How we cite our quotes: (Part.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I shall not attempt here to describe my marriage. Some impression of it will doubtless emerge. For the present story, its general nature rather than its detail is important. It was not a success. At first I saw her as a life-bringer. Then I saw her as a death-bringer. Some women are like that. There is a sort of energy which seems to reveal the world: then one day you find you are being devoured. Fellow victims will know what I mean. (1.1.31)
This "Christian-as-death-bringer" theme that Bradley Pearson develops throughout his narrative is one of the clues that connects Christian to Shakespeare's witches—particularly those who appear in Macbeth.
Quote #2
There is nothing quite like the dead dull feel of a failed marriage. Nor is there anything like one's hatred for an ex-spouse. (How can such a person dare to be happy?) I cannot credit those who speak of 'friendship' in such a context. I lived for years with a sense of things irrevocably soiled and spoiled, it could give suddenly such a sad feel to the world sometimes. I could not liberate myself from her mind. This had nothing to do with love. Those who have suffered this sort of bondage will understand. Some people are just 'diminishers' and 'spoilers' for others. (1.1.32)
Although Bradley Pearson is commenting on his own marriage here, his words also foreshadow Rachel Baffin's feelings and actions later on in Bradley's story. That said, Bradley himself never pays much attention to the connections between his own disappointment as a married person and Rachel's dissatisfaction with her married life. His dim view of most women makes it too difficult for him to see Rachel as someone like himself.
Quote #3
He has hit me before, oh this isn't the first time by any means. He didn't know it, I never told him, but the first time he hit me our marriage came to an end. And he talks about me to other women, I know he does, he confides in other women and discusses me with them. They all admire him so and flatter him so. He has taken away my life from me and spoilt it, breaking every little piece of it, like the breaking of every bone in one's body, every little thing ruined and spoilt and taken away. (1.3.100)
According to Bradley Pearson, Rachel Baffin had been deeply unhappy in her marriage to Arnold Baffin for a long, long time—well before the events that his narrative describes. What does Rachel herself have to say about this in her postscript to the text?