The Gilded Age (TV Series)

Charity Has Two Functions (2022)

Louisa Jacobson: Marian Brook

Quotes 

• Marian Brook : Miss Barton is much more of a reformer than I realized.

  Ada Brook : I do admire your Miss Barton.

  Agnes Van Rhijn : Is there a fashionable cause she does not support?

  Marian Brook : Surely you believe women will vote eventually?

  Agnes Van Rhijn : Hmmm.. I believe in small, incremental change, not running around with a banner and a gun.

• Marian Brook : People think anyone who gives their life to charity must be a kind of holy fool, when she is anything but.

  Tom Raikes : To get things done these days, you must know your way around.

• Agnes Van Rhijn : Really, that woman has the resilience of a cockroach.

  Marian Brook : Dear me, should we send John to carry out some pest control?

  Agnes Van Rhijn : If only we could.

• Marian Brook : 'The best-laid schemes o' mice an' men gang aft agley.' Robbie Burns.

• Marian Brook : Really, Aunt Agnes, anyone would think you were against charity.

  Agnes Van Rhijn : Charity has two functions in our world, my dear. The first is to raise funds for the less fortunate, which is wholly good. The second is to provide a ladder for people to climb into society who do not belong there.

  Marian Brook : And that is wholly bad?

  Agnes Van Rhijn : Not wholly, perhaps, but it should give us pause.

• Marian Brook : We're both from Doylestown, where life wasn't about whose guest list you're on.

• Marian Brook : Do you like Mrs. Astor?

  Agnes Van Rhijn : Hmm, that's like saying, 'Do you like rain?' She is a fact of life that we must live with.

• Marian Brook : But when you're a handsome, young man, all you need is a decent tailcoat, and you're invited everywhere.

• Dorothy Scott : Peggy belongs in Brooklyn. It's nice she has her job, but she will only live a half life here.

  Marian Brook : She likes the work.

  Dorothy Scott : But there is more to life than work, and Peggy cannot live your life.

  Marian Brook : I suppose not.

  Dorothy Scott : In Brooklyn, she could meet a suitable husband, have her own family, and walk through front doors instead of the back entrances.

• Marian Brook : But about the kiss... Should I be insulted?

  Peggy Scott : Mm... yes, if he thinks he can have you easily. No, if he just wants you as much as you want him.

• Marian Brook : Whatever your quarrel, one day your father will be gone, and you don't want the burden of regret that you never made it up when you could.

• Aurora Fane : She's trying to find her feet in New York, and I'm afraid he's the gatekeeper she must pass to achieve it.

  Marian Brook : Is that his role?

  Aurora Fane : He is Cerberus, snarling and growling to protect his Mystic Rose, as he likes to call her.

  Marian Brook : Is Mrs. Astor aware of all this?

  Aurora Fane : She is when it suits her. She uses him to filter the new arrivals.

  Marian Brook : Hmm. So Mr. McAllister's opinion is important?

  Aurora Fane : Is any of it important?