How we cite our quotes: (Part.Chapter.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I have read so often of people's thoughts in the moment of fear: of God, or family, or a woman. I admire their control. I thought of nothing, not even the trap-door above me: I ceased, for those seconds, to exist: I was fear taken neat. (2.2.2.43)
As Thomas Fowler says elsewhere, he's not involved, and so he has little to lose with the loss of his life. He fears death, but not because he'll be separated from what he loves. After all, he came east to be killed (uh-huh, suuure).
Quote #2
Only a man could climb a ladder, and yet I couldn't think of it as a man like myself—it was as though an animal were moving in to kill, very quietly and certainly with the remorselessness of another kind of creation. The ladder shook and shook and I imagined I saw its eyes glaring upwards. (2.2.3.232)
The shaking turns out to be nothing but his own grip upon the ladder, but in that moment, his fear pumps fuel into his imagination, and his nightmare comes alive. Have you ever, in fear, seen something that wasn't actually there?
Quote #3
I had always hated and feared the thought of drowning. Why can't one choose one's death? (2.2.4.30)
This is an interesting question for Fowler to ask. By his own admission, he came east to be killed, so he is in a way trying to choose the manner of his demise—or at least the general location.