"The No isn’t natural.’’
During a conversation between Silvia and her maid, Lisette, Silvia asked the maid why she answered in her place to her father when he asked Lisette is Silvia is happy at the idea of getting married. Lisette answered affirmatively, refusing to think that a woman would say no to this question. In fact, Lisette saw the possibility of a negative answer as something unnatural for a woman. This quote is important because it shows the general idea many had when it came to marriage. Especially men, they could not phantom the idea that a woman might not want to get married. For them, this idea was something unnatural, something which in many ways was unheard of.
"They (the stars) never said I shouldn’t love you.’’
The quote from above is uttered by Dorant upon meeting Silvia and realizing he had fallen in love with her. Silvia tried to convince him that there was no way they could ever be together but Dorant insisted that nothing could be big enough to stop their love from evolving. Silvia invokes here fate but Dorant refuses to listen to her and thus refusing to believe in fate. This quote is important because it marks the moment in history when the children coming from wealthy families refused to be controlled by their parents and decided to follow their own hearts and chose their own paths.
"At lunch he said he liked me, at dinner he’ll tell me he loves me and by tomorrow morning I expect he’ll be offering me adoration on a permanent basis.’’
The quote from above offers an accurate description of the way the master and the servant in the play behaved when it came to the women they loved. In both cases, the men did not waste any time in expressing their feelings and making their intentions clear. The women who received these attentions were scared to see the rapid pace things were evolving and both Lisette and Silvia felt as if things were moving too fast. At the same time, the women felt powerless when confronted with these proposals and they felt it was their duty to accept whatever the men proposed to them. This quote also shows just how little control women believed had over their own lives and how they felt at times they were not free to take decisions for themselves.
