If she hadn't got busted my Mrs. Kelly, would she have stayed in Ireland?
After her talking about Tony at Rose's grave she doesn't seem to think about him other than guilt when she sees Tony's letter.
What were you thinking about the situation?
I don't know. And it's just as difficult to figure out when you read the book. In the book she spends a LOT of time realizing that Jim is too conservative to marry a divorced woman - if, say, she divorced Tony. And she also knew he'd never understand why she'd lied. So there was no future if she told Jim the truth. But still, she couldn't speak up, and carried on with him. I, personally, was left with the impression that if Mrs. Kelly hadn't spoken up, she'd have just continued to keep her mouth shut and let things go on, including marrying Jim. And then she'd be in a horrible mess, because she was so Catholic she made herself and Tony go to confession after they had sex before marriage. So if she were living with Jim, and Jim thought they were married, I think it would wear on her, but I also think that's what she would have done. She just came off as a girl who couldn't go back to New York, but also couldn't tell the truth, so I think she'd just keep her mouth shut and continue to let things take their course.
I will answer your question in a non-traditional way. What you posit could never happen because it is a work of fiction. The book's author and the movie's scriptwriter never intended that she would stay in Ireland with Jim. So it was written such that the interaction with Mrs Kelly was the final straw, the thing that fully woke Eilis up to the fact that she did not belong back home anymore, she had a new home across the Atlantic with Tony and she needed to get back to it.
The movie makes the important point that people in real life do not have a "destiny" as such, we each make decisions and those decisions close the doors to all possibilities that a different decision would have opened, e.g. choosing to stay with Jim instead of going back to Tony. But in a work of fiction there is a destiny determined by the writer(s) and the destiny of Eilis was always to hear what she did from Mrs Kelly and to always go back to Brooklyn.
Now if you want to pursue it anyway, then I would counter-propose, if Mrs Kelly had not approached Eilis, "Suppose Eilis wrote to Tony that she was staying in Ireland, then 3 months later she and Jim fell out of favor and she then really wanted to go back to Tony? Would he take her back?"
My point is in a movie with a reasonably complex story there are many places where one could say "What would have happened if this or that had or had not happened?" Like "What if Eilis had first danced with a nice Irish guy at the dance and had never met Tony?"
So we are inevitably constrained to think of the story and its themes the way they are presented.
..*.. TxMike ..*..
I LOVE your explanation. It's perfect.
shareI thought the book had a lot of problems, but there are too many to list. Some small, some larger, some ridiculous (IMO). But it's interesting to read it due to the fact that Colm Tolbin was part of the development of the movie, and yet the director and screenwriter clearly wanted to, and did, to the best of their ability "fix" some issues with the book, and make stronger choices than the book made. I think it's interesting to look at the source material, and then how the filmmakers addressed it, navigated it.
I think they did as well as they could without being in a position to change plot or alter the big (but IMO, inadequate) scene that caused Eilis to return to Brooklyn.
Apart of me feels like she would've stayed. The scene right before she is busted shows Jim (basically) proposing to her, or at least promising to do so. And instead of saying no, she holds him. I think if nothing else, she was seriously considering it.
I know a lot of people liked Tony better, but I liked Jim's approach to wooing her. He never pressed her and they spent a lot of time talking and sharing common interests. I thought they had a better foundation, whereas I found Tony to sometimes be clingy. He probably sensed she wouldn't return to New York, and that's why he pushed her to marry him. But personally I thought she could do better. And that pressure didn't exist with Jim.
-Who is it?
-It's Grandpa. And it sounds like he's gotten into the horseradish again.
You are so right!
She should have chosen Jim, didn't need to hurry getting married to Tony.
There's a fine line between clingy and head-over-heels in love. Tony loved her with his whole being. It wasn't a "calm and collected" love. It was an, "I can't bear the thought of living without you," love.
shareIt just depends on how you want to look at it doesn't it. If you are pro Tony you say to yourself 'he rushed her into marriage because he couldn't help himself he just loved her so much'. If you think Eilis could have done better than Tony you say to yourself 'he was only thinking of what he wanted so he pressured her into marriage before she could slip out of his hands'.
What Tony did was completely understandable. Eilis was a prize catch and he gobbled her up quick smart. This is what happens in real life. But in film world we might have expected Tony to tell Eilis he loved her and wanted her to come back to him but he would leave it for her to decide. That would have been what a perfect gentleman would have done. But how many of us are perfect gentlemen?
In the book when Eilis was on her own in the boarding house freshly grieving for her sister she got to the point where she couldn't stand it any more so she impulsively took the train to Tony's parent's house to seek comfort from Tony in her hour of need. Then afterwards Tony escorted her back to her boarding house. But by then it was late and he had missed the last train back. It was cold so rather than have Tony walk all the way home Eilis took him in to her room. They had sex and then they married in a day or so.
So Eilis unknowingly sealed her fate with that one simple urge to seek comfort. People like to think they are in control of their own lives but Eilis was never really in control of her life at any stage. She was a cork on the ocean, like most of us are.
The Players of The Game are the scum of the earth.
Yes she'd have stayed.
Eilis definitely said her interaction with Kelly reminded what kind of town this was.
That was the turning point and without it she'd have stayed.
Thumbs Up, Thumbs Down and a Wagging Finger of Shame
I think she still would have chosen Tony. He was the more exciting guy. Jim was pretty boring.
Also, Tony brought Eilis out of her shell. If she stayed in Ireland with Jim, she would have regressed to the girl she was before.