The Waves Death Quotes

Bernard offers this thought to a fellow passenger on an overnight train. Throughout the novel, Bernard thinks a lot about habitual behavior and how it clouds our engagement with the deeper truths of existence, man. Here he seems to be reflecting on the meaninglessness daily activities. Thus quote suggests that Bernard believes these habitual actions are pointless because the end result of all acts and actions is death. We bet Bernard totally leaves dishes in the sink until he realizes he needs a clean bowl.

Here, Bernard reflects how very little stands in the way of death, saying that he feels so disconnected from his own sense of individuality that it is a shock when his body produces the natural reflexes that prevent death (like when he almost steps off a curb at the wrong time but stops himself). Bernard's thoughts here echo Neville's thoughts in the wake of Percival's death, when he watches a little boy boarding a bus and thinks that the boy is just a slip away from a fatal accident.

Bernard seems to be connecting habits or daily activities ( like shopping) with avoiding the "truth" of death. He claims that doesn't go in for such blinders and is aware of how tenuous life is.

When Jinny gets some male attention while she's out to dinner with her friends, Rhoda and Louis think of her as participating in some kind of ritual that resembles a marriage ceremony. In their fantasy, there's someone decked out in flowers, a fire, a celebratory procession… all sorts of glam. However, this image quickly turns ominous (in The Waves? What a shocker!) as they "forebode decay" and then see death "woven" in with this joyous occasion. This moment may forshadow Percival's death in the next chapter.

This is the moment we learn about Percival's death. Here, Neville references the tree he "cannot pass," an image that first appears in Neville's thoughts when he talks about hearing about the man who got his throat cut.

As with Rhoda and Louis's vision of a ceremony that is half wedding/half funeral, Bernard's thoughts here present life and death simultaneously, the implication being that they are two sides of the coin for him.

This quote sums up the sense of shock that the characters experience at confronting a world that no longer includes their friend.

Here, Bernard has ambivalence toward life and death. This characterizes the attitude of the rest of the novel; life is both something that he claims Percival is "well out of" and "better than one had dared to hope." The novel's characters are torn between love and hate, nature and industry, and other sets of opposites. So, we guess it's natural that they would be similarly indecisive when it comes to the big binary—life and death—that is kind of at the heart of human existence.

Jinny's curious statement is offered during her people-watching session with an unnamed suitor and reflects an awareness of the transience of life and relationships. This ties in nicely with the novel's overarching obsession with death.

This is Bernard's declaration of war against death, offered after he resolves to continue fighting to communicate and connect via language. Hmm, do you think can words really grant immortality? Reading is power, folks.