Character Analysis
Gabriel's crush, Evangeline, doesn't get much page time of her own, and instead, most of her relationship with Gabriel is described to us in bits and pieces. We see some dialogue between the pair, but most of what we know about the chick is strictly through Gabriel's eyes.
He's first attracted to her because of her name: "Evangeline: the word itself is holy" (13.1), he says. Even though this is a brief comment, it gives us a lot of insight into how Gabriel views his leading lady. It's not just that she's sweet and pretty, it's that she's perfect—at least in Gabriel's eyes anyway. And you know what her name means? Bringer of good news. Which she is, in a sort of twisted way, insofar as she's part of the moment that leads to Gabriel coming into his own and no longer wanting Finnigan around.
Gabriel never expresses his true feelings to Evangeline, though. He confides in us:
It was true I couldn't bring myself to touch her, though it was all I wanted to do, all I could think about doing, the single thing I would die to do. My nights were filled with seared imaginings—my hand on her chest, my palm on her spine. I loved and dreaded the fanciful nights; the hammered day was better because she was there, a thousand times worse for the same. (15.91)
Finnigan makes fun of Gabriel for hiding his true feelings, but Gabriel just doesn't have the nerve. Which makes sense, if we think about it—after all, Gabriel knows nothing good in this story, so of course he'd have no clue how to relate to Evangeline.
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote an epic poem called Evangeline: A Tale of Acadie, and in it, a woman named Evangeline travels far and wide in search of her groom, only to find him on his death bed, the shock of which kills her. You know what her groom's name is? Gabriel. And while there are tons of obvious differences between Longfellow's characters and ours, one key thing is the same: Their love doesn't stand a chance.