Circle of Friends | Social Concerns

Circle of Friends Social Concerns

In Circle of Friends, Binchy points out the difficulty of finding and keeping true friendship. Benny Hogan discovers real friendship in Eve Malone when they are in a convent school together.

Benny and Eve grow up together in the village of Knockglen and their friendship expands to include Nan Mahon and Jack Foley when they go to University College in Dublin.

Binchy explores the issues of premarital sex and abortion from a 1950s Irish perspective, a necessarily more conservative view than 1990s urban America. The three main female characters show different views on premarital sex. Benny and Eve stick to the morals of the Catholic Church and refuse to have sex before marriage.

Nan tries to use sex to trap a man. She wishes to get Simon Westwood to marry her so she can have wealth and society, but he turns away from her...
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