How we cite our quotes: (Part.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #4
This is just a matter of experience. She never sulks for long after a thing like this, not if I lose my temper. She's kind to me then. It's if I keep quiet she goes on and on. Not that we make a habit of scraps like this. But we sometimes both explode and then it's all over at once, clears the air. We're very close to each other. These rows aren't real warfare, they're an aspect of love. This may be hard for an outsider to understand—…. (1.3.140)
A recurring theme throughout The Black Prince is the connection between violence and love—or, more accurately, the way that men like Bradley Pearson and Arnold Baffin argue that there's a connection between violence and love. On the whole, what does the novel seem to be saying about their ideas?
Quote #5
Of course we argue sometimes. Marriage is a long journey at close quarters. Of course nerves get frayed. Every married person is a Jekyll and Hyde, they've got to be. You mayn't think it, but Rachel is a bit of a nagger. Her voice goes on and on and on sometimes. At least it has lately, I suppose it's her age. (1.3.156)
Adding to the themes of unreliable narrators, duplicitous actions, and inconsistent perspectives that all come together in The Black Prince, Arnold Baffin's suggestion that all married people have two selves—a respectable self and a monstrous self—throws yet another complication into the mix. No wonder it's so hard for us readers to pinpoint the truth in this novel.
Quote #6
I then began to wonder what on earth was happening now back at the Baffins' house? Was Rachel still lying like a disfigured corpse staring at the ceiling, while Arnold sat in the drawing-room drinking whisky and listening to The Firebird? Perhaps Rachel had drawn the sheet over her face again in that appalling way. Or was it all quite different? Arnold was kneeling outside the door begging her to let him in, weeping and accusing himself. Or else, Rachel, who had been listening for my departure, had come quietly down the stairs and into her husband's arms. […] What a mystery a marriage was. What a strange and violent world, the world of matrimony. (1.4.4)
According to Rachel Baffin, Bradley Pearson made a habit of assuming that he had special insight into her marriage to Arnold Baffin. Can we readers take Bradley at his word when he claims to believe that an outsider can never know the truth about another person's marriage?