How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
The memories of happiness are fleeting things, reflections in a stream, glimpsed all broken for a second and then swept away in the current of grief that is our life now. (1.1.13)
With the plague currently tearing apart the tiny village of Eyam, Anna and her neighbors are left in a destitute emotional state. They've watched family members die. They've watched friends go insane. They've endured at least two violent murders. Basically, it's been a long time since anyone used an emoji that wasn't a sad face.
Quote #2
"If God saw fit to send this scourge, I believe it would be His will that one faces it where one was, with courage and thus contain its evil." (2.3.48)
Not everyone thinks that suffering is a bad thing. Mompellion, true to his Puritan belief system, sees suffering as God's way of testing his people. If that's so, then consider the plague God's equivalent to the MCAT. You've got to study hard for that sucker.
Quote #3
It seemed as if the flesh inside of him was dying while he yet breathed, the putrefying meat pushing and bursting its way out of his failing body. (2.5.17)
This imagery is a bit much, but though it's gross, it shows us the immense physical suffering associated with the plague. It also gives us an idea of the emotional suffering that one endures watching a loved one go through something so horrific.