59 pages • 1 hour read
Gail HoneymanEleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2017A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
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BetaChapters 26-29Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 26 Summary
This section begins with narration in the present tense (whereas all previous chapters have used the past tense). Eleanor wakes on the floor of her apartment, naked and lying beneath a table. She wonders how many other kitchens the blue table inhabited before being passed down, dilapidated, to her. She observes the methods of suicide she has lined upon the table: painkillers, a sharp bread knife, and drain cleaner. She has drunk copious vodka and considers it a matter of time before she takes her own life. She passes out again and wakes up, not knowing how much time has passed. She sees she has vomited and considers the sorry state of her body, inside and out. She wonders how many days have passed since her bender began.
In flashback, Eleanor recounts the day of the concert. Polly the plant dies that morning, a bad omen. She arrives at the concert and stands close to the stage. Johnnie never looks at Eleanor as he plays, and Eleanor realizes she has clung to an infatuation with a man who would not want to be with her. She wonders why she chose him, since she doesn’t know much about him and doesn’t enjoy his music. She expected him to fix her and please her Mummy but knows that can’t happen.
Using past tense again, Eleanor wakes and makes her way to the convenience store, where she buys three more bottles of vodka. Mr. Dewan appears concerned, and Eleanor discovers, in a mirror, how disheveled she looks. She returns to her apartment and curls on the bed, remembering her second realization during Johnnie’s show. He bared his naked buttocks onstage, exposing him as “without any doubt, an arse” (225).
Later, she wakes, considering herself worthless and remembering how, at the end of Johnnie’s show, smoke filled the room from a dry ice machine. This smoke triggers Eleanor’s memories of the traumatic fire in her childhood home, and she leaves the music venue, traumatized and alone. After another blackout, Eleanor considers the unspoken damage that loneliness can inflict on people like her.
She wakes from a bad dream about the fire to hear a man’s voice yelling her name and a fist banging on the door of her apartment.
Chapter 27 Summary
Eleanor wakes up on her sofa, covered with towels and wearing her yellow nightdress. She hears someone in her kitchen, and the door opens to reveal Raymond. He makes her soup, refills her water, and helps her walk to the bedroom. Eleanor discovers he’s washed the sheets, and she sleeps “like a sledgehammer” (231).
She wakes to find her apartment spotless and that Raymond has left yellow tulips with a note asking her to call when she wakes. She showers, eats food Raymond has left, and calls him. He says he’ll be over in an hour. When Raymond arrives, Eleanor plays off her condition and denies his suggestion that she has mental health issues. He expresses concern that she didn’t talk to him about what was bothering her and that she refuses to speak with a therapist. He recommends she talk with her mother, and Eleanor replies that her Mummy would enjoy learning about her daughter’s suffering.
Chapter 28 Summary
Raymond continues caring for Eleanor over several days. Eleanor marvels at the unconditional love he has shown her and how he hasn’t contacted an outside agency to help care for her, as others in her past have done. One evening, he brings her mints and a helium balloon shaped like SpongeBob SquarePants. He asks if she’s made an appointment with a doctor to discuss her mental health, and Eleanor confirms that she has. He insists that she discuss every detail with the doctor. Eleanor verbally assents but decides not to disclose anything about her Mummy or her fixation on the musician.
Chapter 29 Summary
Eleanor’s doctor has diagnosed her with clinical depression. She not only signs Eleanor’s leave of absence from work but also sends her to a therapist’s office for treatment. At the office of the therapist, Dr. Maria Temple, Eleanor is distant and withholding about both her feelings and her background. Eleanor notes that Dr. Temple has “fun” (241) keychains on her bag and gold shoes on her feet and is surprised to find the therapist clever and articulate when summarizing Eleanor’s crush on the singer. When Dr. Temple asks about her childhood, the doctor assures her the office is a safe space. She asks Eleanor to pretend an empty chair is her Mummy and to say whatever she wants to it. Eleanor initiates the exercise by asking Mummy, “‘Please don’t hurt us’” (248).
Chapters 26-29 Analysis
Chapter 26 marks the beginning of the novel’s second section, called “Bad Days.” The shock of Eleanor’s condition feels more immediate in present-tense narration, and her lapses in consciousness create ample dramatic tension as the reader wonders if she will survive. The severity of Eleanor’s mental health issues becomes evident as she details her self-loathing and prepares to take her own life. Prolonged loneliness has chipped away at Eleanor’s self-confidence, happiness, and sense of fulfillment, and she fears loneliness is indeed a terminal disease that drives people away from her. Moreover, she doesn’t feel deserving of love or companionship. Once she realizes she shouldn’t pursue the singer any longer, she feels powerless, worthless, and wishes to die. Although she downplays her condition to Raymond and Dr. Temple, Raymond correctly identifies Eleanor’s need for help.
Eleanor has framed her life around managing her mother’s demands and avoiding her torment. Eleanor’s appointment with Dr. Temple lays bare her repressed feelings about her mother, a person she resists mentioning but can’t avoid. Eleanor pleads with the chair as if it is her Mummy, referencing a mysterious “‘us’” (248).
In Chapter 1, Eleanor remarks that her coworkers might not notice if she failed to appear at the office, but Raymond’s arrival shows that someone at By Design notices and cares. Raymond extends kindness and generosity to Eleanor in her moment of crisis, just as he did with Sammy, when he collapsed in the street. In addition to placing more trust in Raymond, Eleanor must also trust another new person in her life: Dr. Temple. Eleanor appraises the therapist’s office as ugly and her personal style as silly, but she learns that Dr. Temple makes a canny, nonjudgmental listener. In the therapist’s office, Eleanor faces the fear of speaking about her childhood and takes the risk of expressing her emotions in new ways.
