How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #10
"I will bear it, and bear it till death [...]. But how long it will be before death comes! I am so young, so healthy. How shall I have patience and strength? O God, am I to struggle and fall and repent again? - has life other trials as hard for me still?" (7.5.16)
Maggie’s final despairing speech is highly ironic, meaning that it is sort of funny in a very dark way, given that she drowns a few pages later. Maggie’s certainty that it will be a long time before she dies is quickly proven false, which is a comment on how often unpredictable circumstances and events shape characters’ lives in this book. Characters rarely accurately predict what will happen to them.