The Paying Guests

For the female characters of The Paying Guests, cigarettes symbolize both repression and freedom. Though smoking is very common in the novel’s society, it is more associated with masculine characteristics. Mrs. Wray disapproves of Frances smoking, and Leonard disapproves of Lilian smoking. Cigarettes are also indicative of class. While it is unsightly for the women of Champion Hill to smoke, Mrs. Viney’s daughters and Christina all smoke freely.

When Lilian and Frances first spend time alone, Frances rolls Lilian cigarettes. When Lilian smokes, “the cigarette changed her somehow. Some of her girlishness fell away” (74). The ease with which her affected attitude falls away with the cigarette indicates the falsehoods of her domestic life. She reflects that Leonard does not want her to smoke because men never want women to do the things that men want to do. Leonard later affirms this when he, Lilian, and Frances drunkenly share cigarettes while playing a strip game of snakes and ladders. He tells Lilian that if he kissed her after she smoked, it would “‘be like kissing a man’” (124).  Frances quickly links Lilian’s thoughts to “Standing for parliament,” “Managing industries,” and “Working whilst married”—all of which are considered masculine endeavors (74).