"So this was what being alone was like": Articulations of Vulnerability in Colm Tóibín's Nora Webster

Abstract

Set in 1960s Catholic Ireland, Colm Tóibín’s Nora Webster (2014) foregrounds the inherent and pathogenic vulnerabilities of widowhood –from bereavement to economic precarity and the culture of grief for widows– in the figure of its eponymous protagonist. Drawing on recent research on vulnerability theory, this study adopts an understanding of vulnerability not as perpetual injury or victimhood, but as a site of potential transformation, which impels Tóibín’s protagonist to relate to herself and others differently in order to restore a sense of security and well-being. This study therefore details the ways in which Tóibín dramatises Nora’s progression towards increased autonomy, and how her vulnerability initiates a path towards resilience and self-reinvention.