Year of Wonders Chapter 12 Quotes
How we cite the quotes:
(Part.Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote 1
"Mr. Mompellion, too, has come upon these talismans. It seems the madness is spreading as fast as the disease among us." (2.12.11)
One major side effect of this whole plague business is that the community goes insane. With their loved ones dying every day and no end in sight, the villagers turn to bizarre magical rituals to save themselves. It's basically mass psychosis.
Quote 2
Those of us who were left feared [...] the hidden contagion we each might carry. People scurried [...] without meeting another soul. (2.12.30)
The villagers' fear of the plague becomes so intense that they give up trying to keep the community together. At this point, they're all so emotionally broken that seeing each other only reminds them of everything they've lost. Eyam has become Bummerville.
Quote 3
Why, I wondered, did we [...] seek to put the Plague in unseen hands? Why should this thing be either a test of faith sent by God, or the evil workings of the Devil in the world? (2.12.23)
Anna's religious doubts grow as the plague worsens. Here, she questions the villagers' immediate assumption that the plague has been thrust upon them by some higher power. Why can't it just be seen as a natural phenomenon? By couching the plague in religion, the villagers are making themselves feel more helpless than they actually are.
Quote 4
The trouble with weeping was that once begun, it became almost impossible to stop. (2.12.1)
Ain't that the truth? To be fair, our typical weeping sessions about One Direction are a tad less intense than they'd be if the plague destroyed our hometown.
Quote 5
I was finally able to fashion a scale on which I could weigh my father's nature and find a balance between my disgust for him and an understanding of him. (2.12.4)
Anna makes peace with her father's memory by thinking about the life circumstances that shaped him, for better or for worse. Mostly for worse. As a boy, Josiah Bont experienced a great deal of abuse and trauma, causing him pain that he later took out on innocent people like Anna. That doesn't excuse his actions, but it does help us understand them.
Quote 6
"We are become Golgotha—the place of skulls," said Michael Mompellion. (2.12.29)
Wow—that's pretty intense. For context, Golgotha was the hill where Jesus was crucified, according to the Bible. (It's also the name of our new doom metal band. We call dibs.)
Quote 7
Whole houses stood empty; entire families gone from us and names that had been known here for centuries gone with them. (2.12.31)
Pretty heavy, right? The city of Eyam isn't seeing just a massive number of deaths; it's also seeing a complete upheaval of its sense of identity. Its history is literally being erased. For better or for worse, the village will never be the same again.
Quote 8
"On your knees, sinner!" He took a step towards us, a looming black figure. (2.12.53)
Mompellion seems like a swell dude for most of the novel, but he tends to flip out whenever he catches wind of sexy times. As we'll see, there's a fascinating reason for this.
Quote 9
[It] shocks me [...] that people here are so desperate [...] that they [...] pay their last mite for these worthless amulets. (2.12.9)
As the plague worsens, the villagers turn to superstition and witchcraft in a desperate attempt to save themselves. People will believe in any crazy thing when they're hopeless. Regardless, Mompellion is horrified to discover that his flock is turning away from God.