Quote: “All the time we were up in London spending and spending I was thinking I wasn't going to see her anymore; then that I was rich, a good spec as a husband now; then again I knew it was ridiculous, people only married for love, especially girls like Miranda.”

–Frederick Clegg, page 13

Analysis: This quote at the start of the novel shows one of the most important themes in the book, namely class difference. This is shown in the part: “I was rich, a good spec as a husband now”. Frederick never believed that he was from the upper class because of his lower class upbringing. However he hoped that with the money that he now possessed he could buy his way into the upper class. The part where Frederick writes that people like Miranda only marry for love also indicates that she is of higher class, she does not marry only for money, but she marries only people that are already of the higher class.

Quote: “I still say I didn't go down there with the intention of seeing whether there was anywhere to have a secret guest. I can't really say what intention I had.

I just don't know. What you do blurs over what you did before.”

-Frederick Clegg, page 20

Analysis: This quote shows the split personality of Frederick in an excellent way. Frederick shows this split personality throughout the novel and this is the first glimpse of it. The quote starts off with Frederick telling himself that he does not have bad intention and that he is a good person after all. Before the moment that Frederick decides to capture Miranda he tells himself that the gruesome desires that he has are just fantasies. In the final sentence of the quote Frederick states that he does know that he is doing something very wrong, indicating the other part of his split personality.

Quote: “She was like all women, she had a one-track mind.

I never respected her again. It left me angry for days.

Because I could do it.

The photographs (the day I gave her the pad), I used to look at them sometimes. I could take my time with them. They didn't talk back at me.”

-Frederick Clegg, Page 103

Analysis: In this quote Miranda just tried to seduce Frederick and he obviously did not like it, he thought her behaviour was disgusting. That is what Frederick talks about in the first sentences. In the last line Frederick clarifies that he loves Miranda for her image, he likes her beauty but also her personality. The thing he does not like however is that Miranda can think on her own and make her own decisions. This is what he realizes when Miranda tries to seduce him, that she is an independent person.

Quote: “Such people. I must have stood next to them in the Tube, passed them in the street, of course I've overheard them and I knew they existed. But never really believed they exist. So totally blind. It never seemed possible.”

-Miranda, Page 148

Analysis: Miranda is talking about people like Frederick Clegg, people in the lower class, in this quote. She mentions that she saw them but never really notices them. What she means by people like Frederick is not very clear, although it can be explained with the last 2 sentences. Miranda describes them as totally blind, this is not literally of course. I believe Miranda writes about how these people have no idea about art, she believes that art is a very special part of the world and she wonders why the people in the lower class never noticed art or were never interested in art.