Brooklyn

by

Colm Tóibín

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on Brooklyn makes teaching easy.

Nancy Byrne Character Analysis

One of Eilis’s good friends in Enniscorthy, Nancy is focused on finding a suitable husband. Shortly before Eilis leaves for America, Nancy dances with George Sheridan, one of the most sought-after bachelors in town. Because of this, she asks Eilis to accompany her to the following week’s dance, hoping that George will be there and ask her to dance again. When they first arrive, George isn’t there, and Nancy begins to regret her decision to come, no doubt remembering that her previous boyfriend abandoned her for another woman just one year earlier. However, George and his friends soon come to the dance, and he eventually approaches her. Two years later, Eilis returns to Ireland to discover that Nancy and George have gotten engaged. Eilis starts spending more time with Nancy and their friend Annette, though Nancy soon stops inviting Annette so that she can go on double dates with George, Eilis, and George’s friend Jim Farrell. Before long, this group starts meeting quite frequently, and Nancy—not knowing that Eilis is married to Tony—urges Eilis to pursue her relationship with Jim. Later, at Nancy’s wedding, Eilis realizes that she wishes she could get married to Jim in the very same church.

Nancy Byrne Quotes in Brooklyn

The Brooklyn quotes below are all either spoken by Nancy Byrne or refer to Nancy Byrne. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Time and Adaptability Theme Icon
).
Part Four Quotes

Ellis worked out in her head that the wedding was four days after the planned date of her departure; she also remembered that the travel agent in Brooklyn had said she could change the date as long as she notified the shipping company in advance. She decided there and then that she would stay an extra week and hoped that no one in Bartocci’s would object too strongly. It would be easy to explain to Tony that her mother had misunder­stood her date of departure, even though Eilis did not believe that her mother had misunderstood anything.

Related Characters: Eilis Lacey, Eilis’s Mother (Mrs. Lacey), Tony, Nancy Byrne
Related Symbols: The Thank-You Cards
Page Number: 219
Explanation and Analysis:

And two years ago, Eilis remembered, when Jim Farrell had been openly rude to her, she thought it was because she came from a family that did not own anything in the town. Now that she was back from America, she believed, she carried something with her, something close to glamour, which made all the differ­ence to her as she sat with Nancy watching the men talk.

Related Characters: Eilis Lacey, Tony, Nancy Byrne, George Sheridan, Jim Farrell
Page Number: 236
Explanation and Analysis:

She could not stop herself from wondering, however, what would happen if she were to write to Tony to say that their mar­riage was a mistake. How easy would it be to divorce someone? Could she possibly tell Jim what she had done such a short while earlier in Brooklyn? The only divorced people anyone in the town knew were Elizabeth Taylor and perhaps some other film stars. It might be possible to explain to Jim how she had come to be married, but he was someone who had never lived outside the town. His innocence and his politeness, both of which made him nice to be with, would actually be, she thought, limitations, especially if something as unheard of and out of the question, as far from his experience as divorce, were raised. The best thing to do, she thought, was to put the whole thing out of her mind […].

Related Characters: Eilis Lacey, Tony, Nancy Byrne, George Sheridan, Jim Farrell
Page Number: 245
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Brooklyn LitChart as a printable PDF.
Brooklyn PDF

Nancy Byrne Quotes in Brooklyn

The Brooklyn quotes below are all either spoken by Nancy Byrne or refer to Nancy Byrne. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Time and Adaptability Theme Icon
).
Part Four Quotes

Ellis worked out in her head that the wedding was four days after the planned date of her departure; she also remembered that the travel agent in Brooklyn had said she could change the date as long as she notified the shipping company in advance. She decided there and then that she would stay an extra week and hoped that no one in Bartocci’s would object too strongly. It would be easy to explain to Tony that her mother had misunder­stood her date of departure, even though Eilis did not believe that her mother had misunderstood anything.

Related Characters: Eilis Lacey, Eilis’s Mother (Mrs. Lacey), Tony, Nancy Byrne
Related Symbols: The Thank-You Cards
Page Number: 219
Explanation and Analysis:

And two years ago, Eilis remembered, when Jim Farrell had been openly rude to her, she thought it was because she came from a family that did not own anything in the town. Now that she was back from America, she believed, she carried something with her, something close to glamour, which made all the differ­ence to her as she sat with Nancy watching the men talk.

Related Characters: Eilis Lacey, Tony, Nancy Byrne, George Sheridan, Jim Farrell
Page Number: 236
Explanation and Analysis:

She could not stop herself from wondering, however, what would happen if she were to write to Tony to say that their mar­riage was a mistake. How easy would it be to divorce someone? Could she possibly tell Jim what she had done such a short while earlier in Brooklyn? The only divorced people anyone in the town knew were Elizabeth Taylor and perhaps some other film stars. It might be possible to explain to Jim how she had come to be married, but he was someone who had never lived outside the town. His innocence and his politeness, both of which made him nice to be with, would actually be, she thought, limitations, especially if something as unheard of and out of the question, as far from his experience as divorce, were raised. The best thing to do, she thought, was to put the whole thing out of her mind […].

Related Characters: Eilis Lacey, Tony, Nancy Byrne, George Sheridan, Jim Farrell
Page Number: 245
Explanation and Analysis: