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The gateman
The gateman’s wife gives Wang Lung tea while he waits for O-lan to show their baby to the Old Mistress. By this point, Wang Lung feels secure enough in his social status to shun the tea as not good enough for him. Later, once the Hwang family has left the house and it’s been overrun by commoners, Wang Lung finds the gateman’s wife guarding the gate to the inner courts that he decides to rent. Her presence accentuates the difference between his status when he first entered the gates and when he comes to rent the courts.
The gateman’s wife Quotes in The Good Earth
The The Good Earth quotes below are all either spoken by The gateman’s wife or refer to The gateman’s wife. 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:
).
Chapter 28 Quotes
There before him was the great carven dais where the old lady had sat, her fragile, tended body wrapped in silvery satin.
And moved by some strange impulse he went forward and he sat down where she had sat and he put his hand on the table and from the eminence it gave him he looked down on the bleary face of the old hag who blinked at him... Then some satisfaction he had longed for all his days without knowing it swelled up in his heart and he smote the table with his hand and he said suddenly,
“This house I will have!”
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Explanation and Analysis:
Wang Lung has been considering renting the House of Hwang, and he comes upon the gateman’s wife, who shows him into the inner courts and the great hall where Wang Lung met the Old Mistress the first time he came to the house. On Wang Lung’s first visit here, he was humiliated by his poverty and his ignorance of how to act around such social superiors. Even the gateman, a servant himself, acted as though he were far better than Wang Lung. This experience has stuck with Wang Lung his entire life, and now he’s finally able to retrospectively take 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 voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam
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The gateman’s wife Character Timeline in The Good Earth
The timeline below shows where the character The gateman’s wife appears in The Good Earth. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 1
Wang Lung returns to the House of Hwang, and now the gates are open. The gateman challenges him impolitely, and Wang Lung nervously struggles to explain his purpose in coming. Finally...
(full context)
The gateman leads Wang Lung into a huge room, and Wang Lung almost trips as he gapes...
(full context)
The gateman drops O-lan’s box of possessions by Wang Lung’s basket of food and disappears. Wang Lung...
(full context)
Chapter 5
...Hwang. Wang Lung is gratified by the gateman’s amazement at the sight of his family. The gateman can tell that Wang Lung has done well in the past year, and he invites...
(full context)
Chapter 28
...the common people and doesn’t like them. Going further into the courts, he comes upon the gateman’s wife , who has grown old. He realizes how long it’s been since he first came...
(full context)
Wang Lung asks the gateman’s wife to let him into the gate she’s guarding. She says she can only let in...
(full context)
