How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
An engagement is so potent a thing that sooner or later it reduces all who speak of it to this state of cheerful awe. Away from it, in the solitude of their rooms, Mr. Beebe, and even Freddy, might again be critical. But in its presence and in the presence of each other they were sincerely hilarious. It has a strange power, for it compels not only the lips, but the very heart. The chief parallel to compare one great thing with another—is the power over us of a temple of some alien creed. Standing outside, we deride or oppose it, or at the most feel sentimental. Inside, though the saints and gods are not ours, we become true believers, in case any true believer should be present (8.45).
This quote demonstrates the persuasive power of social convention. Everyone knows they should be happy at the announcement of an engagement, so Lucy and Cecil’s engagement becomes such a “potent” thing that it can “compel” everyone to put on the illusion of great happiness, even if they’re actually discontented in their secret selves.
Quote #5
Secrecy has this disadvantage: we lose the sense of proportion; we cannot tell whether our secret is important or not. Were Lucy and her cousin closeted with a great thing which would destroy Cecil's life if he discovered it, or with a little thing which he would laugh at? Miss Bartlett suggested the former. Perhaps she was right. It had become a great thing now. Left to herself, Lucy would have told her mother and her lover ingenuously, and it would have remained a little thing (11.8).
The nature of the secret is such that you can’t ask for help in resolving it – and so it’s able to grow out of proportion. Lucy and Charlotte, who seemingly have no other outlet for their secret problem, lose what little perspective they have on it.
Quote #6
But Lucy had developed since the spring. That is to say, she was now better able to stifle the emotions of which the conventions and the world disapprove (16.1).
Lucy has grown up. She’s a far cry from the childlike, rather simple heroine we first encountered, and has learned the essentially adult skill of conscious self-deception. She has also made a choice here to follow the rules of “conventions and the world.”