“Ah! Poverty is a weary thing!
It burdeneth the brain,
It maketh even the little child
To murmur and complain.”
Southworth uses this quote to begin Chapter VI. This chapter is about Capitola telling Old Hurricane about how she was brought up in Rag Alley and her sad story of how she had to survive on her own at a very young age. She talks about how she couldn’t earn money as a girl in the city so pretended to be a boy just so she could survive. “Bread was too dear! I sold my clothes. Piece by piece, to the old Jew over the way and bough corn-meal and picked up trash to make a fire and cooked a little must every day in an old tin can that had been left behind,” sad Capitola on page 182. The quote Southworth chose to open the chapter with is about poverty and talks about the impact it can have on a child, which is exactly what Capitola is explaining to Old Hurricane and how it shaped her to be the woman she is today.
“Bid her address her prayers to Heaven!
Learn if she there may be forgiven;
Its mercy may absolve her yet!
But here upon this earth beneath
There is no spot where she and I
Together for an hour could breathe! –Byron”
This quote by Byron opens up Chapter XI, A Mystery and a Storm at Hurricane Hall. Previously in the story Old Hurricane agrees to marry the widow that Herbert talks dearly about. However when he agreed to marry and support the widow he had not yet learned of her surname. When Herbert arrived to Hurricane Hall and informed Old Hurricane of the widow’s surname, Old Hurricane took back everything he had said about supporting the widow. He informs Herbert of his past with Marah Rocke and their secret marriage. Old Hurricane found Gabriel Le Noir in his cabin with his wife when he returned home one night and left Marah Rocke, still to that day not spoken a word. When I read the quote by Byron at the beginning of the chapter, I could sense that Old Hurricane was about to find out the truth about Marah Rocke and that he would more than likely call off anything he said to Herbert. “Then go back to that woman and tell her never to dare to utter, or even to think of, my name again, if she values her life!” –Old Hurricane, page 210
To go along with your second quote, I thought it was funny how Old Hurricane even said he would probably marry the woman Herbert had said was so good to him, but all the while she was already his wife! It's too bad that Marah had gotten her hopes up about the wonderful life this mystery man Herbert had told her about was going to give them. The end was heartbreaking!
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you were able to relate the quotes at the beginning of the chapter to specific events in the chapter. I too found it ironic that he agreed to marry Marah when he was already married to her! I had forgotten that he said that, nice job!
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