Comparative Study


Ending Brooklyn ends on a positive and uplifting note. Although Eilis has to make a difficult decision, she comes to see what is truly important in her life and decides to return to her husband and her new life in Brooklyn.


Surprisingly, it is Miss Kelly who ultimately brings about the happy ending. She invites Eilis up to her sitting room for a chat but does not get to the point straight away, pretending to be interested in how Eilis is getting on. As this is not Miss Kelly’s usual approach, Eilis is unsettled and a little nervous. Miss Kelly, who is thoroughly enjoying Eilis’s uneasiness, eventually reveals that she knows Eilis is married. Eilis stares at her for a moment before saying quietly, ‘I’d forgotten’. Before Miss Kelly can fully express her disbelief that anyone could forget such a thing, Eilis says that she had forgotten ‘what this town is like’. The limitations of Eilis’s home town are once more thrown into sharp focus. She stands up to the bitter old woman and leaves with her head held high, bound once more for Brooklyn and her beloved Tony.


Eilis’s decision is presented as an optimistic and positive resolution to the story. Her mother is heartbroken but understanding, and the fact that she does not accompany Eilis to the docks this time spares the viewer the heart-wrenching sight of a long farewell. Similarly, Jim’s pain at Eilis’s rejection of him is glossed over; we simply see him standing in his hall, silently reading her letter of explanation. Admittedly, some viewers may find this aspect of the text too problematic to be a happy ending, but the director clearly intends for us to rejoice in Eilis’s decision and not to focus on the negative aspects of her leaving her home once more.


On the ship back to New York, we are once again reminded of how far Eilis has come since her initial journey. She gives advice to a young girl, and her words become the voiceover for her reunion with Tony. She tells the girl that although she will be lonely, she will meet someone who will make her feel that the sun is coming out at last, who has no connection with the past and is hers alone. The film ends with Tony coming out of a shop and catching sight of Eilis leaning against a wall, waiting for him. He smiles broadly, runs over to her and they embrace lovingly as Eilis’s voiceover says, ‘… and you’ll realise, this is where your life is’. This uplifting, positive ending to the film cements Eilis and Tony’s relationship and leaves us with little doubt but that they will have the ‘happily ever after’ promised by such a conclusion.


General vision and viewpoint in Philadelphia, Here I Come!


Opening The opening sequence of Philadelphia, Here I Come! establishes the pessimistic general vision and viewpoint. It is the eve of Gar O’Donnell’s emigration to Philadelphia and although he is excited – swinging Madge, the housekeeper, around in a brief dance as he sings his own adaptation of the song ‘California, Here I Come’ – Gar is not as happy as he might appear. He asks Madge if she will miss him and while he says it in a joking manner, he clearly hopes that she will say yes. Gar’s need for affection is only partially met by Madge’s ‘I will – I will – I will’ as she is swung around in the exuberant dance.


Gar’s poor relationship with his father is the most negative aspect of the play and it is introduced almost immediately. Gar tells Madge that on this day, his last time working in his father’s grocery shop, he had to work an extra ten minutes. However, Gar did not ask for any free time, nor did he argue with his father when told to work until after seven. Gar also remarks that, in the middle of saying the Angelus prayer at six o’clock, S.B. threw in an order to his son, telling him to gut and salt some fish. Gar imitates his father’s ‘flat tones’ as he recounts this episode and tells Madge that he ‘lashed so much salt on those bloody fish that any poor bugger that eats them will die of thirst’. Although there is a certain dark humour in Gar’s tale, it is sad to think of a father and son having so little to say to one another on such


426 King Lear and Comparatives


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