Long Island

“Eilis knew that she should discuss the possibility of taking the job at the garage with Tony, but she was certain that he would want her to continue looking after the books for himself and his brothers.”

Eilis struggles to feel independent in Long Island, not only because she lives next door to almost all of Tony’s family but also because of her career involvement with them. Eilis desperately wants to work for Mr. Dakessian because it will allow her the opportunity to work away from Tony and his brothers, in a place where she hopes to be more respected.

“‘There are no circumstances under which I am going to look after a baby. It is your business, not mine’ ‘Maybe you don’t want to be,’ he said softly, ‘but you are married to me.’”

In this brief conversation, Tony demonstrates how he thinks of Eilis and what he believes is her role as his wife. He believes Eilis should take care of the baby because she is his wife, even though the baby is the result of his infidelity. He negates her independence and right to stand her ground against adopting the child.

“When she had them developed, the photos showed a table laden down with dishes and bottles and plates and glasses; the family appeared festive, delighted to be together as though it was Christmas rather than an ordinary Sunday.”

When Eilis takes pictures of life in America, often to send to Ireland for her mother, she sees a shiny life that at times hides the true struggles she faces. In this case, the picture paints a lovely Sunday lunch with family, but these events are actually daunting for Eilis, who often feels left on the fringes.

“In all the years, they had shared a bed every night except when Eilis was having the children. She remembered that after Larry’s birth, which was difficult, she had to stay some extra days in the hospital. When Tony heard the news, he was forlorn. He wanted her back home.”

Tony is very dependent on Eilis, particularly when it comes to his emotional state. He loves being with her and hates being apart from her, making her departure in the aftermath of his infidelity all the harder for him. Despite his feelings about her being with him, his refusal to agree to her ultimatum proves to her where his allegiances lie going forward.

“When Eilis had gone, Nancy felt a sudden resentment against her for how she had treated them all, never giving them any explanation of why she had to go back to America, fooling them for that whole summer.”

In this callback to Brooklyn, Long Island’s predecessor, Nancy feels a certain disdain for the ease with which Eilis deceived her and Jim. She resents Eilis for lying and hurting Jim. Now that she is romantically involved with Jim, she is well aware of the lasting emotional impact Eilis’s departure has had on him.

“In the morning when she woke, the room was in shadow. She tried to think what was making her dread the day to come and then she realized that it was nothing. She was in her mother’s house, that was all.”

Eilis struggles throughout Long Island to feel at home wherever she is. With Tony’s infidelity and a coming baby, Eilis cannot feel at peace in Long Island, but with her mother’s coldness toward her, she finds Enniscorthy to be not as welcoming as she hoped. This in part sets Eilis to thinking of what and who she needs in her life to feel comfortable moving forward.

“Soon his mother came with the same story, to be followed by another in which Eilis had left because her husband had come from America to get her. It was incredible, he thought, that it took time to convince even his mother that there was not truth in any of the stories.”

Jim is the victim of town gossip after Eilis leaves, and he witnesses firsthand how toxic and powerful this gossip can be. Not only do rumors pop up and spread, but they also take hold of the people closest to him, making him defend himself and Eilis. He is constantly bombarded by people with their sympathies and judgments, leading him to remember the sting of Eilis leaving for a long time.

“[S]he realized that it was Jim she was worried about. Even if their trip to Dublin together was furtive, even if he would not be accompanying her down Grafton Street or going for a walk with her in Stephen’s Green, she would be traveling with him. He would watch her getting in and out of the car.”

Nancy experiences intense insecurity throughout Long Island, relating to her appearance and her plans to marry Jim. She does not want people to know that they are together because she does not want to steal attention from her daughter, who is to be married, and she is also unsure of how to maneuver through the situation as a widow. Additionally, she is constantly unsure of how Jim will receive her in her everyday life, making her anxious to even take a car ride with him.

“The heat coming from the sandy ground brought her back to those Sundays, her father still wearing his suit, her brothers carrying their hurley sticks, hoping to find others who might play with them on the strand.”

When Eilis visits the beach in Cush, memories of her former life in Ireland come flooding back to her, and she is once again young surrounded by family. This is significant because she does not experience this kind of close familial unit in the same way for the rest of her life. Even though she does have the Fiorello family, they are not as close and accepting of her.

“He had let more than twenty years go by so he wondered why he minded being alone so much now. But once the possibility of being married to Nancy arose, he began to dream about it, the dreams coming in more enticing detail as time went on.”

Jim does not move on from Eilis completely at any point after she leaves, and he allows his pain to isolate him from romance, leading him a life filled with loneliness. When he begins seeing Nancy, Jim finally realizes just how lonely he feels. His unwillingness to return to that state makes him eager to enter a committed and stable relationship with either Nancy or Eilis as fast as he can.

“The pride that George would have felt and the image of Jim watching her daughter merged in Nancy’s mind as she set out with Laura and Gerard to follow the bride and groom out of the cathedral after the ceremony. As they passed Jim, Nancy took him in openly, letting her gaze linger on him and enjoying how he kept his eyes fixed on her.”

Nancy struggles to accept her feelings for Jim at the same time that she tries to honor and remember George. She lives with conflicting emotions for much of the novel and works to reconcile them, such as in this moment when she places what she would expect of George onto Jim.

“The mass began. She found her mind wandering as the first prayers were said. For days now, the image of Jim walking away from her on the lane in Cush had stayed with her. If he had glanced behind, even for one second, he would have seen her standing on the lane, looking after him, wondering why he did not turn.”

