The House Is on Fire

“Sally and her sisters were instructed by their mother, Dorothea, who read little besides The Art of Cookery, but had managed that singular and spectacular feat of catching a husband equal to her in wealth and rank, which—in her opinion—made her eminently qualified to educate her daughters.”

This is one of the first mentions of how different the skill set provided to women in Sally’s social sphere is from that of men. That women like her are taught that the most important thing is to find a husband contributes to the betrayal Sally and other women feel in the aftermath of the fire.

“An attendant extinguishes the wall sconces in the gallery, and as the theater’s lights dim, Cecily can feel herself begin to disappear. She is in the theater and then she is back in the cellar, she is a little girl in the smokehouse and a tiny seed in her mother’s womb. She is all of these things and she is nothing at all, and by the time the curtain lifts, her face is wet with tears.”

Though Cecily is reacting in this moment to her fears for her future at Elliott’s hands, it also foreshadows her eventual escape. Just as she feels like she is disappearing as the lights go down, the theater fire really will give her the chance to disappear.

“‘It ain’t always gonna be like this,’ he whispers. He’s surprised by the way the words catch in his throat on their way out.”

Gilbert’s words to Sara are an early example of Gilbert’s optimism. Throughout the novel, he maintains hope for the future, not only for himself and Sara but for Cecily as well. Even as he becomes discouraged due to the abuse he experiences at Kemp’s hands, he is determined to move toward a better future. This passage also hints at Gilbert’s evolution in the novel. He is surprised by his emotion here—at this point, he believes he can buy his and Sara’s freedom through hard work, but the words catching in his throat indicate that even this early, part of him knows this isn’t true.