Quote 4
I thought about the organ booming in the chapel and of the shut doors of the library; and I thought how unpleasant it is to be locked out; and I thought how it is worse perhaps to be locked in. (1.31)
Free your minds, because freedom works in two ways here: it's the freedom to come inside a men's-only place like a library, but also the freedom to be out in the world.
Quote 5
I found myself walking with extreme rapidity across a grass plot. Instantly a man's figure rose to intercept me [...] He was a Beadle, I was a woman. This was the turf; there was the path. Only the Fellows and Scholars are allowed here; the gravel is the place for me. (1.3)
Doesn't the word "Beadle" sound a little like "beetle"? Do you think this is an accident? And, well, even if it is—why do men need to have such silly-sounding and -acting people to protect their authority?
Quote 6
Here I was actually at the door which leads into the library itself [...] Instantly there issued, like a guardian angel barring the way with a flutter of black gown instead of white wings, a deprecating, silvery, kindly gentleman, who regretted in a low voice as he waved me back that ladies are only admitted to the library of if accompanied by a Fellow of the College or furnished with a letter of introduction. (1.4)
Isn't it interesting that the man who unfairly bars Mary from the library is "deprecating, silvery, kindly"? We'd expect him to be mean and ugly. How does this change your feelings about him?