How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Page)
Quote #1
"[Caspian was] about as good a friend as a chap could have. And last time he was only a few years older than me. And to see that old man with a white beard, and to remember Caspian as he was the morning we captured the Lone Islands, or in the fight with the Sea Serpent—oh, it's frightful. It's worse than coming back and finding him dead." (3.45)
Eustace is overwhelmed to see that his great friend, Caspian, is now an old man. He feels as though his friend's life has been taken from him, even though Eustace realizes that Narnia time runs differently from England time and that Caspian really has had an entire life. Or perhaps it is that Eustace feels like he's been deprived of his friend's youth by the wonky space-time continuum issue.
Quote #2
"So [Rilian] returned to his mother, and found them all busy about her. But they were busy in vain, for at the first glance of her face Rilian knew that no physic in the world would do her good." (4.58)
Rilian finds that his mother has been attacked by a venomous snake and there is little that can be done to save her. Coming face-to-face with his mother's death will quite literally change Rilian's life and place him in mortal danger.
Quote #3
And all the giantesses said she was a perfect little darling; and some of them dabbed their eyes with enormous handkerchiefs as if they were going to cry. "They're dear little things at that age," said one giantess to another. "It seems almost a pity […]." (9.127)
Jill doesn't realize at this point why the giantesses are boo-hooing over her—she's just trying to be cute and find a way out of Harfang—but the truth is, of course, that she and Scrubb are destined to be man-pies. Lewis takes pains to show that when the characters think they are in the lap of luxury, they are really in the most danger, while conversely, when they feel they are in a dangerous and dismal place, they are really closest to achieving their goals.