How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Paragraph)
Quote #7
The flame vanished, as if the wicks had been suddenly nipped between a finger and a thumb, leaving the wick neither glowing nor smoking, but black. (39)
The narrator states outright that it looks as if someone put the candle out, because the way the it goes out doesn’t look like wind. Are his eyes testifying to something supernatural at this point? On the one hand, he only says it’s "as if" the wicks had been nipped out by a hand. On the other, he uses stronger language beforehand ("there was no mistake about it"). What does he actually think has caused the candle to go out at this point? What do you think about it?
Quote #8
But then in a volley there vanished four lights at once in different corners of the room, and I struck another match in quivering haste, and stood hesitating whither to take it. (42)
By this time, the situation definitely looks fishy. How would four candles in different corners of the room go out at once? That would be a pretty odd thing for wind to do, since it usually comes from one direction. And it wouldn’t make sense to say the narrator’s motion put them out either, since they’re so far apart. Is there really a ghost here?
Quote #9
As I stood undecided, an invisible hand seemed to sweep out the two candles on the table. (43)
Again the narrator uses the language of some "invisible hand" seeming to put out the candles. He thinks that what he's seeing, (i.e., the candles going out), is best explained with reference to something invisible. It almost seems as if the most rational thing to believe in this circumstance is that there is a ghost. Or rather, it would be, if you believed ghosts existed.