This moment is in many ways a parallel to when Eilis leaves Tony at the airport, knowing he is waiting behind her, hoping she looks back and gives him a glimmer of hope that she will return to him. When Jim does exactly what Eilis did to Tony, Eilis is confused, as she believed that Jim would be eager to reunite.

“If she were to indicate that she was happily married and would soon be returning to her husband, that would, it now occurred to him, make things simple. He would not have to make any decisions. He would feel a dull disappointment.”

As Jim begins to ponder pursuing Eilis romantically over a marriage with Nancy, he hopes that Eilis can make the decision for him. Jim often suffers from inaction, and in these critical moments, he waits for any hint that she may no longer be happily married rather than asking her himself and making his intentions clear.

“When she asked him what he regretted most, he was at a loss. He regretted the years going by; he regretted that he had taken so long to find someone he could be happy with.”

When Eilis asks Jim what he regrets most, everything he thinks about is related to her. He regrets not pursuing her more directly. He also regrets not moving on from her, and letting the wound left by her departure hinder him in finding romance and happiness.

“The more she thought about the chip shop, the more she understood that the idea of her giving up work there would have to come from Jim. He knew that the business was lucrative. He had a better idea of her income than she did of his. But surely Jim made enough from the pub for them both to live.”

Nancy’s insecurity dominates so much of her life that she cannot even make financial and career decisions for herself. She dislikes working in the chip shop and hopes Gerard will take it over, though she is not confident that this is what she should do. Therefore, she hopes that Jim can make the decision for her, telling her how to proceed in their new life together.

“She was meant to warn him not to speak so freely in the pubs. Instead, she forced him to reveal what was wrong at home. She promised to tell no one. But she told me while you were out getting the newspaper yesterday. She knows everything.”

Though Mrs. Lacey’s purpose in taking Larry for a walk is to warn him not speak so freely in gossipy Enniscorthy, she uses the opportunity to pry the truth out of him. She has sensed that something was wrong from the moment Eilis arrived, and she uses her chatty grandson to learn what it is. Mrs. Lacey’s need to know everything reflects the theme of Pressures of Living in a Small Community demonstrated on a personal level.

“Now, however, in the plans he was making, Jim realized that he himself was like one of his own worst customers, someone who knew what he should not do but was driven to do it regardless, no matter how much trouble it would cause.”

Jim loses his sense of control as he becomes more involved with both Eilis and Nancy. He considers how well he knows the types of men who drink more than they should and how he is now a reflection of them, digging himself deeper into this love triangle with no actual extraction plan.

“In all his life, he had never imagined himself capable of going through that scene with Gerard, who trusted him so fundamentally, while knowing that he was preparing to walk away from Nancy, never to see her or Gerard again. What was most strange was that he had meant every word he had said to Gerard, or had meant every word at the time.”

Jim struggles to reconcile his conflicting feelings for Eilis and Nancy and finds himself leaning towards going with Eilis while acting everyday as though he plans to stay. He mentors Gerard as if he still intends to marry Nancy and have Gerard take over the chip shop. These actions leave him feeling dishonest, unable to trust himself.

“As she looked towards the river, she thought of all the cement and stone that made up the town, the hard surfaces and sharp angles. That was all she had known. She smiled at the idea that she would put the same energy into making a garden as she had into opening a fish-and-chip shop.”

Nancy works hard throughout her life, and it culminates in a chip shop, an establishment that draws ire from neighbors and heaps stress upon Nancy. As Nancy prepares to build her house, she finally feels as though she can put her hard work and energy into a task that is for herself and her own passions, a marked difference from her constant sense of duty and responsibility to others.

“His position in the photograph was one she knew because that was precisely how he had often held Rosella and Larry. If she went into the back room, she would find photographs that showed him sitting just like that, with the baby held in the same way.”

The image of Tony holding the new baby represents the moment in which Eilis officially decides to leave him. He has he severely betrayed her by taking the baby in, and the image of his hand holding the baby is a symbol that represents his final betrayal. She recognizes the hand because it is exactly how he held their children as babies, and the fact that he is doing it with another baby shows him making the conscious effort to move on without her.

“He heard her in the bathroom. Saying that his underpants would have to go suggested that she had plans to see him in the future. But maybe it was just a joke.”

Jim once again cannot bring himself to directly address Eilis about her intentions with him and her future and instead depends on hints she gives. He believes that her mentioning his underwear means that she expects to be with him going forward, and he holds onto this, taking it as a good sign.

“It was too much of a coincidence or it was nothing. Whatever it was, she knew, it would go through her mind all day. How ludicrous it might appear were Jim even to discover that she, Nancy, believed he was seeing Eilis Lacey, that they had sneaked off to be together!”

Nancy’s insecurity once again gets the better of her in this moment as she considers whether to pursue Jim to assuage her fears that he is with Eilis. She fears discovering that he is with her, but she also fears looking ridiculous if it turns out that he is not with her. Nancy’s preoccupation with how she looks to others is a central feature of her character.

“When I go to my reward, I will expect your father to be waiting for me in heaven. How else would I live if I didn’t have that to look forward to? And on his deathbed that’s what we talked about and it gave us both great comfort. Imagine then if I went and got married to a second fellow!”

Mrs. Lacey demonstrates some severe judgement toward Nancy in this moment, disapproving of her relationship with Jim, believing that it is a betrayal of Nancy’s husband, George. This sentiment is one that Nancy fights against throughout the novel, and Mrs. Lacey’s stance proves that Nancy was right to suspect others’ perception of her.