How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
As a boy I was convinced he loved me. He would rattle his cot and snort merrily when I slipped into the room. He was easily entertained with a song, a toy, a waggle of his toes. If I am thin now, he was always thinner, and when he was happy his scrawny arms would wave like the wings of a chick. He could not talk, but he could gurgle, and he was capable of joy. (7.7)
Vernon loves Gabriel, but it's often tricky to see that since he can't talk or communicate in the ways most people do, and he often throws temper tantrums over little things because he doesn't understand the world the way most people do, either. We can't help but wonder if Gabriel loves his brother back.
Quote #2
Then I ran down the hall, almost skipping. The torturous clouds were gone, I was giggly with glee. I burned with love and pity for Vernon. I had never felt that way. (7.76)
Right before he discovers Vernon has died, Gabriel thinks about how much he loves his brother. But check out the second part of that line: and pity. It's not just love that Vernon feels for his brother, but there's a sense of shame or disappointment in him as well. Is that really love?
Quote #3
He'd loved Surrender from the moment he saw him, and the hound was likewise fonder of Finnigan than he was of anyone else. I knew that, while I was at school, Finnigan and the dog accompanied each other on long patrols of the countryside. (11.4)
A dog is a man's best friend, and that couldn't be truer for both Gabriel and Finnigan. Both of them love Surrender, perhaps more than anyone else in their lives. The dog provides comfort and camaraderie for them, which neither of them gets anywhere else.
Quote #4
Finnigan was unruly, perhaps he was mad—nonetheless a surge of affection went through me for him. I loved him for all the things he knew about me—for things like my brainstorming mother—and equally for all the things he didn't know: for things like Evangeline. (11.37)
It's clear that Finnigan and Gabriel have a love-hate relationship (with an emphasis on the hate). Here, we get some insight into why Gabriel keeps Finnigan around for so long in the first place: He wants someone to confide in.
Quote #5
Affection makes fools. Always, without exception, love digs a channel that's sooner or later flooded by the briny water of despair. Back then, I didn't know this to be the fact I know it is now. (15.10)
Gabriel feels this way much later because of how things ended with Evangeline. But importantly, he never really gives her the chance to respond to his declaration of love. Perhaps Finnigan's right, Gabriel is just scared of how vulnerable love makes him.
Quote #6
It was true I couldn't bring myself to touch her, though it was all I wanted to do, all I could think about doing, the single thing I would die to do. My nights were filled with seared imaginings—my hand on her chest, my palm on her spine. I loved and dreaded the fanciful nights; the hammered day was better because she was there, a thousand times worse for the same. (15.91)
After Finnigan makes fun of him for not fessing up his crush, Gabriel confides in us. He admits that he does love Evangeline, but he's scared of what might happen—Gabriel doesn't want to make a fool of himself, and he's worried that's all love ever does.
Quote #7
I thought about how stupid it is, that all of us are born destined to desire somebody else, though desire brings with it such disappointment and pain. Humankind's history must be scored bloody with heartbreak. This hankering for affection is a blight upon us. (17.49)
Gabriel pinpoints all the bad stuff about love, but maybe that's because he's never experienced the positive effects. Think about it: His parents never show him any affection, and he doesn't have any friends. So maybe he's not so much cynical as he is inexperienced.
Quote #8
"What don't you understand, Gabriel? Evangeline can only hurt you. Even if she doesn't mean to, she will. Do you know why? Because she doesn't love you. She does not love you. It's not the way you hoped it would be." (18.17)
Finnigan's a jerk, but he might have a point, so though he's the evil twin and we're prone to dismiss what he says and think ill of him, we also wonder if he's right. Does Evangeline love Gabriel? Does she even like him? Finnigan is Gabriel's psyche, so this might just be him convincing himself of something he already knows.
Quote #9
My illness comes from the time of chivalry and towers, of armor and sunken swords. It's a close relation to the fatally broken heart. Life is a skittish sprite—but it can be caught and tied down. It can be muzzled and deprived until its light begins to fade. (21.1)
So… is Gabriel dying of a broken heart? That's certainly the way he makes it sound here. Elsewhere, though, he makes sure to prove the point that he's killing off Finnigan. Perhaps it's both: Maybe Gabriel is heartbroken about his life and trying to be chivalrous to the rest of society at the same time.
Quote #10
I should not be afraid—he always loved me—but my heart is a bird, my cool blood is cold. He has come back to me, the one who loved him, the one who stopped his insufferable life. I should be awed: I am horrified. (21.83)
In his dream about Vernon, Gabriel describes his brother in this heartfelt way. It's true that Vernon always cared for Gabriel, but do you think he deserves his brother's affection? After all, he's the one who killed him.