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'Shall I always be chosen?' she said bitterly. 'Shall I always be left behind when the Riders depart, to mind the house while they win renown, and find food and beds when they return?'
'A time may come soon,' said he, 'when none will return. Then there will be need of valour without renown, for none shall remember the deeds that are done in the last defence of your homes. Yet the deeds will not be less valiant because they are unpraised.'
And she answered: 'All your words are but to say: you are a woman, and your part is in the house. But when the men have died in battle and honour,
you have leave to be burned in the house, for the men will need it no more.
But I am of the House of Eorl and not a serving-woman. I can ride and wield blade, and I do not fear either pain or death.'
'What do you fear, lady?' he asked.
'A cage,' she said. 'To stay behind bars, until use and old age accept them, and all chance of doing great deeds is gone beyond recall or desire.'
'And yet you counselled me not to adventure on the road that I had chosen, because it is perilous?'
'So may one counsel another,' she said. 'Yet I do not bid you flee from peril, but to ride to battle where your sword may win renown and victory. Would not see a thing that is high and excellent cast away needlessly.'
'Nor would I,' he said. 'Therefore I say to you, lady: Stay! For you have no errand to the South.'
'Neither have those others who go with thee. They go only because they would not be parted from thee – because they love thee.' Then she turned and vanished into the night.
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Éowyn's anger and bitterness stands out for me here. I think it also shows some the reason for her attraction to Aragorn, as the head miltary leader and future king. But I also think her confusion shows as well: she says that the others who are going with him go only because they love him, as she believes she does. She isn't differentiating the type of love for a leader from the type of love for a spouse. I thought this was an interesting letter about Éowyn's feelings:
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Letter 244:
Eowyn: it is possible to love more than one person (of the other sex) at the same time, but in a different mode and intensity. I do not think that Eowyn’s feeling for Aragorn really changed much: and when he was revealed as so lofty a figure, in descent and office, she was able to go on loving and admiring him. He was old, and that is not only a physical quality: when not accompanied by any physical decay age can be alarming or awe-inspiring. Also she was not herself ambitious in the true political sense. Through not a ‘dry nurse’ in temper, she was also not really a soldier or ‘amazon’, but like many brave women was capable of great military gallantry at crisis.
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I suppose she learns the difference later after meeting Faramir in Minas Tirith since her feelings never actually change.
Something that stood out in the conversation with Aragorn was Éowyn's sudden use of thee instead of you. The only other instance where she uses that word was in a cermonial salute to Theoden after his recovery. I'm wondering if the sudden switch was intentional to show familiarity after she declares her love for Aragorn or if the appearance is more related to style changes in the chapter.