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Mary
One of the upper-class women of Lyme. Mrs. Poulteney is generally known to be a horrible person who mistreats her servants and judges those around her by skewed religious standards. Her secret is that she believes in hell and fears she’ll go there when she dies. She hires Sarah as her companion as an act of charity that she hopes will help her get to heaven, but she’s cruel to Sarah. Mrs. Poulteney makes quite a show of her religious faith, but in truth her charity is largely an attempt to one-up Lady Cotton, who’s known for her good deeds. Mrs. Poulteney exemplifies the rotten hypocrisy of the Anglican Church, and the narrator seems to revel in depicting her descent to hell when she dies.
Mrs. Poulteney Quotes in The French Lieutenant’s Woman
The The French Lieutenant’s Woman quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Poulteney or refer to Mrs. Poulteney. 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 13
Quotes
In other words, to be free myself, I must give him [Charles], and Tina, and Sarah, even the abominable Mrs. Poulteney, their freedoms as well. There is only one good definition of God: the freedom that allows other freedoms to exist. And I must conform to that definition.
The novelist is still a god, since he creates...; what has changed is that we are no longer the gods of the Victorian image, omniscient and decreeing; but in the new theological image, with freedom our first principle, not authority.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
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Mrs. Poulteney Quotes in The French Lieutenant’s Woman
The The French Lieutenant’s Woman quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Poulteney or refer to Mrs. Poulteney. 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 13
Quotes
In other words, to be free myself, I must give him [Charles], and Tina, and Sarah, even the abominable Mrs. Poulteney, their freedoms as well. There is only one good definition of God: the freedom that allows other freedoms to exist. And I must conform to that definition.
The novelist is still a god, since he creates...; what has changed is that we are no longer the gods of the Victorian image, omniscient and decreeing; but in the new theological image, with freedom our first principle, not authority.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
