The Historical and Colonial Context of Brian Friel’s Translations
Regarded by many as Brian Friel’s theatrical masterpiece, Seamus Deane described Translations as “a sequence of events in history which are transformed by his writing into a parable of events in the present day” (Introduction 22). The play was first produced in Derry in 1980. It was the first production by Field Day, a cultural arts group founded by Friel and the actor Stephen Rea, and associated with Deane, Seamus Heaney and Tom Paulin.
As Deane asserts, the play is in many respects an intelligent and enlightening metaphor for the situation in Northern Ireland. The aims of raising cultural awareness and dispelling socio-political apathy in the North were central to
…show more content…
This culminated in the Rebellion of 1798, lead by Wolfe Tone and the Society of United Irishmen, in which Hugh and Jimmy participated: “The road to Sligo. A spring morning. 1798. Going into battle” (445). But, as these characters soon discovered, the rebellion failed resulting in large executions and the passing of the Act of Union in 1800. This piece of legislation, effective from 1 January 1801, brought Ireland under the direct rule of the British Crown.
1823 saw the rise of Daniel O’Connell (the only real person mentioned in the play), a disillusioned veteran of 1798 who founded the Catholic Association. O’Connell campaigned for better civil rights and social conditions for the Irish people, hence Maire reporting that he said “We should all be learning to speak English” (399). O’Connell believed that it was necessary to use the English language in order to allow Ireland to progress in a quickly modernising Western world. In 1829, due to his efforts in Parliament, the Catholic Emancipation Act came into force overturning the penal laws.
It was at this juncture, when the play takes place, that Britain began to make deeper inroads to Irish society and culture. An attempt to colonise the mind and the people as opposed to conquering land through brute force. Translations is Friel’s vehicle for representing methods central to the colonial discourse of Imperialist aspirations. In the foreground of the play
In Michael Gow’s play ‘Away’, a story of families in the 1960’s and how they come to embrace each other’s differences through gaining self-knowledge. Through identifying the context of act 3 scene 2, as well as the relationships between characters and the reasons behind them, as well as the stylistic devices used by Gow to share a message with his audiences that, even today, an audience can relate too. By analysing quotes from the scene to support conclusions, the purpose of this scene will be identified and a greater understanding the theme of self-knowledge in this scene will be formed.
In every play, there are several male and female roles. Each role plays a specific part to the narration, and whether the role is large or small, it is an intricate detail to the storyline. In Brian Friel’s play, Translations, female characters are a vital part of the play but do not hold the spotlight of the show. One female character, Sarah, whose role is minor and inconsequential compared to others, speaks a lot about the state of of the voiceless members of Irish society before the potato famine and Englishmen took over. Through Sarah’s silence and inability to speak, Friel suggests the weight of the English movement into Ireland was too much to bear on the older, Irish people and the Gaelic language they knew. The disappearance of Sarah’s character and short regeneration of her prescence at the end parallel to the fluidity of Gaelic and Irish identity.
“Away” is a play written in 1988 by Michael Gow. Away refers to the central ideas of Australia in 1967-68. The central ideas embrace the outsiders, family conflicts and grief and loss which affected families in the play. Gow uses three main families to convey the message of the play. The use of language and stylistic devices influence the way Gow has been able to speak to the modern Australian audience. In the play “Away” Gow is able to speak to the modern Australian audience with the use of allusion. Gow alludes to two of Shakespeare’s plays; Midsummer Night’s Dream and King Lear, two well-known actors in the 1960’s; Chips Rafferty and Laurance Olivier and the Vietnam War. The modern audience would have to do research to
Themes are one of the most vital and critical elements of a play’s overall significance and meaning. Without identifying what tools a playwright uses to construct his/her play through a close reading, such as language, character, or setting, the audience would lack a clear vision of the particular play’s meaning. In the case of Clybourne Park, by Bruce Norris, and Water by the Spoonful, by Quiara Alegria Hudes, race can be identified as a theme in both, through the use of literary devices, however it is explored much more subtly in Water by the Spoonful. Race is the major underlying theme in Clybourne Park, while the themes of community and addiction are dealt with in Water by the Spoonful. Nevertheless, each play is complete with examples
