The Influence Of Eilis Landscapes

Likewise, the disparate exploration of the provincial and cosmopolitan cultures of Eilis’ landscapes thoroughly highlights the impact of each on the protagonist. To establish the restrictions of Enniscorthy, the composer stipulates the order of Eilis’ life, introduced almost immediately as her mother declares, “Eilis and myself are going to have our tea now.” Such provincial landscape is reiterated in Miss Kelly’s apparent knowledge of Eilis’ abilities, indicative as she states, “I hear you have a great head for figures.” The inescapable closeness of this physical and societal landscape is powerfully embodied in the characterisation of Miss Kelly, who, employing high modal dialogue throughout, provides an analogy for the entire cultural landscape of Ireland, forcing Eilis to demonstrate a complicit and defenceless persona to uphold textual integrity.
The shift to the American landscape prompts the development of Eilis’ new-found independence, shaped prominently by the cosmopolitan society she emigrates to. Whilst Eilis’ remembered landscape continues to have an omnipresent influence in her life, she is contrastingly characterised with an evolving modern persona, thus portrayed “thanking him in a tone Rose might have used; something she could not have done in the town where any of her family or friends might have seen her.” The transient nature of Brooklyn clearly extends an opportunity for Eilis to pursue a new identity, thus enabling her to choose her own