The patriarchal arrangement implies an extreme exception for Mrs Gould to be at the head of the table. The allegorical explanation is that she represents something like their god: a reactionary, anti-progress idealism that wants to preserve nature and the simplicity of life, and looks back fondly to "the olden time" of ecclesiastical courts.

The "patriarchal state" refers also, of course, to the government of the family, for which the orphaned, childless Emily longs.