(news flash: "george" was a girl)
-pg. 28: "low spirits!" i [latimer] thought bitterly, as he rode away; "that is the sort of phrase with which coarse, narrow natures like yours [alfred's] think to describe experience of which you can know no more than your horse knows." latimer says this in response to alfred, but really, this statement cannot be true, everyone feels low @ some point in there life, despite alfred's self-complacency —> so, if latimer were truly clairvoyant, he would be able to sense some of alfred's flaws / insecurities (it seems instead that latimer is blinded by his own passionate feelings towards bertha, alfred's beau)
-latimer's jealousy towards his older brother leads him to all of his self-pity & accusations. latimer is jealous of alfred for 1) their father's preference for the older child and 2) their shared love for bertha, who at least outwardly prefers alfred. these harsh critiques of alfred on the part of latimer are eliot's (the author's) way of revealing to the reader that he in an unreliable narrator
-for example, in chapter 2, alfred dies that day, so latimer's assumption that "there was no evil in store for him" (pg. 28) was completely wrong.
-"the fear of poison is feeble against the sense of thirst" (pg. 24) is an amazing quote uttered by latimer, who hates himself for loving bertha, who is the literal antithesis to his ideal woman, but his desire for her remains and is perhaps even stronger b/c of it. bertha carelessly admits to latimer that she does not love alfred, who she agrees to marry. latimer argues w/ her against this way of thinking, insisting that either she really loves alfred or must marry someone else: "bertha, that is not your real feeling. why do you delight in trying to deceive me by inventing such cynical speeches?" (pg. 29)
-when latimer is in love w/ bertha, he projects onto her a perfect nature; when he doesn't have these feelings for her anymore, he resents he and projects a horrible nature onto her
-it may be impossible not to project onto somebody you really love (do you love the person or your projections?) —> latimer doesn't love bertha at all, but what he's made of her, she tells him how shallow and cynical she really is but he refuses to accept it as fact, he thinks she's still just trying to cover up some hidden feeling
-is latimer a sort of psychotic character who does evil acts w/o realizing them? (like robert deniro's character in hide and seek) "latimer seeks desperately for ignorance, freedom from the terrifying, nauseating knowledge of human pettiness" (from new york times review titled "the wimp who knew too much")
-both bertha and latimer look at each other and judge each other —> he finally realizes there is no depth there, "the narrow room of this woman's soul" (pg. 35). this question of judgment begs asking if you behave differently when you go to your teacher's or boss's office to discuss your work when he/she thinks you're brilliant vs. a teacher who thinks you're a slacker? yes. two opposite ends of the projection spectrum are: idealize (high) & demonize (low) —> judgment is not the way to know a person, and latimer can't presume bertha is either amazing or the worst person ever
-latimer's iconic & idealized projection of bertha could have stemmed from his mother's extreme caring & nurturing as a child. from safe atop the judge's stand, latimer puts himself in the position where he himself cannot be looked at under a microscope or judged —> he never thinks to analyze or "judge" himself. the blood transfusion scene towards the end of the novella was a sort of gothic, science-fiction, futuristic scene @ the lifted veil's time of publication (interesting that eliot's invention is now a reality)
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