Crooked House

“But I’m proud—I’m devilishly proud. I want our marriage to be a good thing for everyone—I don’t want to represent one half of a sacrifice for love!”

This early quote from Sophia showcases the importance of reputation, respectability, and dignity. If Charles marries his fiancé while her family is embroiled in a murderous scandal, he will be sacrificing his good name for love. Fair and kindhearted Sophia can’t accept that.

“‘It may be alright if—’

‘If what?’

‘If the right person did it.’”

The “right person” is Brenda. The rest of the Leonides family thinks she is a gold-digger, and if she is found guilty, they will be happy to cast her out and avoid a familial scandal. Arthur is speaking to Charles here, showing that a bias toward Brenda’s guilt affects even the investigating officers, who are supposed to be neutral.

“She’s what I call the harem type. Likes sitting about and eating sweets and having nice clothes and jewelry and reading cheap novels and going to the cinema.”

The Leonides family’s hatred of Brenda is based on her lower-class origins. All the actions that Sophia describes here are harmless; however, the Leonideses view these actions as damning evidence of a fundamental class difference, one that they believe makes Brenda less worthy of respect.