Although the plague eventually recedes, the village will never be the same again. Maybe most people will do what Anna did and skip town. Maybe most will decide to stick around and rebuild. Either way, the Eyam that existed before the plague is gone forever.

Our brains get blown when Mompellion drops this bomb near the end of the novel, basically saying that he no longer believes in God after Elinor's death. He was able to rationalize suffering when it was somewhat separate from him, but now that it's hit close to home, he doesn't know how to deal.

Everyone in the village experiences suffering, but the reactions each person has to it vary wildly. Anna, for example, becomes much stronger as a result of the pain she experiences. Mompellion, on the other hand, is emotionally and spiritually crushed by Elinor's death.

Well, that's one way to get rid of repression. Anna has long been attracted to Mompellion, and with Elinor dead, she can no longer hold back the tide of her feelings. It ends up being a mixed bag. On the one hand, she feels incredible after having removed the yoke of sexual repression. On the other, she feels shame for betraying her recently deceased friend.

This is a yuge revelation. Anna has always seen Elinor and Michael as the perfect couple, so she's shocked when Michael reveals that they never ever had sex. This was his way of punishing Elinor for her prior sexual activity. In this light, the second sentence in the passage is particularly disturbing: Michael made Elinor love him in order to cause her pain. Yikes. Talk about repressed.