57 pages • 1 hour read
Emily HenryHappy Place
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2023A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Prioritizing Other People’s Happiness
The theme of putting others’ happiness above one’s own is central to the novel; it creates the main conflict for Harriet, is a character flaw for both Harriet and Wyn (especially since he thinks Harriet would be happier without him), and allows the characters to make positive changes by learning to value their own joy. With a firm belief that making others happy is an admirable and fulfilling goal, Harriet follows a career path into medicine. She never considers other options, as her parents praise Harriet for her intelligence and strong grades, pour their energy into providing tutors, taking her to extracurriculars, and giving her financial assistance for med school loans. As a goal-oriented person who never wants to cause conflict or let others down, Harriet puts aside her own happiness to chase their dream. However, during residency, Harriet feels only stressed, exhausted, and terrified. She can’t devote time to Wyn when his father dies. Because Harriet and Wyn both share the flaw of extreme self-effacement, their relationship suffers—they are not honest with one another about their needs. Harriet doesn’t want to admit medical school is wrong for her, and Wyn refuses to ask for her to take care of him during his depression.
Harriet’s internal monologues confirm her inability to plumb her own feelings in favor of keeping the people around her unburdened by her problems. For instance, Harriet refuses to tell her friends about her hurt, anger, and confusion about why Wyn broke up with her: “I was afraid of their sadness. I was afraid of ruining this trip that meant so much to them” (310). Instead, she holds her pain inside, not facing it or sharing her struggles. She suffers through the week so Sabrina and Parth can have a magical final week in Maine. When asked about what she will miss most about these vacations, Harriet says seeing everyone else so happy, again ignoring herself. Cleo shows some of the same tendencies, also swallowing her annoyance with Sabrina and Parth to ensure peace for their wedding: “[T]oday just felt like kind of a bummer. Sitting through hours of movies when we could be talking. [However,] I just want this week to be perfect for [Sabrina]” (195). However, this holding back is not characteristic for Cleo. The buildup of repressed emotions eventually leads to the climactic fight between Harriet, Sabrina, and Cleo. By trying to put others’ happiness first, Harriet strains her friendships. As Cleo and Sabrina tell her, she should have leaned on them for support, rather than distance herself. Harriet learns she doesn’t need to be constantly happy or sacrifice her own joy in exchange for others. As Wyn points out, a “happy potter is better for this world than a miserable surgeon” (347). Finally, she sees that she can quit medical school, follow her passion for pottery, be with Wyn in Montana, and be committed to her friends on her own terms.
Shifting Friendship Dynamics
The novel plays out how relationships change over time. Harriet, Cleo, and Sabrina entered adulthood seeing the Maine cottage as their “Happy Place”—the title of the chapters exploring their past. The detailed flashbacks of how they became friends in college—growing closer over long conversations, art, books, movies, and vacations together—show their initial connection to be a profound, reliable, and stable bond. The three women stayed close for almost a decade, through college exams, dating, living together in college and after. Because they’ve shared their worst fears and seen their darkest moments, they know each other intimately. Small moments demonstrate this knowledge. When Cleo gets their coffee orders correct, Harriet is moved: “My chest stings. ‘You have our drink orders memorized.’ She lifts one shoulder. ‘I know you’” (327). The warmth of this acknowledgment points to the friendship’s loving nature: The three women want each other to be happy and to be a source of happiness for one another.
Over time, as the three characters find partners, grow their careers, and mature, their friendship changes, and they grow apart. Harriet closes herself off after Wyn ends their relationship; Sabrina and Cleo both state that she has cut them off from her life by keeping the break-up a secret and hardly ever contacting them or responding to texts. Meanwhile, Cleo’s concerns about her ability to be a good mother keep her from sharing news of her pregnancy, and she, too, pushes Sabrina away with excuses about why no one can visit the farm. Finally, Sabrina is upset that she can’t control time, which she expresses by trying to browbeat her friends into doing exactly what she wants during the vacation. In their climactic fight, after all the secrets are revealed, Cleo finally states aloud that the changes in their friendship are okay; growing up means taking on new responsibilities and priorities. Only by being thus vulnerable do they save their group from falling apart. Going forward, they vow to keep in contact, adjusting to each other’s new lives instead of holding them at bay.
Rekindling Romance
In any romance novel, the theme of a loving relationship is a foundational, necessary element. Harriet and Wyn’s relationship offers depth, many conflicts, and a satisfying happy ending, all of which fit romance tropes. The flashback chapters showing how their relationship developed give insight into their relationship, juxtaposing scenes that showcase their personalities, witty banter, and true devotion with the seeds of future problems, such as Wyn’s lack of self-confidence and Harriet’s people-pleasing tendencies. Some details—Wyn always bringing back Harriet a treat from the grocery store, Harriet tutoring him in math—make their romance feel believable, realistic, and relatable. Other descriptions—for example, when they first have sex, Wyn kisses her all over, calling her perfect—play into the fantasy ideals expected of the romance genre. In the beginning, Harriet and Wyn’s problems (such as not being communicative enough, Wyn not valuing himself, and Harriet repressing negative emotions) do not overwhelm their loving bond—until they do.
The trope of rekindling a romance—especially after time apart—usually involves characters breaking up at the climax of a novel’s plot. Emily Henry’s innovation is to have her couple break up before the novel’s starting chapter, using a nonlinear plotline to showcase the cause of the separation and combining this framework with another romance genre staple, the forced fake relationship. Harriet and Wyn are miserable apart, and thus the situation of having to pretend they’re in love for a week before Sabrina and Parth’s wedding is a struggle. Their longing is contrasted with their past easy physical and emotional bond and the disconnection that led to their breakup. Still, despite their problems telling each other what they need and want, Harriet and Wyn are still in love, so rekindling the relationship is less about learning to find each other attractive than about finally finding the courage to be vulnerable and honest about their inner psychological states. When they do this, Wyn and Harriet return to each other with renewed, stronger closeness born not just out of the desire to please the other but also out of the comfort of knowing they can share their burdens with a soulmate.
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By Emily Henry
