Family

Family is an important theme in the novel “Nora Webster” by Colm Toibin. Family, thematically, involves the mutual love, loyalty, compassion, and emotional, physical, and even spiritual support between individuals who may or may not be blood-related, but who still act in accord with the traditional family unit. In the novel, family appears primarily as an incredibly important, positive thing, and influences the novel in many important ways.

When the novel begins, however, the Webster family has been ruptured by the death of Maurice, husband of Nora, and father of Fiona, Aine, Donal, and Conor. Nora herself is especially reeling from the death of Maurice, finding that her family is incomplete without him. She does her best to put on a brave face for her children, for she deeply loves them and worries about them now that Maurice is gone. Indeed, almost everything Nora does throughout...