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Miss Kelly
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:
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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.
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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.
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 […].
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Nancy Byrne Character Timeline in Brooklyn
The timeline below shows where the character Nancy Byrne appears in Brooklyn. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part One
On her way home, Eilis goes to her friend Nancy’s house. Her other friend, Annette, is there too, and the three girls go outside so...
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Eilis tells Nancy and Annette that Miss Kelly offered her a job. In response, Nancy scoffs at the...
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That night, Eilis meets Nancy at her house and walks with her to the dance. She feels self-conscious because she...
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...also owns a successful store in town, making him the perfect catch. When Eilis and Nancy arrive at the dance, though, George is nowhere to be seen, so they stand to...
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Just when it seems that George won’t pay Nancy any attention, he asks her to dance. After the first song, he and Nancy invite...
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...also says a few nice things about Jim’s parents. Eilis suggests that perhaps Jim thinks Nancy isn’t good enough for George, and when her mother says that this would be ridiculous...
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Part Four
...to get her mother to work faster. Eventually, she starts trying to make plans with Nancy and Annette, but her mother makes it hard for her to do this, saying that...
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...since reaching Ireland. Putting this matter out of her mind, though, she finally goes to Nancy’s house and invites her and Annette to come over when they have a chance. The...
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That night, Nancy and Annette come over and talk with Eilis about Nancy’s wedding to George Sheridan, which...
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Thinking about Nancy’s wedding, Eilis remembers that she was told when she bought her return tickets that she...
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...and her stylish American clothing. She also makes plans to go to the beach with Nancy, Annette, and George, looking forward to an opportunity to get out of her mother’s house....
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...that she’ll be staying an extra week, then packs her bag for the beach. When Nancy and George pick her up, though, she’s surprised to see that Annette isn’t coming with...
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On Eilis’s second outing with Nancy, George, and Jim, Eilis finds herself enjoying Jim’s company more than she would have expected....
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...the set. Before getting in the car to go home, she and Jim linger behind Nancy and George. Alone, they kiss with passion before joining Nancy and George in the car....
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Later that day, Eilis helps Nancy with the seating arrangement for the wedding. As they work on this, they talk about...
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...In response, she tells them that they can arrange a time to do this after Nancy’s wedding.
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On the day of Nancy’s wedding, Eilis’s mother is exceedingly proud that Jim will be picking them up in his...
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During the celebrations proceeding the wedding, Nancy’s drunk mother approaches Jim and Eilis and says that Jim will inevitably be the next...
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...heard from a customer that he took a picture of Eilis with Jim, George, and Nancy on the beach, so she decided to call Mrs. Kehoe to tell her that Eilis...
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...on the boat. Upon finding the pictures from the day at the beach with Jim, Nancy, and George, she is about to rip them up when she thinks twice and puts...
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