How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #7
"What's the use? You gave me my first glimpse of a real life, and at the same moment you asked me to go on with a sham one." (24.28)
Through Madame Olenska, Archer's horizons have widened beyond the narrow scope of New York society life.
Quote #8
Outside it, in the scene of his actual life, he moved with a growing sense of unreality and insufficiency, blundering against familiar prejudices and traditional points of view as an absent-minded man goes on bumping into the furniture of his own room. (26.41)
Now completely in love with Madame Olenska, Archer is unable to function in New York society. He's blinded by love. Love has turned him into a bumbling fool.
Quote #9
"Well, [the Gorgon] opened my eyes too; it's a delusion to say that she blinds people. What she does is just the contrary— she fastens their eyelids open, so that they're never again in the blessed darkness. Isn't there a Chinese torture like that? […]" (29.60)
Madame Olenska describes her own painful romantic past as looking at a Gorgon or Medusa. In Greek mythology, looking at a Medusa could turn you to stone. Ellen's understanding that Medusa turns you to stone with your eyes open is a testament to just how bad reality can be.