The Black Prince Transformation Quotes

How we cite our quotes: (Part.Section.Paragraph)

Quote #4

I felt, after leaving Roger and his Marigold, a humiliated misery which made me almost hysterical with anger. I saw, for this time, with perfect clarity how unjust and how unkind life had been to my sister. I felt a frenzy of remorse because I had not somehow imposed my will upon Roger and really made him suffer. (1.12.5)

Bradley Pearson experiences a number of smaller and subtler "transformations" throughout the novel—moments in which his perspective changes suddenly as new light is shed on previous misconceptions. The moment when he finally starts to understand the unhappiness of his sister, Priscilla, is one of them. It's just too bad that Bradley doesn't bother to make more of that new understanding while he has a chance.

Quote #5

Coming out into the garden everything was different. It had become evening. There was a lurid indistinct light which made things blurry and hard to locate. Near things were illuminated by a rich hazed sunlight, while the sky farther off was dark with cloud and the promise of night, although in fact it was not yet very late. I felt upset, confused, elated, and very much wanting now to be by myself. (1.14.124)

Kissing Rachel Baffin is another of the smaller and subtler moments of "transformation" that Bradley Pearson experiences in the novel, as attested by this scene in which Bradley and Rachel emerge into a garden (in a very Adam-and-Eve fashion, might we add), and observe the changedness of the world.

Quote #6

I do respect and admire you, Bradley. That's part of it. You're so much more serious about writing that Arnold is. Don't worry about tomorrow or about anything. I'll ring you. Don't get up. I want to leave you sitting there looking so thin and tall and solemn. Like a—like a—Inspector of Taxes. Just remember, freedom, a new world. Perhaps that's just what your book needs, what it's been waiting for. Oh you're such a schoolboy, such a puritan. It's time for you to grow up and be free. Goodbye, Bradley. May your own god bless you. (1.16.117)

Bradley Pearson's response to Rachel Baffin's parting words is striking—he thinks she may be right. As he sits in his apartment after she leaves, he wonders to himself if an affair with Rachel really will bring him the artistic power and vitality he's been waiting for, and if it will produce the spiritual transformation that'll enable him, finally, to write a great book.