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The Old Mistress
The Old Lord is the male head of the House of Hwang. Like his wife, the Old Mistress, he represents the wealth and power that first frightens Wang Lung, and then becomes his goal. The Old Lord’s money comes from his family, so he’s never known life without endless supplies of it, and he spends it without a thought. This practice eventually contributes to his family’s ruinat. Wang Lung meets him only once, when he goes to the great house to buy land with the jewels that O-lan stole. By this time, the Old Lord and Cuckoo are the only people left in the house, and the Old Lord himself opens the gate that the gateman used to tend, showing how far he has fallen from his previous position. Furthermore, he’s completely controlled by Cuckoo and comes across as a pitiful, despicable character who proves that wealth is not necessarily permanent.
The Old Lord Quotes in The Good Earth
The The Good Earth quotes below are all either spoken by The Old Lord or refer to The Old Lord. 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:
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Chapter 5
Quotes
I had but a moment for private talk with the cook under whom I worked before... but she said, ‘This house cannot stand forever with all the young lords, five of them, spending money like waste water in foreign parts and sending home woman after woman as they weary of them, and the Old Lord living at home adding a concubine or two each year, and the Old Mistress eating enough opium every day to fill two shoes with gold.’
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Chapter 16
Quotes
But all this was not a sudden thing. All during the lifetime of the Old Lord and of his father the fall of this house has been coming. In the last generation the lords ceased to see the land and took the moneys the agents gave them and spent it carelessly as water. And in these generations the strength of the land has gone from them and bit by bit the land has begun to go also.
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The Old Lord Quotes in The Good Earth
The The Good Earth quotes below are all either spoken by The Old Lord or refer to The Old Lord. 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 5
Quotes
I had but a moment for private talk with the cook under whom I worked before... but she said, ‘This house cannot stand forever with all the young lords, five of them, spending money like waste water in foreign parts and sending home woman after woman as they weary of them, and the Old Lord living at home adding a concubine or two each year, and the Old Mistress eating enough opium every day to fill two shoes with gold.’
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Chapter 16
Quotes
But all this was not a sudden thing. All during the lifetime of the Old Lord and of his father the fall of this house has been coming. In the last generation the lords ceased to see the land and took the moneys the agents gave them and spent it carelessly as water. And in these generations the strength of the land has gone from them and bit by bit the land has begun to go also.
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