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The Female Voice
A bean-sized man with a deep voice who is embedded in the tendril that emerges from the ground and wraps around Willie. Like the other beings in the tendril, this man is in hell. He eventually reveals to the Reverend, Bevins, and Vollman that he was destined for eternal damnation because he and his wife conspired to kill their newborn baby. Despite this horrid act, though, he upholds that he can’t be held accountable for his actions because he was born with certain “predispositions” that rendered him evil.
The Bass Voice Quotes in Lincoln in the Bardo
The Lincoln in the Bardo quotes below are all either spoken by The Bass Voice or refer to The Bass Voice . 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 80-81
Quotes
We were as we were! the bass lisper barked. How could we have been otherwise? Or, being that way, have done otherwise? We were that way, at that time, and had been led to that place, not by any innate evil in ourselves, but by the state of our cognition and our experience up until that moment.
By Fate, by Destiny, said the Vermonter.
By the fact that time runs in only one direction, and we are borne along by it, influenced precisely as we are, to do just the things that we do, the bass lisper said.
And then are cruelly punished for it, said the woman.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Lincoln in the Bardo LitChart as a printable PDF.
The Bass Voice Quotes in Lincoln in the Bardo
The Lincoln in the Bardo quotes below are all either spoken by The Bass Voice or refer to The Bass Voice . 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 80-81
Quotes
We were as we were! the bass lisper barked. How could we have been otherwise? Or, being that way, have done otherwise? We were that way, at that time, and had been led to that place, not by any innate evil in ourselves, but by the state of our cognition and our experience up until that moment.
By Fate, by Destiny, said the Vermonter.
By the fact that time runs in only one direction, and we are borne along by it, influenced precisely as we are, to do just the things that we do, the bass lisper said.
And then are cruelly punished for it, said the woman.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
