Quote 55
The sound that I had been hearing was the sound that I remembered from far back, from a time before I could clearly remember anything else. (9.58)
How's that for creepy? Arthur remembers the sound of a rocking chair from when he was just a little baby, and that's the same sound he's hearing now in this supposedly empty room. Talk about the past and present coming together.
Quote 56
All that was behind me, it might have happened, I thought, to another person. The doctor had told me to put the whole thing from my mind, and I resolved to try and do so. (12.1)
Arthur wants desperately to escape the things he's seen at Eel Marsh House, but it's not so easy to leave the past behind. And maybe that's not even the best way to deal with trauma—maybe we have to tell our stories if we want to get over them.
Quote 57
Oh, pray God it may not—that the chain is broken—that her power is at an end—that she has gone—and I was the last ever to see her. (12.11)
Talk about leaving us hanging. Is Jennet satisfied? Is she off to whatever afterlife is waiting for her? Or is she still lurking around, waiting for the next innocent life to ruin?