Purse Strings
Xifeng is a niece of Lady Wang and is married to Jia Lian, the eldest grandchild of Grandmother Jia (hence, she is related to Baoyu by blood and by marriage). As such she plays a significant role in the day-to-day running of the Rongguo household; in fact, she is the de facto holder of the household's purse. She is the most powerful woman of the Jia Clan, after Grandmother Jia and Lady Wang. She is also worldly, tactful, able to sweettalk Grandmother Jia and the other powerful ladies within the family, while controlling the servants with an iron fist. However her husband Jia Lian does not treat her kindly, and is often caught womanizing outside.
Read more about this topic: Wang Xifeng
Famous quotes containing the words purse and/or strings:
“Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not expressed in fancy, rich, not gaudy,
For the apparel oft proclaims the man.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“Love’s the only thing I’ve thought of or read about since I was knee-high. That’s what I always dreamed of, of meeting somebody and falling in love. And when that remarkable thing happened, I was going to recite poetry to her for hours about how her heart’s an angel’s wing and her hair the strings of a heavenly harp. Instead I got drunk and hollered at her and called her a harpy.”
—Ben Hecht (1893–1964)