The play,normal people,is basically an accurate version of the novel. Every word and even every action of the characters can be found almost in the novel. For example, episode 11 perfectly recreates the scene in which Connell refuses to hit Marianne in what looks like a race to get dressed, which I thought would have been missed. There are also many restored details, such as the adidas shoes that Connell always wears, and the plain silver necklace that she always wears
But, I think, the ending of the play is subtly different from the ending of the novel. At the end of the show, it seems to tell viewers that the two just need to be apart for a year. At the end of the novel, there's a lot of psychological writing, and Connell seems to be in a state of mind where she longs for success as a writer, for a bigger world. However, Marianne's state of mind seems to be that she is not interested in a bigger world but destined to be more turbulent. Her inner peace at this moment is enough. In short, the end of the novel seems to tell the reader that their goals in life have changed.
By the end of the novel, they have grown from fragile, self-abased individuals into individuals who can face the world alone. Of course, they can't grow without each other. It is too easy for Connell to become an ordinary person with a gentle personality to drift and settle for the status quo. It is Marianne who has discovered her passion for writing. It was she who made him choose to study English at Trinity, and it was she who made him write that long email. She took him out of his comfortable, familiar world into writing, and was his first reader. Similarly, It is Connell that makes Marianne gradually get rid of the shadow of her family of origin and believe that she is worthy of love.
They are like a pair of young birds, shade each other's growth, but in the full wings of the moment, will fly to their respective distance. They were two people who loved each other deeply, but for all that they understood each other and were deeply involved in each other's growth, they remained two lonely individuals. To me, the state of mind at the end of the novel seems to suggest such an ending. Love has never been their whole life, they will eventually be separated. Their love won't die, but they won't be together either. They can only be each other can never forget the memories of growing up.
