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Aunt Noelene
The landlady of the boarding house, Mrs. Bowers is an imposing but gentle woman who takes a liking to Isobel almost right away. Mrs. Bowers has a contentious relationship with her daughter, Madge, and Isobel’s desire to be around Mrs. Bowers and, in effect, benefit from a mother figure, causes strain between the three women. This eventually results in Isobel leaving the boarding house.
Mrs. Bowers Quotes in I for Isobel
The I for Isobel quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Bowers or refer to Mrs. Bowers. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 4 Quotes
''Went very funny after the baby was born. Not the first one either, the third. Joe that would have been, got grown-up sons himself now. She was very bad for a while. She came out of it all right in the end.”
“I'm glad to hear that.” Mrs. Bowers' tone admitted that Mrs. Prendergast was not often the bringer of good news.
“It can take you in funny ways. There was the woman lived opposite us in Mudgee. Six weeks old the baby was and they were getting ready to go out. Her husband called out from the door, ‘Are you coming, Dorrie?’ ‘I won't be a minute, dear, I'm just popping the baby in the oven.’ He came running in and there was the baby greased all over and trussed up in the baking dish and the oven hot. He just got to it in time.”
Mrs. Bowers shrieked, 'Oh, my God!'
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Mrs. Prendergast often shares her slightly unsettling dreams and stories with Mrs. Bowers and Isobel during their days and nights in the boarding house kitchen. This tale—involving two of Mrs. Prendergast’s former neighbors—stands out as the most upsetting and outlandish one of all. As Isobel listens to the story, it becomes apparent that the baby in the baking dish represents Isobel’s own painful, confusing childhood—a childhood in which her mother threatened her safety and well-being daily. Isobel’s mother’s violence was as strange, uncanny, and seemingly second-nature as that of the woman in the story. It was an almost unthinking, or Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident
You left the house thinking of freedom, of being a different person, seeing the world ahead of you, but you didn't go on, you went back. To fight the old fight and this time to win, to have the verdict set aside, to be the favored child.
Any rag will make a doll for the idiot in the attic.
Auden had a general in his head. (“But they've severed all the wires, and I don't know what the general desires.'”
Isobel had an idiot in the attic.
[…]
Back in her room, she sat on her bed and reflected. She was in a different position from Auden; she knew what the idiot desired, all right, and had to watch to see it didn't get it.
[…]
The idiot played its games with the real world and- and what was worse-it played them behind Isobel's back. Not any more, now that she knew. Could she do this, watch a part of herself and control it, fight against it all her life?
She was not too discouraged, the new knowledge giving her a feeling of strength. At least she knew where she was going wrong-no wonder the others disliked her, watching her suck up to Mrs. Bowers, taking what ought to be Madge's.
Idiot wants a mother.
Idiot can't have one.
Life is very difficult.
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One night at dinner, Mrs. Bowers and her daughter Madge have a fight in front of Isobel and all the other boarders. Isobel experiences the sinking realization that she has been attempting to ingratiate herself to Mrs. Bowers, take Madge’s place, and become the “favored child” at last, since she has such a violent, volatile relationship with her own mother. Isobel likens the dark drive within her, desperate for love, attention, and affection, to an “idiot in the attic,” whose desires, actions, and impulses make “games” of the real world and do not account for the suffering of others. Isobel Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae volupta
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Mrs. Bowers Character Timeline in I for Isobel
The timeline below shows where the character Mrs. Bowers appears in I for Isobel. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 4: Glassware and Other Breakable Items
A tall elderly woman with ginger hair opens the door— Mrs. Bowers , the landlady. She tells Isobel she’s been expecting her and invites her in. She...
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Mrs. Prendergast asks if Madge is “still in with those people,” and Mrs. Bowers answers only that it “doesn’t do any harm.” As Isobel carries her case upstairs, she...
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...room at night with the lights on will run up the electricity bill and anger Mrs. Bowers. Betty then heads downstairs to play cards with Mr. Watkin.
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...at home in the kitchen most nights than the drawing room, and enjoys listening to Mrs. Bowers and Mrs. Prendergast discuss death and sex and reminisce about their own lives. Isobel thinks...
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...shorthand and dictation, but typing frustrates her endlessly. One afternoon, coming back from typing class, Mrs. Bowers calls her into the kitchen for some sweets. Isobel joins her, and Mrs. Bowers tells...
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...house, feeling as if she has finally found people who speak “her own language.” When Mrs. Bowers greets her and asks where she’s been, Isobel tells her she was out with a...
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...up with their conversation. To ingratiate herself to her new friends, Isobel tells them about Mrs. Bowers and Mrs. Prendergast, but presents the women as ridiculous and strange, feeling a pit in...
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...friends are talking about. Isobel stays away from the kitchen more and more often, avoiding Mrs. Bowers , and finds herself living for Saturdays. Though Isobel feels alive, she thinks that she...
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Madge has gotten engaged, and brings her fiancée Arthur to the boarding house to meet Mrs. Bowers. The two shake hands, and Mrs. Bowers retreats to the kitchen. Betty leaps up and...
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...boarding house, Isobel is lured into the kitchen, where she must sit and listen to Mrs. Bowers laments Madge’s “folly.” She calls Arthur a “religious crackpot” and believes that Madge, who has...
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The next evening, Mrs. Bowers appears at the door, looking angry, and tells the boarders that one of them hasn’t...
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...help Arthur take boxes down to the cars. Isobel consents, but is afraid of meeting Mrs. Bowers downstairs, and disappointing her and angering the “idiot.” Once Madge’s parcels are all loaded, Madge...
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...and reads until the dinner bell. Downstairs, the boarders all move gingerly, afraid of upsetting Mrs. Bowers , who has been angry since Madge’s departure.
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Meanwhile, back at the boarding house, Mrs. Bowers is angry with Isobel. Isobel accepts her landlady’s ire passively, thinking that after all, she...
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That night, Isobel tells Mrs. Bowers that she’ll be leaving at the end of the week. Isobel thinks she can hear...
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