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Peter Gilbert
Mrs. Gilbert is the young woman married to Peter Gilbert. While she doesn’t say much in the play, what she does say generally demonstrates an enthusiastic attitude to life with a hopeful attitude towards the future. She takes an excited look around Andrew and Millie’s flat, evidently eager to make it her own when she and her husband take it over in the new term.
Mrs. Gilbert Quotes in The Browning Version
The The Browning Version quotes below are all either spoken by Mrs. Gilbert or refer to Mrs. Gilbert. 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:
).
The Browning Version Quotes
GILBERT: (Brusquely.) Darling. The Crocker–Harrises, I'm sure, have far more important things to do than to listen to your detailed but inaccurate account of our very sordid little encounter. Why not just say I married you for your money and leave it at that? Come on, we must go.
MRS. GILBERT: (To MILLIE.) Isn’t he awful to me?
MILLIE: Men have no souls, my dear. My husband is just as bad.
Related Characters:
Peter Gilbert (speaker), Mrs. Gilbert (speaker), Millie Crocker-Harris (speaker), Andrew Crocker-Harris
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
30
Explanation and Analysis:
This exchange comes just as Peter Gilbert and his wife go to leave the Crocker-Harris flat. Mrs. Gilbert has been looking around the property with Millie, already imagining what she will do with the space when it becomes hers. Her exchange with her husband is relatively light-hearted, and though Millie’s comment seems to match their tone, it’s uttered with a genuine bitterness directed at Andrew. It chimes with Andrew’s earlier description of himself to Gilbert as having a “sickness of the soul.” The visit of the Gilberts more generally represents a kind of “changing of the guard”—out with the old and in with the new. This makes it all the more difficult for Andrew to continue avoid any emotional confrontation, be that with himself or with those around him.
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Mrs. Gilbert Character Timeline in The Browning Version
The timeline below shows where the character Mrs. Gilbert appears in The Browning Version. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Browning Version
...by Dr. Frobisher that Peter Gilbert is Andrew’s successor and is coming with his wife, Mrs. Gilbert , to look over the flat, which they will take over in the new term.
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...week ago. Just at this moment, there is knock on the door. Mr. Gilbert and Mrs. Gilbert enter, both around the age of twenty-two.
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Andrew explains to Millie that Peter Gilbert is his successor, who has come with Mrs. Gilbert to look around the flat ahead of moving in next term. Millie asks how long...
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...others to see the flat, but Gilbert says he leaves that “sort of thing” to Mrs. Gilbert . He would rather talk to Andrew about the class he is taking over, admitting...
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...upset.” Andrew apologizes for burdening him and predicts that Gilbert will do well. Millie and Mrs. Gilbert come back in. Mrs. Gilbert remarks to her husband: “Just imagine, Peter. Mr. and Mrs....
(full context)
Mrs. Gilbert starts to relate how she and Peter met, but he interrupts her, saying that the...
(full context)
