The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett

Reconciling with the Past and Embracing Second Chances play an enormous role in this portion of the book. When Stanley and Eudora speak at the airport, he is able to put much of what happened to her in the past into perspective: “You’re not your mother, Eudora. Why can’t you realize that? And you have so many reasons to live, people who care about you and need you, who love you, who’d be there for you to the end if only you’d let them!” (341). He encourages her to let go of what happened in the past and focus instead on what she has in her life right now. Eudora struggles with this, as she doesn’t want to confront the pain she has been holding on to all this time: “She doesn’t want Stanley to lift the lid on the feelings she has carefully packed away” (338). Furthermore, when Stanley argues that her friends just want her to be happy, Eudora retorts that that it is impossible to make people happy, a conclusion that she bases on a lifetime of trying to help Beatrice and Stella be happy to no avail. What Eudora must ultimately learn is that she couldn’t engineer her mother and sister’s happiness because they weren’t open to it. Eudora can have happiness with her friends, but she must be willing to accept it and make peace with the past.

From a practical point of view, it might seem that Eudora’s choice not to go to Switzerland makes little difference. She dies shortly after she would have at the clinic, and she even in some sense chooses her own passing by refusing surgery. However, these similarities underscore the profound shift in Eudora’s attitude since the novel’s opening. She now recognizes that even a single additional day spent in the company of loved ones—e.g., Rose’s birthday, which she would have missed if she went through with her plans—is meaningful. What’s more, Eudora uses her additional time to great effect, inspiring Jada to change for the better in a way she failed to inspire Stella. When Eudora chooses death for the second time, it is for the “right” reasons. She has made her peace with her past, as her vision of her family indicates, and she does not want to prolong her life in a way that might only cause her additional suffering.

The novel begins and ends with Eudora’s father, echoing his centrality to Eudora’s life. Eudora has always carried her father in her heart, which is what allowed her to survive all those years of caretaking for her mother and sister. She missed him terribly, but by loyally standing by her family and helping them through thick and thin, Eudora fulfilled the role that Albert would have liked to have occupied himself, had he survived the war. Although she might have felt at times that she failed in that task, the return of his comforting words as Eudora dies—“All shall be well” (369)—implies her efforts were not in vain.