How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I'm not an ordinary girl, pining after romance and a husband. May the Horrors take me if ever I grow ordinary, like Pearl! (3.22)
Briony expresses the same disdain for love and romance that many girls do before they fall in love for the first time. She (a bit dramatically perhaps) suggests that she wants to be taken by evil spirits if she "grows ordinary."
Quote #2
It wasn't quite a question. It was more of an invitation to tell him whatever I chose. I could talk about Petey, I could not talk about Petey. […] Eldric gave me a choice, and it was this that made me want to tell him everything. (10.128)
Eldric's patient approach with Briony allows her to slowly let her guard down with him, and by being her friend first, he is able to win her trust and affection without making her feel pressured or defensive. Good move, Eldric.
Quote #3
It feels as though it's been months since Eldric arrived, but it's been only five weeks. If you want to stretch out your life, here's my advice. Look about for new experiences, lots of them. It slows down time. (12.2)
Here we start to see Briony's feelings toward Eldric develop. Pro tip: friendship is the key to a complicated person's heart. Briony's feeling that Eldric has been there for longer comes from a sense of closeness and comfort that she has developed with him.
Quote #4
He reached through the window, his beautiful hand, his five beautiful fingers outspread. If I were a poet, I'd write about hands, nothing but hands. I touched the whorled petals of my fingertips to his, our hand made the roof of a house. (17.2)
By observing his hands and calling them beautiful, Briony shows her hand (no poker face for this love bird). She goes on to talk about poetry and touching her fingertips to his, tell tale signs of falling in love.
Quote #5
I thought of offering him my wrist. It needed to be cradled and rocked and lullabied. I turned, but my cheek got in the way of his lips. He melted his lips into my skin. Not a kiss, a melt. I could allow a melt. That wasn't what Cecil tried to do. (21.42)
Though it might be a bit babyish, this desire to have Eldric literally baby her comes from a need for a nurturing type of love. When thinking about needing this type of love from him, Briony receives a kiss that is different from Cecil's because it is more gentle and loving than lustful.
Quote #6
Funny how I'd started off feeling so comfortable with Eldric last spring, but that now prickly little pauses kept growing between us. (25.89)
As Briony's feelings change from comfort and friendship to love and romance, her interactions with Eldric start to become more awkward. It's classic teen rom com material.
Quote #7
Girl he loves. My face was raw. I cradled it in my hands. Give me a mask, any mask! I swung my hair forward. […] What was I to do? I wished I could love, how I wished! (27.44-46)
Finally we get a romantic moment, though when Eldric admits his love to Briony, she is not ready to receive it. She thinks this is because she cannot love, but it might have more to do with her lack of self-love and confidence.
Quote #8
I wish he'd help lay down new brain paths for me and scuff out the old. I wish he'd tell me how perfect I am, just as Father did when I was small. (32.85)
Now knowing about the negative self image that was built by her stepmother, Briony begins to want to show herself love. She wishes that Eldric could help her, because she knows his love is one that is true and nurturing like the love she remembers from her father.
Quote #9
"I love a person for communion, communion with wine and coats and help and trust--even if that person feels he's doing all the trust and gets grumpy. […] I love it that I make him laugh—"
There are no end to the things I might say. I feel my heart unfolding. I've felt that unfolding before, but I haven't let it be real. (32.247-249)
Briony doesn't expect to be able to return Eldric's love, let alone describe all of the things she loves about him in detail. Once she starts though, she is unable to stop listing all of the things she loves about him. Aw…
Quote #10
Word magic. If you say a word, it leaps out and becomes the truth. I love you. I believe it. I believe I am lovable. How can something as fragile as a word build a whole world? (32.280)
Just as she had wished earlier in the chapter, Eldric's love for her helps Briony begin to change her self-image. Instead of thinking of herself as evil, wicked, and hate-worthy, Briony now begins to think of herself as deserving of love. This one revelation has the power to change her whole world.