However, just as in the depth of her playing the virgin had become the woman, so the woman in the habit became a woman to the bone.
-- Narrator (chapter 1)

Importance: Throughout the novel, the author uses Agnes's various transformations in order to explore the amorphous nature of identity and the self. In this passage, the narrator is describing the ways in which playing the piano impacts Agnes's understanding of who she is. When she plays, she casts aside the version of herself who is defined by the church. She becomes a purer, more elemental form which connects her to her human and animalistic selves in a way that is raw and unhindered by any other disguises or costumes of identity.

Entering this new life, she felt a largeness move through her, a sense that she was essential to a great, calm design of horizonless meaning.
-- Narrator (chapter 4)

Importance: When Agnes initially dons Father Damien's robes and...