This play revolves around the flashbacks and memories of a little girl named Iris, as she recounts what she remembers of her childhood as it closed onto her 11th birthday. It shows the dynamic and different family structure of hers, and how that changed the way she looked at life. It also tells the story of an unhappy marriage between Iris’ parents, Sylvia and
The start of the Irish’ peoples struggles began when the British came and destroyed their way of life. The Penal laws of 1691 stripped Irish Catholics of their freedoms by taking away their rights to become officers
The Protestant reformation and separation from the Catholic Church occurred in the 16th century and led to many struggles for Irish Catholics throughout the 1600’s, 1700’s, and 1800’s. A major prosecutor of the Irish was Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell reduced the Irish population by two thirds through killing Irish soldiers in battle and sending Irish people to work on plantations in the Caribbean. From 1641 to 1652, more than 300,000 Irish people were sold into slavery by the English (Irish Immigration to America, 2013). In 1691, the Protestant English King William III overcame the forces of Catholic Irish James II and Ireland was in full Protestant supremacy. Catholic Irishmen suffered greatly under the control of the English. The English passed laws preventing Irish from bearing arms, holding public office and restricting their rights to an
As we know, the pretext of the play is the aftermath of a war, so I
To begin with, in this play the author unfolds family conflicts that involve its characters into a series of events that affected their lives and pushed them to unexpected ways.
“To be or not to be, that is the question.” Hamlet’s famous quotation implies only two solutions: to be, or to not be. However, there is another option that Shakespeare never explored: to remain paralyzed between the two states, unable to commit to either. James Joyce’s Dubliners is a collection of short stories first published in 1914, that follows the inhabitants of Ireland. Published nearly a half a century before the Republic of Ireland would be recognized as an independant country, many of Joyce’s short stories in Dubliners explore the theme of Irish paralysis, that Joyce found afflicted both the whole of Ireland and its individual citizens. Many
In William Trevor’s short story ‘Beyond the Pale’, the reader is presented with a text that seethes with the angst of a writer whose country’s Colonial past has been gnawing on his bones. Although there is nothing unusual in this (especially in Irish writing), Trevor manages to fumble the ball in the course of his didactic strategy and snatch defeat from the jaws of victory: what should have been a successful indictment of British Colonial Rule in Ireland becomes nothing more than the grumbling of an intelligent writer who cannot negotiate his patriotic feelings.
The Beauty Queen of Leenane, a deep, twisted play by Martin McDonagh, is a symbolic work of art. The symbols within this play, powerful as they may be, do not jump out at the reader. They are instead embedded into the simplest objects and the relationship of the main characters. Martin McDonagh portrays his symbols with such an ironic eloquence; the dark, powerful symbols are inextricably linked in such a beautiful way, that once the reader makes the connections, the entire aura of the play changes. From symbols as simple as hot oil and a rocking chair to the mother-daughter relationship of Mag and Maureen, the reader learns more and more about Ireland during its time of troubles.
Translations by Brian Friel was produced by Field Day Theatre in nineteen eighty, but was set in the fictional town of Baile Beag in eighteen thirty three. This was a bleak time in Ireland as in 1801, the Act of Union meant that Ireland lost its parliament and Ireland was in constant economic decline. The British were bringing the first
Theobald Wolfe Tone and his United Irishmen set out on a revolt to achieve “religious equality and thorough reform of the Irish Parliament.” However, he was unsuccessful in his attempt to revolt. There were multiple factors as to why his revolt failed but was it doomed from the start? When looking at the advantages at the time (i.e. failure of the Catholic Relief Act in 1795, French Revolution, and the help of the French Navy), there is very little belief in failure. However, when comparing the odds against them (i.e. Protestant and Catholic vendettas and timeliness), the revolt was doomed from the start. All of these factors play into the reasons why no one could predict the outcome of the revolt.
In Brian Friels play ‘Making History’ the reader wonders whether the character of Hugh O’Neill is more influenced by private feelings or public duty. By “private feeling’s” I mean beliefs, private views and opinions and his ‘public duty’ is his obligations to the Irish people. It should be noted that Friels portrayal of the character O’Neill caused great controversy amongst readers. The strong Irish man O’Neill was once seen as in history is no longer present. Instead we see a very complex and almost emotional character in Friel’s play. This leads us to