Mary Morstan - Quotations

English Lit: AQA GCSE The Sign of the Four, topic 6.1.3

Key Quotations about Mary Morstan

Here are four key quotations about Mary Morstan:

‘No friends whom I could appeal to’ (Chapter 2).
This immediately presents Mary as a vulnerable character who has no one to turn to.
The verb ‘appeal’ suggests a sense of helplessness, which adds to the helplessness of her character. This causes the reader to feel a sense of joy when Watson becomes closer to Mary – we feel that, at last, she has someone who cares about her.

‘Miss Morstan sat down, and her face grew white to the lips’ (Chapter 4).
Despite finding that her father has died (and being told about it by Thaddeus in a very abrupt way), Mary does not make a scene or become overly emotional.
Instead, she is displayed as a delicate, composed woman, whose only visible reaction is that her skin becomes very pale.
This could link to the damsel in distress idea, as the paleness of her skin also represents her vulnerability.

The adjective ‘white’ is used seven times in the novella to describe Mary or the clothing she is wearing.
The adjective is used to highlight Mary’s innocence, vulnerability, and goodness, as well as her naivety and lack of understanding of the wider world.
She is presented as a woman who needs to be loved and protected – the perfect candidate for a romantic sub-plot.

‘"The treasure is lost," said Miss Morstan, calmly’ (Chapter 11).
Mary shows that she is unselfish and not materialistic here as she realises that all of her potential fortune has been lost.
She reacts ‘calmly’, suggesting that she either does not really want the wealth or feels that it is not rightly hers anyway because it was stolen.
This reaction could also be because Mary knows that the huge wealth would have made a relationship between her and Watson more difficult.

How does Mary respond to the news that all of her potential fortune has been lost?