"I fear I shall end my days as one of those neglected old women left starving to death in their beds"
Mrs Ayres, in a melodramatic tone. The idea of death is planted within the first 2 chapters.
"I have never thought of myself as a discontented man."
Faraday, showing his usual lack of self-awareness
"I'll still call you Doctor, if I may. One never quite likes to breach those professional distances, some-how"
Caroline as Faraday constantly attempts to breach these boundaries seemingly without consciousness of the inappropriate nature of this.
"It wasn't an accident! It were the bad thing, whispering to Gyp, or - or nipping him" - "there is a bad thing! There is!"
Betty, defending Gyp after the incident with Gillian Baker-Hyde
"It's the strain of-of keeping on top of it. It wants me to buckle, that's all. I shan't give in to it. It knows that, you see, and keeps trying harder."
Roderick, referring to both overwhelming bureaucracy and the strain of the supernatural
"I hardly dare close my eyes at night. I'm frightened this thing will return if I do"
Roderick, as the "supernatural" has pushed him to the edge.
"I thought it was sadly significant, too, that the worst of his experience had centred on a mirror."
Faraday believes that Rod is suffering from some sort of metal illness - the supernatural as a reflection of the mental state of the Ayres family.
"Last night I heard noises. I thought there was something at the door, something scratching, wanting to get in. Then I realised that the noise was inside me, that the thing that was scratching was inside me, trying to get out"
Roderick starts to perceive the supernatural as the external realisation of inner trauma.
"Just like a mark I could remember seeing on the floorboards of the little terraced house I grew up in"
Faraday links this fact to himself thus showing how his influence is changing the house - he wants to take over.
"I think I shall die of fright sometimes."
Betty, as working characters are often the ones that have a sense of the strangeness of the house first.
"Such a vey great pleasure to meet you properly at last. I've been gardening - or anyway, what passes for gardening, in our wilderness - so I hope you'll excuse my Sundayish appearance."
Mrs Ayres shows agreeable pleasantness and mannerisms that make evident her aristocratic background, she also has the grace that Caroline lacks.
"It was the first time I had gone to the house without an invitation"
Faraday is crossing their space without invitation - trespassing.
"I didn't do it in a spirit of vandalism. I wasn't a spiteful or destructive boy. It was simply that, in admiring the house, I wanted to possess a piece of it."
Faraday feels a right to own part of the house.
"But I gather that neglecting the servants is a capital offence these days; they're to get better treatment than us, apparently."
Rod expressing dissatisfaction with the new order. Context of class encroachment and workers rights
“Can't people do hurtful things, sometimes, and not even know they're doing them?”
Caroline to Faraday. insanity and the premise of the book, can one be evil without realising?
"She was my one true love. Does that sound odd to you?"
Mrs Ayres, referring to Susan in whom she saw a reflection of her young self.
