The Return of the Native Memory and the Past Quotes

How we cite our quotes: Citations follow this format: (Book.Chapter.Paragraph)

Quote #10

"I married him because I loved him, but I won't say that I didn't love him partly because I thought I saw a promise of that life in him." (4.6.35)

The layers of time in Eustacia's statement are interesting, and lead to some cool use of tenses. Eustacia recalls a past where she was imagining a future that is now her (unexpected) present. The Lost writers seem to have hijacked the novel here.

Quote #11

At that moment the chasm in their lives which his love for Eustacia had caused was not remembered by Yeobright, and to him that present joined continuously with that friendly past that had been their experience before the division. (4.7.31)

The power of selective memory appears here, and contrasting words helps to emphasize that idea. We begin with a reference to a "chasm," which has a negative connotations. But then we jump to words like "continuously" and "friendly," which show us how Clym's selective memory operates.

Quote #12

It brought before her eyes the spectre of a worn-out woman knocking at a door which she would not open; and she shrank from contemplating it. (5.1.27)

This brief sentence uses very powerful imagery and conveys the sense that Eustacia is being haunted. But the word that really does a lot of the work in establishing meaning is "shrank." That one word tells us all we need to know about Eustacia's emotional state: she's afraid.