Colm Toibin's Brooklyn by Virginia Lee

Author:Virginia Lee
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Insight Publications
Published: 2013-04-15T00:00:00+00:00

In the absence of males, Rose has become the head of the Lacey family, as it is her income from Davis’s Mills that supports her mother and sister. Consequently, both defer to her. Rose has carved out an alternative, and apparently contented, life for herself. Most of her peers are married with children, but Rose, while she enjoys an active social life, has resisted settling down. At thirty, she grows ‘more glamorous every year’ (p.11), and she sustains this stylish image through judicious shopping at Dublin’s biannual sales. Like her mother, Rose has a strong sense of how to behave and is mindful of her family’s position in the town. Her presence and gracious manners usually ensure the best of treatment, as Eilis discovers on their last day together, in Dublin. Even Rose’s handwriting, with ‘its clarity and evenness, its sense of supreme self-possession and self-confidence’ (p.177), conveys her strength and poise.

It is only in hindsight that Eilis realises Rose’s diplomacy and the extent to which she ‘handled’ their mother, encouraging her interest in ‘even the smallest detail’ (p.209) of her daughters’ lives. Rose is equally loving towards Eilis, and supportive of her career goals. She pays for the books that Eilis requires for her course and has tried to find her younger sister suitable work at Davis’s. Although her own lifestyle is settled and conservative, Rose is prepared to encourage her sister to be daring, and she is the driver behind Eilis’ emigration. Eilis wishes that Rose, ‘so ready for life, always making new friends’ (p.30), would exchange places with her. However, perhaps influenced by her health concerns, Rose is prepared to sacrifice her own prospects. In typical Lacey fashion, she chooses not to confide in the other family members about her heart condition and doggedly continues her normal regime: ‘Maybe she was very brave’, her mother tells Eilis (p.173).

Eilis looks up to her glamorous and confident sister with an admiration that borders on worship. Indeed, Rose’s spirit pervades the narrative to a greater degree than her actual presence might suggest, if for no other reason than she exercises a profound influence on her younger sister. Eilis has been content to play second fiddle to Rose all her life – she tells Tony that Rose was considered ‘the most beautiful’ in their family (p.178). Eilis has modelled herself on her sister and regularly strives to emulate her tone of voice and mode of behaviour, stating ‘Rose was a great example to me’ (p.229).

Mrs Kehoe

Key quotes

‘Changing fashions and new trends were her daily topic ...’ (p.54)

‘When you’ve gone through the world like I have ... you’ll find that that [honesty] only works some of the time.’ (Mrs Kehoe, p.100)

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