“Things and people moved around me, taking positions in obscure hierarchies, participating in systems I didn’t know about and never would.”
This quote reflects Frances’ ideas about herself being an intellectual. She is quite snobby and thinks she is above others simply because she refuses to get stuck in a system that most are happy to join. Frances seems to gain a sort of power by abstaining from stifling hierarchies like this.
“You live through certain things before you understand them. You can’t always take the analytical position.”
This is a very ambiguous line and can relate to a whole multitude of scenarios in Frances’ past. Frances considers herself an artistic person, so she does not have a clinical or detached approach to life the way others in dissimilar careers perhaps would. This probably explains why she does not feel so guilty engaging in an affair with a married man, as she would rather live the experience than spend her life wondering.
