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Lorraine (Connell’s Mother)
Eric is one of Connell’s friends in secondary school. Popular and confident, Eric bullies Marianne, making jokes about her with Rob and Rachel. Years later, he regrets the way he treated her and tries to make up for it by showing her kindness whenever their paths cross. He even slightly reveals this kinder side of himself in secondary school when he tells Connell at the end-of-year dance that everyone knew there was something going on between him and Marianne, implying that nobody would have cared if their relationship had been public. When Eric sees Marianne one night at a bar after Rob’s suicide, he drunkenly apologizes for how he treated her and suggests that Rob would have wanted to do the same.
Eric Quotes in Normal People
The Normal People quotes below are all either spoken by Eric or refer to Eric. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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7. Three Months Later (November 2011)
Quotes
Do you think we don't know you were riding her? he said. Sure everyone knows.
Connell paused and took another drag on his cigarette. This was probably the most horrifying thing Eric could have said to him, not because it ended his life, but because it didn't. He knew then that the secret for which he had sacrificed his own happiness and the happiness of another person had been trivial all along, and worthless. He and Marianne could have walked down the school corridors hand in hand, and with what consequence? Nothing really. No one cared.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire Normal People LitChart as a printable PDF.
Eric Character Timeline in Normal People
The timeline below shows where the character Eric appears in Normal People. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
4. Six Weeks Later (April 2011)
Marianne told Connell that his friend Eric called her “flat-chested” at school that day. He said it in front of a bunch...
(full context)
...clothes are a lot less fancy than his friends’. He doesn’t look at Marianne, but Eric notices her and tells her she’s wearing a sexy dress. Rachel laughs and goes to...
(full context)
...not supposed to be there, since it’s a school fundraiser, but they seem to know Eric and the other boys. One of them sets eyes on Marianne and asks if he...
(full context)
Eric claims that the man who grabbed Marianne’s breast is actually a good guy, and Rachel...
(full context)
5. Two Days Later (April 2011)
The next day, Connell went to school and listened to his friends Rob and Eric tease him about taking Marianne home from the fundraiser. They asked if anything happened between...
(full context)
7. Three Months Later (November 2011)
...still looked down on them for being inebriated. At one point Rob showed him and Eric naked pictures of his date. Eric laughed, but Connell pointed out that it was a...
(full context)
Later that night, Connell went outside for a cigarette and Eric followed him out. After a moment, Eric said it was too bad Marianne didn’t end...
(full context)
16. Four Months Later (July 2014)
...another young woman and then going outside with her to smoke. Meanwhile, Marianne talked to Eric, who drunkenly told her that Rob would have wanted to apologize to her for how...
(full context)
