How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Anybody would think she had loved her daughter. (2.52)
Connie's crying here because she sees a girl about her daughter's age. The authorities took Angelina away from her because she hit Angelina once and broke her wrist. Connie's anger here is in part at the folks who took Angelina away. But she's also angry with herself for hitting her daughter, and she to some degree feels she didn't love Angelina… or didn't deserve to love her.
Quote #2
She should have loved her better, but to love you must love yourself, she knew that now, especially to love a daughter you see as yourself reborn. (3.12)
Connie doesn't love herself in part because the society she's in doesn't love poor people, or Latinos, or women. She does better at loving herself in Mattapoisett, because the culture there tells her she's lovable.
Quote #3
They talked passionately, sitting side by side against a wall, sometimes interrupting the flow by half an hour or an hour… Too much animation, too obvious a pleasure in each other's company would bring down punishment. The hospital regarded Sybil as a lesbian. Actually she had no sex life. (4.25)
The hospital is really into regulating love. They don't want the patients to like each other; they don't want any expression of intimacy, physical or otherwise. That mentally healthy people don't love seems to be the working model.