Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Normal People, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Love, Inexperience, and Emotional Intensity
Identity, Insecurity, and Social Status
Miscommunication and Assumptions
Money, Class, and Entitlement
Summary
Analysis
Things are going well between Marianne and Connell. They see each other all the time and have developed a somewhat serious relationship, though it’s still a private arrangement. One night, though, they’re hanging out with Peggy in Marianne’s kitchen when Peggy bluntly asks if they’re sleeping together. After a moment, Marianne says they are. Connell smiles but says nothing. Peggy, for her part, says that they make a nice couple, but Marianne corrects her—she didn’t say they were a couple. Peggy takes this to mean they’re in an open relationship. She goes on at length about how all men fantasize about open relationships but don’t actually want them when the possibility arises.
Marianne and Connell aren’t used to talking about their relationship with other people. It’s a big deal, then, that they tell Peggy that they’re together, ultimately ensuring that their relationship won’t be shrouded in secrecy like it was in secondary school. And yet, just because they speak openly with Peggy doesn’t mean they have a clear sense of what, exactly, they are to each other. When Marianne corrects Peggy by saying that she and Connell aren’t a couple, it’s unclear what, exactly, her motivations are. Her behavior up until this point would suggest that she would embrace the idea of Connell as her boyfriend, which is why it’s surprising that she goes out of her way to suggest that they’re not a couple. At the same time, though, she’s just being honest: they really aren’t a couple, since they haven’t defined their relationship. Perhaps thinking that Connell doesn’t want to commit to anything serious, then, Marianne downplays their bond.
Themes
Connell doesn’t want to be in an open relationship, but he doesn’t say anything. He knows there are many people who would love to date Marianne. Her male friends are always touching her in front of him. The one time he brought this up, though, she said that just because he doesn’t touch her in public doesn’t mean nobody else can.
Connell’s decision not to say anything when Peggy starts talking about open relationships is perfectly in keeping with his tendency to shy away from articulating his emotions. He doesn’t want an open relationship, but he can’t bring himself to speak up and actually say that. By remaining silent, though, he makes it that much more likely that the relationship will slip away from him, since Marianne might take his silence to mean that he doesn’t want to be exclusive. When she criticizes him for being possessive without actually wanting anyone to know they’re dating, Marianne highlights how confusing his hypocrisy feels.
Themes
Despite their brief argument about other guys touching Marianne, Connell has been enjoying his time with Marianne and has stopped going home on the weekends. He now has a job at a restaurant in Dublin that one of Marianne’s friends helped him get, and though he thinks the restaurant might close, he’s confident something else will come along—one of Marianne’s rich friends will help him find another job; that’s just what it’s like to know rich people.
For the first time in his life, Connell feels like he doesn’t have to worry all that much about money. He still has to work, of course, but he benefits from existing in Marianne’s orbit of rich, privileged friends. However, the fact that he’s surrounded by so many wealthy people doesn’t just make his life easier, but also emphasizes the class disparity between him and the other students at Trinity.
Themes
Peggy tells Connell and Marianne that she’d be willing to have a threesome with them. Caught completely off guard, Connell is mortified—he doesn’t want to have a threesome with Peggy, but he doesn’t know how to decline. He knows he could never successfully go through with such an idea. It’s possible that he could have sex with Peggy while Marianne watched, but there’s no way he could ever have sex with Marianne while Peggy watched. Luckily for him, Marianne sees him struggling and interjects, claiming that she’s too “self-conscious” to have a threesome. Peggy’s surprised to hear her say this but soon drops the subject.
The bond between Marianne and Connell is so intimate that the mere idea of letting somebody else into their relationship is deeply troubling to Connell. However, he seems to feel a certain social pressure to be interested in having sex with two women at the same time, perhaps because many people—like, for instance, Peggy—assume that all men fantasize about having threesomes. That’s not the case for Connell, but he once again struggles to articulate his feelings. The problem, though, is that his inability to speak up for himself puts pressure on Marianne, who confidently steps in and takes the attention away from Connell. The entire interaction illustrates how Connell’s shy, uncommunicative ways often put a burden on Marianne. In secondary school, for example, his social anxiety required her to keep their relationship a secret at a high cost to her own self-esteem. And now, in college, his social anxiety forces her to speak self-deprecatingly about herself in front of her friend.
Themes
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Recently, Marianne went home for a few days. When she came back, she and Connell watched a movie and, after it finished, he noticed she was crying. He was surprised—the movie was sad, but not that sad. Because one of the characters in the film had an unplanned pregnancy, he asked Marianne if she was pregnant. She wasn’t, but they started talking about what it would be like if she were to get pregnant. Lorraine, for her part, would be mad at Connell, though not because she dislikes Marianne. To the contrary, she loves Marianne and thinks she’s too good for Connell. When Connell asked what her family would think of him if she got pregnant, she said they don’t care what she does.
Considering that Connell and Marianne have been romantically involved—at least in some capacity—for a while now, it’s surprising that they haven’t talked much about her turbulent home life. In fact, Connell doesn’t seem to realize the correlation between her sadness in this moment and the fact that she just came back from a visit home, suggesting that, although they’re quite close, there’s a certain emotional barrier created by their lack of open communication.
Themes
Connell eventually surmised that Marianne had some sort of fight with her family while she was home. He knew she doesn’t get along with them, especially when it comes to her brother, Alan. But Marianne didn’t talk about it much after coming back, except to say that her mother and brother don’t like her. He assured her that they must love her, but she didn’t respond. When they went to bed, he pleasured her. Afterwards, she joked about how upset she’ll be when he eventually falls in love with someone else, but he told her that he’s pretty content with their current arrangement. When they went to sleep, it was clear Marianne was happy again, leading Connell to the realization that he has the power to make her happy even when she’s sad.
Despite their difficulties communicating effectively with one another, Connell and Marianne have a very emotionally intense relationship. Connell seems to recognize this intensity when he realizes that he has the ability to drastically improve her mood—an ability he has likely never had in any of his other relationships. But the way he’s able to make Marianne feel better isn’t by talking to her or listening to her discuss her emotions. Rather, it’s through acts of sexual intimacy. Sex, for that matter, plays a huge role in their relationship, helping them establish a sense of intimacy that often makes up for their lack of effective communication.
Themes
Finally, Peggy leaves. Still sitting in the kitchen, Connell thanks Marianne for intervening on his behalf—he knows she said she wouldn’t have a threesome to put him at ease. When he thanks her, she doesn’t make a big deal of it; she wouldn’t really enjoy having a threesome anyway, though she would have done it if he'd wanted to. Connell tells her that she shouldn’t do things she doesn’t want to do, but she shrugs off his comment. Suddenly, he has the overwhelming feeling that he has complete power over her. He could hit her in the face—hard—and she wouldn’t do anything. The thought unsettles him and makes him feel sick. Does he want to hit her? Feeling faint, he stands, but when she asks him what’s wrong, he says he’s fine.
Connell’s unnerving thoughts in this scene stem from a sense of anxiety surrounding the sheer intensity of his and Marianne’s relationship. Whereas he previously took pleasure in the realization that he has the power to change Marianne’s mood, he now feels deeply unsettled by just how much she cares about him. At the core of his anxiety is the fear that he’s unworthy of Marianne’s all-encompassing, unequivocal love. When he asks himself if he wants to hit her, for example, it’s not because he actually wants to hurt her, but because he doubts his worthiness of Marianne’s trust. He’s overwhelmed by the huge role he plays in her life, and his insecurity in this regard illustrates just how emotionally staggering their relationship can feel.
Themes
