that Harry will “ruin” Mary as the army officer “ruined” Esther herself. Esther approaches John Barton to warn him, but John—who blames the shock of Esther’s disappearance for Mrs. Barton’s subsequent death in childbirth—refuses to listen to her. Esther then approaches Jem. After Jem is arrested for Harry’s murder, Esther goes to the scene of the crime, finds the wadded shot used in the gun, and brings it to Mary rather than the police. Mary, who realizes that the wadded shot could prove her father John was the murderer, burns it. Esther subsequently vanishes, appearing only at the novel’s end, delirious and confused, to die in Mary’s home.
Esther Quotes in Mary Barton
The Mary Barton quotes below are all either spoken by Esther or refer to Esther. 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:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
“Not but what beauty is a sad snare. Here was Esther so puffed up that there was no holding her in.”
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Chapter 3
Quotes
So with this consciousness she had early determined that her beauty should make her a lady; the rank she coveted the more for her father’s abuse; the rank at which she firmly believed her lost Aunt Esther had arrived.
Chapter 10
Quotes
“How can I keep her from being such a one as I am; such a wretched, loathsome creature! She was listening just as I listened, and loving just as I loved, and the end will be just like my end. How shall I save her?”
Chapter 11
Quotes
What were these hollow vanities to her, now that she had discovered the passionate secret of her soul? She felt as if she almost hated Mr Carson, who had decoyed her with his baubles. […] She had hitherto been walking in grope-light toward a precipice; but in the clear revelation of that past hour she saw her danger, and turned away resolutely and for ever.
Chapter 14
Quotes
To whom shall the outcast prostitute tell her tale? Who will give her help in the day of need? Hers is a leper sin, and all stand aloof dreading to be counted unclean.
Chapter 22
Quotes
The corner of stiff, shining, thick, writing paper she recognised as a part of the sheet on which she had copied Samuel Bamford’s beautiful lines so many months ago—copied (as you perhaps remember) on the blank part of a valentine sent to her by Jem Wilson, in those days when she did not treasure and hoard up everything he had touched, as she would do now.
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Esther Quotes in Mary Barton
The Mary Barton quotes below are all either spoken by Esther or refer to Esther. 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:
).
Chapter 1
Quotes
“Not but what beauty is a sad snare. Here was Esther so puffed up that there was no holding her in.”
Related Characters:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 3
Quotes
So with this consciousness she had early determined that her beauty should make her a lady; the rank she coveted the more for her father’s abuse; the rank at which she firmly believed her lost Aunt Esther had arrived.
Chapter 10
Quotes
“How can I keep her from being such a one as I am; such a wretched, loathsome creature! She was listening just as I listened, and loving just as I loved, and the end will be just like my end. How shall I save her?”
Chapter 11
Quotes
What were these hollow vanities to her, now that she had discovered the passionate secret of her soul? She felt as if she almost hated Mr Carson, who had decoyed her with his baubles. […] She had hitherto been walking in grope-light toward a precipice; but in the clear revelation of that past hour she saw her danger, and turned away resolutely and for ever.
Chapter 14
Quotes
To whom shall the outcast prostitute tell her tale? Who will give her help in the day of need? Hers is a leper sin, and all stand aloof dreading to be counted unclean.
Chapter 22
Quotes
The corner of stiff, shining, thick, writing paper she recognised as a part of the sheet on which she had copied Samuel Bamford’s beautiful lines so many months ago—copied (as you perhaps remember) on the blank part of a valentine sent to her by Jem Wilson, in those days when she did not treasure and hoard up everything he had touched, as she would do now.
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