Yukio Mishima’s The Temple of the Golden Pavillion revolves around the main character Mizoguchi, and is written from his perspective. You should be able to find quotes about any aspect you choose to analyze when writing about in this novel.

Mizoguchi feels different from the rest of the world due to his ugly appearance and stutter. This alienation and bitterness can be supported with quotes like this one: “The special quality of hell is to see everything clearly down to the last detail.” Mizoguchi bemoans his intelligence and skill with details, since it also makes him more sensitive to those in the temple and beyond who ridicule him.

There are many philosophical quotes as well, for example:

“If the world changed, I could not exist, and if I changed, the world could not exist.” This is the kind of quote that you would expect from someone who is frustrated and feeling very conflicted about their life.

Another example of the kind of passage you can find here includes this one:

“For clearly, it is impossible to touch eternity with one hand and life with the other.” This line shows the sense in the story of Mizoguchi being stuck between two worlds. This feeling is so strong in the narrator that he actually decides to destroy the temple, and what it represents, in order to be free of it.