"My mother speaks of my step being a source of life-long pain to her, that it is a living death, etc. By the same post I had several letters from anxious relatives, telling me that it was my duty to come home and thus ease my mother's anxiety"
About this Quote
The line “By the same post” is a small masterpiece of social mechanics. The mail delivers not one private plea but a coordinated chorus - “anxious relatives” arriving like reinforcements. Victorian respectability often operated through networks, not lone authority figures, and Anderson’s sentence structure captures that swarm: sentiment becomes consensus, consensus becomes duty. Even the word “duty” is a pressure valve masquerading as virtue. It implies that her own ambitions are indulgence, while capitulation is maturity.
Context sharpens the stakes. Anderson is pushing against a world that treated women’s professional aspirations - especially in science and medicine - as aberrations requiring correction. The family frames her path as harm inflicted on her mother, not a life built for herself. Subtext: female autonomy is recast as cruelty. Anderson’s tone suggests she recognizes the trick. She doesn’t argue with the feelings; she documents the system that turns feelings into shackles.
Quote Details
| Topic | Mother |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Anderson, Elizabeth Garrett. (n.d.). My mother speaks of my step being a source of life-long pain to her, that it is a living death, etc. By the same post I had several letters from anxious relatives, telling me that it was my duty to come home and thus ease my mother's anxiety. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-mother-speaks-of-my-step-being-a-source-of-162028/
Chicago Style
Anderson, Elizabeth Garrett. "My mother speaks of my step being a source of life-long pain to her, that it is a living death, etc. By the same post I had several letters from anxious relatives, telling me that it was my duty to come home and thus ease my mother's anxiety." FixQuotes. Accessed February 3, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-mother-speaks-of-my-step-being-a-source-of-162028/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"My mother speaks of my step being a source of life-long pain to her, that it is a living death, etc. By the same post I had several letters from anxious relatives, telling me that it was my duty to come home and thus ease my mother's anxiety." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/my-mother-speaks-of-my-step-being-a-source-of-162028/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.
