Bringing it together:

“Waitin', watchin' the clock, it's four o'clock, it's got to stop/ Tell him, take no more, she practices her speech/ As he opens the door, she rolls over/ Pretends to sleep as he looks her over/ She lies and says she's in love with him, can't find a better man”

“He looked coldly into the eyes of the photograph and they answered coldly. Certainly they were pretty and the face itself was pretty. But he found something mean in it. Why was it so unconscious and ladylike? The composure of the eyes irritated him. They repelled him and defied him: there was no passion in them, no rapture. He thought of what Gallaher had said about rich Jewesses. Those dark Oriental eyes, he thought, how full they are of passion, of voluptuous longing!...Why had he married the eyes in the photograph? He caught himself up at the question and glanced nervously round the room. He found something mean in the pretty furniture which he had bought for his house on the hire system. Annie had chosen it herself and it reminded him of her. It too was prim and pretty. A dull resentment against his life awoke within him. Could he not escape from his little house? Was it too late for him to try to live bravely like Gallaher? Could he go to London? … It was a quarter to nine. Little Chandler had come home late for tea and, moreover, he had forgotten to bring Annie home the parcel of coffee from Bewley’s. Of course she was in a bad humor and gave him short answers. She said she would do without any tea but when it came near the time at which the shop at the corner closed she decided to go out herself for a quarter of a pound of tea and two pounds of sugar. She put the sleeping child deftly in his arms and said: “Here. Don’t waken him.””

These quotes highlight the conversations the two characters have in their heads debating the merits and remorse of their current state and lives.

“Memories back when she was bold and strong/ And waiting for the world to come along.../ She dreams in colour, she dreams in red, can't find a better man”

“He felt acutely the contrast between his own life and his friend’s and it seemed to him unjust. Gallaher was his inferior in birth and education. He was sure that he could do something better than his friend had ever done, or could ever do, something higher than mere tawdry journalism if he only got the chance. What was it that stood in his way? His unfortunate timidity! He wished to vindicate himself in some way, to assert his manhood.”

These quotes highlight the characters’ desires for bigger and better things that they longingly dream of but convince themselves away from.