How we cite our quotes: (Part.Section.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I will not attempt to describe or name that which I have learnt within the disciplined simplicity of my life as it has latterly been lived. I hope that I am a wiser and more charitable man now than I was then—I am certainly a happier man—and that the light of wisdom falling upon a fool can reveal, together with folly, the austere outline of truth. (Bradley Pearson's Foreword: par. 1)
According to Bradley Pearson, the relationship with P. Loxias that he developed in prison has brought him into the light of wisdom and truth. That's certainly an improvement over what he had before, if his own account is anything to go by.
Quote #2
In this connection I must mention too a not altogether rational idea which I had nourished more or less vaguely for a long time: the notion that before I could achieve greatness as a writer I would have to pass through some ordeal. (Bradley Pearson's Foreword: par. 14)
As Bradley Pearson tells us himself, he spent practically his whole life waiting to experience some kind of hardship or ideal that would transform him as an artist. No wonder he felt kind of happy about being accused of Arnold Baffin's murder. Being branded a criminal in the eyes of the world was just what the doctor ordered as far as his artistic ambitions were concerned.
Quote #3
It remains to record a dedication. There is of course one for whom this book was written whom I cannot name here. With a full heart, to witness duty, not to show my wit, I dedicate the work which you inspired and made possible to you, my dearest friend, my comrade and my teacher, with a gratitude which only you can measure. I know you will forgive its many faults, as you have always with a percipient mercy condoned the equally numerous shortcomings of its author. (Bradley Pearson's Foreword: par. 16)
It would be easy to assume that Bradley Pearson's love affair with Julian Baffin is the experience that brings about the deepest transformation in his life, but the comments we find in his foreword and postscript suggest that this isn't the case. Instead, Bradley's final transformation seems to have come from his relationship with the mysterious P. Loxias, who, among other things, seems to have supplanted Julian in Bradley's heart.
Quote #4
I felt, after leaving Roger and his Marigold, a humiliated misery which made me almost hysterical with anger. I saw, for this time, with perfect clarity how unjust and how unkind life had been to my sister. I felt a frenzy of remorse because I had not somehow imposed my will upon Roger and really made him suffer. (1.12.5)
Bradley Pearson experiences a number of smaller and subtler "transformations" throughout the novel—moments in which his perspective changes suddenly as new light is shed on previous misconceptions. The moment when he finally starts to understand the unhappiness of his sister, Priscilla, is one of them. It's just too bad that Bradley doesn't bother to make more of that new understanding while he has a chance.
Quote #5
Coming out into the garden everything was different. It had become evening. There was a lurid indistinct light which made things blurry and hard to locate. Near things were illuminated by a rich hazed sunlight, while the sky farther off was dark with cloud and the promise of night, although in fact it was not yet very late. I felt upset, confused, elated, and very much wanting now to be by myself. (1.14.124)
Kissing Rachel Baffin is another of the smaller and subtler moments of "transformation" that Bradley Pearson experiences in the novel, as attested by this scene in which Bradley and Rachel emerge into a garden (in a very Adam-and-Eve fashion, might we add), and observe the changedness of the world.
Quote #6
I do respect and admire you, Bradley. That's part of it. You're so much more serious about writing that Arnold is. Don't worry about tomorrow or about anything. I'll ring you. Don't get up. I want to leave you sitting there looking so thin and tall and solemn. Like a—like a—Inspector of Taxes. Just remember, freedom, a new world. Perhaps that's just what your book needs, what it's been waiting for. Oh you're such a schoolboy, such a puritan. It's time for you to grow up and be free. Goodbye, Bradley. May your own god bless you. (1.16.117)
Bradley Pearson's response to Rachel Baffin's parting words is striking—he thinks she may be right. As he sits in his apartment after she leaves, he wonders to himself if an affair with Rachel really will bring him the artistic power and vitality he's been waiting for, and if it will produce the spiritual transformation that'll enable him, finally, to write a great book.
Quote #7
'I had fallen in love with Julian.' The words are easily written down. But how to describe the thing itself? It is odd that falling in love, though frequently mentioned in literature, is rarely adequately described. It is after all an astounding phenomenon and for most people it is the most astonishing event that ever happens to them: more astonishing, because more counter-natural, than life's horrors. (2.1.2)
Would Bradley Pearson count himself among the people for whom falling in love is "the most astonishing event that ever happens to them," or would he say that a more astonishing event has happened in his life?
Quote #8
Some readers may feel that what I am describing is a condition of insanity, and in a way this is true. Were it not reasonably common, men could surely be locked up for such a change of consciousness. However it is one of the peculiarities, perhaps one of the blessings, of this planet that anyone can experience this transformation of the world. (2.1.5)
Not only does Bradley Pearson's newfound love for Julian Baffin alter his perception of himself, but it changes the world for him, too. Through his feelings for Julian, everything is transformed. Maybe that's why it feels to him like he's communing with the "godhead."
Quote #9
Can any love doubt that now he sees truly? And is the possessor of this enlivened vision not really more like God than like a madman? (2.1.5)
There are multiple moments throughout The Black Prince when Bradley Pearson suggests that the wisdom and insight that come from being in love makes men more like gods than regular human beings. What do you make of this, Shmoopers? Is this a classic case of pride coming before a fall, or does Bradley's relationships with Julian and then with P. Loxias suggest that he may be on to something here?
Quote #10
She had filled me with a previously unimaginable power which I knew that I would and could use in my art. The deep causes of the universe, the stars, the distant galaxies, the ultimate particles of matter, had fashioned these two things, my love and my art, as aspects of what was ultimately one and the same. There were, I knew, from the same source. It was under the same orders and recognizing the same authority that I now stood, a man renewed. (2.1.8)
Whatever Bradley Pearson's drinking, we'll have some of the same. This cosmic connectivity sounds like a lot of fun.