Great Aunt Adelaide: Incest.
Nanny McPhee: How's the reading coming along?
Evangeline: Oh... all right. I still haven't gotten to the end of the story, though.
Nanny McPhee: There's no need. You are the end of the story.
Lily: Evangeline, do you love Papa?
Evangeline: Of course not! I know my place. That wouldn't be right. I mean... yes.
Lily: Papa, do you love Evangeline?
Mr. Brown: What are you saying? That - that would be totally improper. I mean a thing like that could - could never happen. I mean, obviously... yes.
Great Aunt Adelaide: If there's one thing I won't stand for, it's loose vowels.
Eric Brown: The nanny is a witch.
Mr. Brown: It wasn't really the baby they were eating. It was a chicken, actually.
Evangeline: Sod my manners you old trout. This is the most fun I've had in weeks.
Mrs. Quickly: O, I do love my weddings.
Simon Brown: I never say "please".
Nanny McPhee: Not at all.
Narrator: Hello. Unfortunately, we must start the story with an empty chair. If it wasn't empty, however, we wouldn't have a story. But, it is, and we do, so we must tell it.
Great Aunt Adelaide: I shall relieve you of one of your children and give it a home with me at Stitch Manor... As for your fortunate daughter - for it must be a girl and not one of those other things.
Mr. Brown: I must marry Quickly.
Answer: The skull and crossbone flag can be interpreted in a number of ways. Death, both literally and symbolically, is an ongoing theme in the story. Cedric Brown, the children's father, is a widower, and he is also an undertaker. There have been a number of nannies for Mr. Brown's rather naughty children, but they have systematically gotten rid of each one, basically "killing them off," though not in a literal sense, until Nanny McPhee arrives.
raywest