Brooklyn: SPOILER ALERT

Tools    





So if it wasn't for the gossipy woman at the bakery ,would she she have stayed in Ireland and got married to the Irish fellow and not return to her husband in New York ? I think she fell in love with the Irish fellow because she wasn't even reading the letters that her husband was sending her. To me it seemed as if she was escaping from a town that she could no longer stand ,rather than returning to her husband ,as the reason that she left.



I think her mom being alone kinda was the main reason for her staying and the guy was a plus,it made me feel bad for her husband,

The gossip was the nudge of small town living compared to Brooklyn where everyone was too busy trying to make a life for themselves then to have time to sit and gossip.



I've not seen the film, but I've read the book. I think Victoria is right, the claustrophobia of everyone knowing everyone elses business that in the end made Eilis go back to America. This was pushed home to her by the dreadful Miss Kelly.
I always wonder tho what if Tony had found someone else and he was writing to her to say that and she wasn't opening his letters? It'd be a bit of a shock when she got back to Brooklyn!



I did not read the book but I saw and liked the movie, very much. My sister read the book, finished it around the end of last year after I had seen the movie, and asked me for clarification on this exact question in regards to the novel.

I can't speak for how Colm Tóibín presented it in the source material, but here's my take on what her motivations are in the movie as adapted by Nick Hornby and John Crowley. First off, no, I don't think her return to America is motivated by the cUnty shopkeeper revealing that she knows she is already married and quasi threatening to hold it over her or expose her in some way. To me in that scene Eilis (Saoirse Ronan) at last asserts herself and tells her a long overdue go fu*k yourself you petty, hurtful, angry cow. So I don't think the threat, which she instantly diffuses, is what motivates her in any one-to-one way.

The way I read her decision is that she returns to America because she wants to, because she loves Tony (Emory Cohen), loves her life there and the opportunities it represents. What the trip home does is show her a wonderful glimpse of what her life could be, were she to stay. When she left Ireland for New York City it was largely out of desperation and feeling like she had no chance for much happiness or surprise in her life where she was. When she returns she is more confident, more sure of herself, and has had a taste of both freedom and growth, two things she thought she wouldn't have had previously. To her surprise she finds that she now could have her sister's job and respect, something she barely would have dreamed about before, as well as true love and affection and even a bit of social standing from a decent young man like Jim (Domhnall Gleeson). For a few weeks she gets this gift where she gets to play-act and see what her life in Ireland could be, and unlike before it is a good, comfortable, and even potentially wonderful situation.

She gets a taste of what could be, but still wants to be with Tony and in America. This time she doesn't leave out of desperation or sadness or unease nor because of the gossipy twat in town and not even out of obligation because of the legal entanglement of being married. Rather she makes a conscious, happy, and very informed decision that she wants to see what her future is like in the life she had already started building. There are more unknowns in America, some of which could be negative and worrying, such as who knows if Tony's plan/dream of moving to Long Island and building a house will come to fruition? It could go bust, they could wind up staying in Brooklyn forever. But that is what she wants. Her life in Ireland with Jim, though it would be wonderful and steady, is not what she wants. I think she also must realize that the whole town sees her differently already, that she has changed for the better, but if she stays, now, maybe she won't keep evolving? The prospect of further growth and self discovery and who she is in America, as well as her marriage and career track, is what she chooses. With eyes wide open she makes that choice. The shopkeeper's threat maybe snaps her out of the temporary daydream she had been living and makes her decide it is time to end this fantasy and return home to her real life, but she does NOT leave because she is afraid of that threat in any way.

From what I gather from the comments above and from my sister's reading of the novel, this may be presented less clearly in the book, that her motivations are more difficult to discern. In the movie I think they very definitely go for triumph and choice, which is more Nick Hornby's (About a Boy, High Fidelity) style. For me it works extremely well. I really expected very little from Brooklyn going in, but it was one of the happiest surprises for me, last year. It's a wonderful movie, and Saoirse Ronan is amazing.

__________________
"Film is a disease. When it infects your bloodstream it takes over as the number one hormone. It bosses the enzymes, directs the pineal gland, plays Iago to your psyche. As with heroin, the antidote to Film is more Film." - Frank Capra



That's interesting Holden. The Eilis of the book is a much more diffident character. A lot of things happen to Eilis rather than her instigating events. she's often cold and often watchful.

From what I hear of the film when she has that talk with Miss Kelly she actually says "My name is Eilis Fiorello",. whereas in the book the whole chat is Miss Kelly making innuendo ridden comments and Eilis answering in coldly short sentences. Miss Kelly never actually accuses her of being married although it's obvious that she knows and Elis knows she knows.
In the book that conversation seems much more the catalyst into waking Eilis up into realising what she's doing in Ireland and what she's actually missing, although the ambivalence is still there in the character. Asked by her mam would she still be going back had she not married Tony, her answer is 'I don't know'. There's a hint of going back out of duty, but it's unexplained and unclear. There's only six pages between her leaving Kellys and her getting the taxi to the train, there's no reuniting or even her getting on the boat . It's beautifully written and tantalisingly remote.



I've not seen the film, but I've read the book. I think Victoria is right, the claustrophobia of everyone knowing everyone elses business that in the end made Eilis go back to America. This was pushed home to her by the dreadful Miss Kelly.
I always wonder tho what if Tony had found someone else and he was writing to her to say that and she wasn't opening his letters? It'd be a bit of a shock when she got back to Brooklyn!
Towards the end of the movie I remember her sitting on the bed and opening all the letters that she had received, before she returned to Brooklyn. Oh I just noticed that it wasn't in the book ,but it was in the movie and you mention that you haven't seen the movie yet.



Towards the end of the movie I remember her sitting on the bed and opening all the letters that she had received, before she returned to Brooklyn. Oh I just noticed that it wasn't in the book ,but it was in the movie and you mention that you haven't seen the movie yet.
Yeah she packs his letters in her luggage and thinks she will read them on the boat back to America.

Just wondering then, in the film does she see Jim to say goodbye and explain she's going back ? In the book she just leaves him a note.



Yeah she packs his letters in her luggage and thinks she will read them on the boat back to America.

Just wondering then, in the film does she see Jim to say goodbye and explain she's going back ? In the book she just leaves him a note.
As far as I know, in the film it doesn't appear that she says goodbye to Jim before leaving



Greatest reviewer alive
I hated the Irish fella trying to score the married woman. It upset me when it appeared that she might actually stay with him. F**k that red hair dude



I hated the Irish fella trying to score the married woman. It upset me when it appeared that she might actually stay with him. F**k that red hair dude
First of all, he didn't know she was a married woman. She didn't tell him. And secondly, I don't think it's implied that they did actually f*ck.

I like Domhnall Gleeson a lot. Not just in this movie, though he was very well cast, but in just about everything. He had a pretty spectacular 2015, appearing in Brooklyn, Ex Machina, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and The Revenant. He's been building a nice career, fairly quickly, too. I also really like him in Frank, About Time, and Calvary (with his real-life Dad, Brendan Gleeson).