How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
There is no hopelessness so sad as that of early youth, when the soul is made up of wants and has no long memories, no super-added life in the life of others; though we who look on think lightly of such premature despair, as if our vision of the future lightened the blind sufferer’s present. (3.5.72)
Once again, childhood memory and the distant past of childhood play a major thematic role. Eliot reiterates that, while adults often forget the specifics of childhood, the emotional intensity of their past experiences as children stay with them, however subconsciously. The emotional impact of the past is inescapable.
Quote #5
Whenever his mind was wandering in the far past, he fell into this oblivion of their actual faces: they were not those of the lad and the little wench who belonged to that past. (3.8.13)
After he falls ill, Mr. Tulliver seems to live solely in the past. This may be psychological on his part though – since the present is so painful Mr. Tulliver escapes into the past.
Quote #6
She read so eagerly and constantly in her three books, the Bible, Thomas-a-Kempis, and the "Christian Year" (no longer rejected as a ‘hymn-book’) that they filled her mind with a continual stream of rhythmic memories [...] (4.3.43)
Maggie seems to be practically brainwashing herself here. She reads her books so often that they continually echo in her mind and effectively blot out any other thoughts and memories that she might have. Replacing her old memories is a way to escape from pain.