The Queen’s Gambit

by

Walter Tevis

Mrs. Deardorff is the director at the Methuen orphanage. Beth describes her as strict and a bully at the school. If a child breaks the rules, the staff tells Mrs. Deardorff, and it is less likely that the child will be adopted. When Beth becomes addicted to the tranquilizers she was given at the school, Mrs. Deardorff punishes her, but Beth criticizes the staff for giving her the tranquilizers in the first place. Mrs. Deardorff then prevents Beth from continuing to play chess despite her talent for it, which Beth resents later in her life.

Mrs. Deardorff Quotes in The Queen’s Gambit

The The Queen’s Gambit quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Deardorff or refer to Mrs. Deardorff. 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:
Talent, Ambition, Dedication, and Success Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

She grew frantic. They would miss her at the movie. Fergussen would be looking for her. The projector would break down and all the children would be sent into the Multi-Purpose Room, with Fergussen monitoring them, and here she would be. But deeper than that, she felt trapped, the same wretched, heart-stopping sensation she had felt when she was taken from home and put in this institution and made to sleep in a ward with twenty strangers and hear noises all night long that were, in a way, as bad as the shouting at home, when Daddy and Mother were there—the shouting from the brightly lit kitchen.

Related Characters: Beth Harmon, Mrs. Deardorff, Mr. Fergussen, Beth’s Mother, Beth’s Father
Related Symbols: Pills/Alcohol
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:

Mrs. Deardorff kept her waiting almost an hour. Beth didn’t care. She read in National Geographic about a tribe of Indians who lived in the holes of cliffs. Brown people with black hair and bad teeth. In the pictures there were children everywhere, often snuggled up against the older people. It was all strange; she had never been touched very much by older people, except for punishment. She did not let herself think about Mrs. Deardorff’s razor strop. If Deardorff was going to use it, she could take it. Somehow she sensed that what she had been caught doing was of a magnitude beyond usual punishment. And, deeper than that, she was aware of the complicity of the orphanage that had fed her and all the others on pills that would make them less restless, easier to deal with.

Related Characters: Beth Harmon, Mrs. Deardorff
Related Symbols: Pills/Alcohol
Page Number: 36
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

The horrible feeling, at the bottom of the anger and fear, was that she was the weaker player—that Benny Watts knew more about chess than she did and could play it better. It was a new feeling for her, and it seemed to bind and restrict her as she had not been bound and restricted since the last time she sat in Mrs. Deardorff’s office.

Related Characters: Beth Harmon, Benny Watts, Harry Beltik, Mrs. Deardorff
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Queen’s Gambit PDF

Mrs. Deardorff Quotes in The Queen’s Gambit

The The Queen’s Gambit quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Deardorff or refer to Mrs. Deardorff. 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:
Talent, Ambition, Dedication, and Success Theme Icon
).
Chapter 2 Quotes

She grew frantic. They would miss her at the movie. Fergussen would be looking for her. The projector would break down and all the children would be sent into the Multi-Purpose Room, with Fergussen monitoring them, and here she would be. But deeper than that, she felt trapped, the same wretched, heart-stopping sensation she had felt when she was taken from home and put in this institution and made to sleep in a ward with twenty strangers and hear noises all night long that were, in a way, as bad as the shouting at home, when Daddy and Mother were there—the shouting from the brightly lit kitchen.

Related Characters: Beth Harmon, Mrs. Deardorff, Mr. Fergussen, Beth’s Mother, Beth’s Father
Related Symbols: Pills/Alcohol
Page Number: 33
Explanation and Analysis:

Mrs. Deardorff kept her waiting almost an hour. Beth didn’t care. She read in National Geographic about a tribe of Indians who lived in the holes of cliffs. Brown people with black hair and bad teeth. In the pictures there were children everywhere, often snuggled up against the older people. It was all strange; she had never been touched very much by older people, except for punishment. She did not let herself think about Mrs. Deardorff’s razor strop. If Deardorff was going to use it, she could take it. Somehow she sensed that what she had been caught doing was of a magnitude beyond usual punishment. And, deeper than that, she was aware of the complicity of the orphanage that had fed her and all the others on pills that would make them less restless, easier to deal with.

Related Characters: Beth Harmon, Mrs. Deardorff
Related Symbols: Pills/Alcohol
Page Number: 36
Explanation and Analysis:
Chapter 6 Quotes

The horrible feeling, at the bottom of the anger and fear, was that she was the weaker player—that Benny Watts knew more about chess than she did and could play it better. It was a new feeling for her, and it seemed to bind and restrict her as she had not been bound and restricted since the last time she sat in Mrs. Deardorff’s office.

Related Characters: Beth Harmon, Benny Watts, Harry Beltik, Mrs. Deardorff
Page Number: 104
Explanation and Analysis: