Normal People

Connell is in a campus mental health facility, filling out a questionnaire. He has been sent there by Niall. He feels isolated by his scholarship and has been having increasingly morbid and despairing thoughts. In conversation with a counselor named Yvonne, he reveals that his depression began in January with the news of his high school friend Rob’s suicide. Connell recalls Rob as a man who was consumed with appearances and popularity, and Connell blames himself for failing to help him. He feels equally cut off from Dublin and his hometown.    

Connell flashes back to Rob’s funeral, which he attended with Helen. Rather than feeling comforted by Helen, he felt embarrassed by her neediness and superficiality; he did not introduce her to any of his friends. Marianne also attended the funeral, and she and Connell embraced for a long time. Helen confronted Connell about the embrace, and the two of them broke up not long afterward. 

Connell has rekindled his interest in fiction writing. He recently went to a reading, and while he found the reading stilted and awkward—and is uncertain about the social utility of fiction writers and writing in general—later that night, he looked at some of his old writing: “He felt the old beat of pleasure inside his body […] Life offers up these moments of joy despite everything” (pages 221-22). 

Marianne and Connell are together in Connell’s old bedroom in Carricklea; Connell is home for the weekend, while Marianne is staying with her family over the summer. Connell listlessly watches a soccer game on his computer while Marianne tries to sleep. She tells Connell that Eric recently apologized to her for how he treated her in high school, and the two of them briefly talk about Rob and his demons. 

Marianne remembers a recent protest in support of Gaza that they attended in Dublin. They drove together to Carricklea afterward, and Connell told her again in the car that he loved her; she replied that she loved him, too. 

In his room, the two of them discuss their friendship. Connell admits that he is still attracted to her, which makes their friendship complicated. Marianne makes a move to leave, but Connell says that he would like her to stay. The two of them start to have sex, but Connell balks at Marianne’s request that he hit her during the act. Ashamed, Marianne dresses and rushes out of the house. 

At home, Alan picks a fight with Marianne. When Marianne attempts to hide in her bedroom, he bangs her door into her face, breaking her nose in his effort to get in. 

Connell is in the kitchen with his mother, immediately following Marianne’s flight from their home. Lorraine tells Connell that an old girlfriend of his has recently become pregnant. Connell asks Lorraine if she has ever regretted having him at such a young age. She insists that she doesn’t, and she says Connell is the love of her life. 

Connell flashes back to getting his first short story published anonymously in the Trinity literary magazine. Seeing his story in the magazine made him feel both elated and embarrassed. 

Connell then receives a phone call from Marianne. She tells him that she has a bloody nose, though does not tell him the reason. He replies that he will come to pick her up. Once he arrives at her house, Marianne answers the door immediately, with Alan right behind her. Connell asks her softly if Alan was the one to give her the bloody nose, and she replies that yes, he was. Connell then tells her to get in his car, and she obeys him. Once she is safely in the car, Connell tells Alan to leave Marianne alone. He then drives Marianne back to his house.  

Connell and Marianne now live together in Dublin, finishing up at Trinity. They are an open couple, and Marianne has a new sensation of being just like everyone else: “People have forgotten about her. She’s a normal person now” (254). She has a part-time office job, and Connell edits the college literary magazine. Marianne is estranged from her own family since the fight with Alan last summer; when she goes back to Carricklea, she stays with Connell and Lorraine. 

As Marianne gets ready to go to work one morning, and Connell sits in bed looking at his computer, he announces that he has something to tell her: He has been accepted by an MFA program in fiction writing in New York City. After initially feeling betrayed and insecure—she did not know that Connell applied to the program—Marianne tells Connell that he should go.