56 pages • 1 hour read
Louise KennedyTrespasses
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2022A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Complexities of Relationships in a Divided Society
Content Warning: This section of the guide describes and discusses the novel’s treatment of wartime violence, homicide, and alcohol addiction.
Through Cushla and Michael’s affair, the novel explores the challenges of navigating a relationship in a deeply divided society. One of the most significant differences between the star-crossed lovers is the fact that she is Catholic and he is Protestant. These religious differences place them on opposite sides of the sectarian conflict between the majority-Protestant loyalists, who wanted Northern Ireland to remain a part of the United Kingdom, and the majority-Catholic republicans, who opposed this. Cushla grew up facing religious discrimination in her town, where Catholics “barely made up 10 percent of the population” (36). Although Michael does not discriminate against Catholics, the sectarian conflict nonetheless impacts their connection with one another. For Cushla in particular, their different religions are a source of some resentment and insecurity. Toward the end of the novel, Cushla weaponizes their religious differences and uses an anti-Catholic slur in an argument with Michael: “Am I the first Taig? I bet you I am. Does it make you feel better about yourself? That you’re doing it for the sake of community relations” (225). Cushla sometimes fears that Michael sees her as a curiosity or a charity case, and the religious divide reinforces her certainty that their affair is temporary, unsustainable, and, for Michael, unserious.
Cushla is also keenly aware of the disapproval she would face from her community if word spread that she is seeing a Protestant. In her divided village, relationships between Catholics and Protestants are dangerous, as is illustrated by the subplot involving the McGeowns. Throughout the novel the McGeowns face discrimination and violence for daring to transgress religious divisions with their “mixed” marriage. Seamie is beaten, Davy is bullied, and Tommy, desperate to belong somewhere, falls in with the IRA, a development that has direct consequences for Cushla and Michael’s relationship. Ultimately, the McGeown family is torn apart by sectarian conflict, with the children sent to different foster homes and Tommy sentenced to life in prison for murdering Michael. Their fates dramatize the dangers of “transgressive” relationships in divided societies and illustrate what Cushla stands to lose if her affair with Michael is discovered.
Another factor that complicates Michael and Cushla’s relationship is the stark difference in their socioeconomic status. Cushla often feels alienated and inferior among the wealthy artists and intellectuals Michael counts as friends. Even when the two are alone, the very language he uses reminds her of the differences between them: “You’re the only person I’ve ever met in my life who gets away with saying things like ‘to which the eye is drawn.’ I must sound like an arse. No. But I don’t know what you’re doing with me” (152). One of the surest indications of Cushla’s insecurity in his affection is her repeated refusal to profess that she loves him back. When he first declares his love for her in Chapter 13, she replies, “Another time. I’ve been doing all the running” (136). Tragically, that time never comes because Michael’s life is cut short, but her affection brings him joy and comfort in his final months. Cushla and Michael demonstrate how love can grow despite the many obstacles posed by a divided society and the costs that such a relationship may require.
Navigating Ethical Dilemmas
Trespasses is a story of one woman’s efforts to navigate impossible dilemmas that force her to weigh her ethics against her desires and her family’s safety. Her primary predicament is the affair. Cushla’s connection with Michael goes beyond physical companionship, and their love for each other is sincere: Michael’s affection offers Cushla solace from the grief, loneliness, and toil of her life as she mourns her father, cares for a mother with alcohol addiction, and works for her unappreciative brother. During the lovers’ trip to Dublin in Chapter 15, Cushla’s thoughts reveal how her desire for a future with Michael is connected to her longing to escape from her family: “Her gut burned with want. That she might get away from her family, her mother, and be with this man” (153).
By her own admission, Cushla seldom feels guilty about Michael’s wife. On the rare occasions when she thinks about Joanna, she makes excuses for her and Michael’s behavior and tells herself that he is “stuck in a miserable marriage, unable to leave his fuckup of a wife” (216). Although Cushla feels little guilt about the affair, their relationship still places her and Michael in a precarious position. She’s warned repeatedly that she could lose her teaching position at St. Dallan’s if word gets out that she is engaged in an extramarital relationship. On top of that, her entire family’s economic security could be jeopardized. The pub relies on the community’s patronage, so anything that threatens their social standing could drive customers away. The affair also places Michael at risk. For example, Victor disapproves of the relationship because he worries that his friend is drawing too much attention to himself at a time when the police are already keeping him under surveillance. Despite the ethical and practical concerns raised by the affair, Cushla chooses to remain with Michael as long as their circumstances permit.
The protagonist faces another ethical dilemma in her efforts to help Davy’s family, a fateful decision that has long-lasting consequences for both the McGeowns and the Laverys. Cushla’s boss despises Davy because the boy’s mother is Protestant, and he reports Betty to social services to punish Cushla for giving Davy lunch money and transportation: “Bradley wasn’t concerned about the McGeowns. He was marking Cushla’s card” (161). The connection between the Laverys and the McGeowns grows far more perilous after Tommy is arrested on suspicion of murder and an angry mob sets their house on fire. Cushla’s sense of ethics compels her to intervene and welcome the displaced family into her home. This decision leads to a tense and nearly violent exchange between her and Eamonn. Cushla ultimately acquiesces to her brother’s demands and relocates the McGeowns even though it pains her conscience to do so. Nonetheless, her act of charity is severely punished: She loses her job, many customers abandon the pub, and the Laverys’ family business is ultimately bombed. The dilemmas Cushla faces over the course of the novel—and the consequences of her decisions—illustrate the difficulty of acting according to one’s ethics while also honoring one’s desires and protecting one’s family.
The Pervasiveness of Violence
Trespasses utilizes the omnipresence of violence to help convey the fear, division, and desensitization people experienced during the Troubles. The text pays particular attention to how the constant violence of the Troubles impacts young children. At the headmaster’s insistence, the students of St. Dallan’s recount brutal details of bombings and murders as part of their daily lessons. For example, Chapter 21 begins with an account of sectarian violence: “Two Catholic civilians were shot dead in a house in Mount Vernon in the north of the city. The Protestant Action Force has claimed responsibility” (202). In that same chapter, Cushla and Gerry worry that their students will be in danger if they go into town in their Catholic school uniforms, so the seven- and eight-year-olds wear different clothes for their picnic in the park. Although the town is peaceful compared to nearby Belfast, even young children are constantly aware of the violence rending communities apart.
Many of the most significant developments for the story’s plot exemplify the pervasiveness of violence. Although much of the novel focuses on the romance between Cushla and Michael, the danger of the historical setting never feels far away. Gradually, the threat comes closer and closer to the main characters, raising the novel’s stakes. The attack on Seamie McGeown marks a turning point in the novel. He is targeted because he is a Catholic married to a Protestant, and his injuries are extensive and life-altering: “Smashed jaw. Cracked ribs. Collapsed lung. Ruptured spleen” (91). The attack further exacerbates the divisions that plague the town and sets much of the remaining plot into motion. The novel examines how violence begets violence by showing how Tommy joins the IRA because of the discrimination and brutality his family faces.
Of the many instances of violence in the novel, Michael’s murder at Tommy’s hands is the most pivotal. The killing interweaves the main plot of Cushla and Michael’s complex, doomed romance and the subplot with the McGeowns. In a bitter twist of irony, members of the IRA instruct Tommy to kill Michael because they mistake him for a corrupt judge when he has defended Catholics and openly condemned the unethical Diplock court system. Through Michael’s death, the novel not only gives the novel’s central romance a tragic ending but also emphasizes the senselessness of violence. The novel underscores how pervasive violence was in the lives of Irish people during the Troubles.
