How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
she would have been branded as a witch and local legends and tales were still abroad and some extravagant folklore still half-believed in. (4.19)
Arthur dismisses the villagers as steeped in silly folklore, but who's the one believing in ghosts by the end?
Quote #2
Who she was—or what—and how she had vanished, such questions I did not ask myself. (5.28)
On the one hand, okay, we're not sure we'd want to know the answers to those questions either. On the other hand—come on, show a little curiosity, Arthur!
Quote #3
I did not believe in ghosts. Or rather, until this day, I had not done so, and whatever stories I had heard of them I had, like most rational, sensible young men, dismissed as nothing more than stories indeed. (5.30)
Even though the facts are staring him in the face, Arthur refuses to believe that the woman is a ghost. But if your conclusion (ghosts) is rationally impossible, then maybe your facts are wrong?
Quote #4
"It seems to me, Mr. Daily," I said, "that I have seen whatever ghost haunts Eel Marsh and that burial ground." (8.29)
The first step to progress is acceptance. Now that Arthur is no longer in denial about the existence of ghosts he can speak to Mr. Daily openly about the whole crazy affair. But notice how he's still using very rational, measured language to talk about it: "it seems to me."
Quote #5
And then, from somewhere within the depths of the house—but somewhere not very far from the room in which I was—I heard a noise. (9.20)
There's nothing worse than things that go bump in the night when you're trapped on an island in a potentially haunted house. Seriously. Nothing worse. We get chills just thinking about it.
Quote #6
But no one had been there. The room had been empty. Anyone who had just left it must have come out into the corridor and confronted me… (9.61)
Ah, the inexplicable moving furniture when no one else is there. That's a classic ghostly moment, and it creeps us out every time.
Quote #7
"Rest in peace," I thought, but this poor one did not, could not. (10.6)
Jennet Humfrye isn't the only lost soul wandering about. Poor little Nathaniel keeps haunting the marsh too—but he manages to keep his pain to himself, rather than taking it out on the village. We think.
Quote #8
…I caught a glimpse of someone standing. A woman. That woman. She was looking directly toward me. (10.30)
Well, that's a nice way to end the night—ghosts looking down at you as you almost drown.
Quote #9
Now, I realized, there were forces for good and those for evil doing battle together and that a man might range himself on one side or the other. (11.141)
This is a cool but confusing sentence. If Jennet is an evil ghost, does that mean there are good ghosts? And if there's no way to fight back against Jennet, then what does it even mean to stand on the side of good?