How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #4
David hears him but ignores him, and ignores the burns he's inflicting on himself, as he turns his jacket inside out, searching for something as if his life depends on it.
Finally, he finds what he is looking for, drops the jacket on the ground, and sits back, speechless. (3.9.19-20)
This moment shows us David's love for his own family. He rushes outside not to stop Erik from burning his equipment, but to save a picture of his beloved daughter. It's a pretty important scene because it's a sort of turning point in David and Erik's relationship—Erik also had a daughter, so he understands how David feels. The two men are united in the love they feel for their children.
Quote #5
Every night, at dusk, Merle would wander from her house, like a ghost, a mere shadow of her former beauty, and drift to the graveyard.
Every night, she would sit at Erik's grave, waiting, waiting for him to return. Eventually, she would fall asleep, her tears lost among the steady autumn rains that pattered onto the freshly turned grave soil.
Every morning, she would stagger home to bed, a cold and fevered wretch.
Her father tried to stop her, but no matter what he did or said, Merle took no notice of him.
The days turned into weeks.
The weeks turned into months.
The months turned into a year.
And still Merle spent every night weeping at her lover's grave. As the year had passed however, something had happened to Merle, to her mind. It had grown tired, and been stretched beyond endurance, so that it tore, and so it was, a year and a day after Erik had been laid in the earth, that she went mad. (5.6.11-19)
Love has not been kind to Merle. This couple has been doomed from the start, but now that Merle can't even see her lover, even in secret, she's become inconsolable. Finally, she just snaps; her mind can't take it anymore. Is there such a thing as loving too much?
Quote #6
"But, you know, Herr Graf, Frau Graf. There is such a story, though I haven't heard it in a long time.…"
She stopped, looking puzzled.
"Only it was … rather different … from the one your children have just told us. It all happened just so, except that the reason their love was forbidden was not because Erik was poor. Merle was rich, but so was Erik. He wasn't a fisherman, and … well, he wasn't Erik. He was a she— Erika.
"She was a nobleman's daughter. Their love was forbidden, because, well…"
She broke off, looking at the children. It was not the sort of thing they should hear. (5.9.10-14)
A twist in our love story. Merle and Erika's love was forbidden because of their gender, not because of their social statuses. Now the story begs an interesting question: If it was so very wrong to keep two people apart because of money, isn't it just as wrong to keep them apart because of gender? Hm…