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Title: Translations analysis by Brian Friel
Description: Extensive and comprehensive of analysis that covers entire play.
Description: Extensive and comprehensive of analysis that covers entire play.
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Translations, Brian Friel
History : Set in Ireland
Takes place in a
Spoken in Gaelic but translated in English
Irish speaking community in Donegal
History characterized by brutal oppression of Irish by English
Question of identity ! heavy link to language you speak
...
Manus : damaged by cultural intervention in the past
Twins : kill horse in the beginning; most likely have killed Yolland in the end
...
Yolland : benevolent colonizer
Lancey : less benevolent
What does Hugh represent ?
What does baby without father represent who dies soon after? (illegitimate and dies
soon after ! failed rebellions or failure of irish to establish their culture)
...
Sarah : “my name is Sarah” ! declares her identity
...
-‐ Importance of Sarah as an observer of the scene ; seems very attached to Manus as he
is the only one who seems to help her and care for her
...
-‐ Jimmy as prodigy
Comic aspect with Hugh and his pauses to quiz his students with “too slow” ! comic
relief
...
-‐ Very rural ; do not speak English and heavy reliance on agriculture (specifically corn)
...
-‐ Arrival of English Lancey and Yolland as element of perturbation ; difference between
English intentions and translation made by Owen to the Irish
...
-‐ Language as a barrier for love between Maire and Yolland ; cannot understand what
each other are saying
...
Act: 3
-‐ Sarah loses confidence in herself since she is not able to give her name to captain
Lancey
...
-‐ Dramatic moment with fire and army honing in on the irish
...
-‐ Jimmy after having disappeared in act 2 comes back to announce to Hugh that will be
getting married to “Pallas Athene”
...
-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐
Although the play is written and staged entirely in English, the audience has to imagine
that the languages used are more than one, and this explains the incomprehension and
confusion among the characters, which can be likened to the babelian confusion
...
-‐-‐-‐
waiflike : fragile
hedge school: informal little country school
setting not adapted to learning ; no woman to tae care of the place
slate
zeal : enthudiasm
lame : limp, handicapped (aspect of Ireland that is handicapped
dumb : cannot speak
Sarah is not very feminine like
Jimmy never washes ; as a prodigy does not see the point of changing to accommodate
others ! unwillingness to adjust and accommodate for here ad
Athene turns him into old man
Jimmy compares himself to Ulysses
Christening ! giving a name
Harvest : gather crops
Besport : amuse
Part of the exposition : all supposed to speak in Gaelic;
Old fella : father
Baby coul represent the british ! illegitimacy
Spud : potato
Potato blight ! famine
Maire wants to go to us to find brothers and sisters
Doalt: stupid
Ignorance of their culture, their past …
Perception of british as wanting to make money ! take all of ireland’s food
...
“English couldn’t really express us” : does not have richness of ideas within it to express
the sophistication of the ideas of the Irish, or feelings of the irish because it is a
commercial language, pragmatic language
...
Represents
youth of Ireland who want to move forward and make progress
...
Hugh represenets unwillingness of certain part of Ireland that does not take
responsibility or stand up to progress
...
Hugh delighted to see Owen (prodigal son); contrast with how he treats Manus
...
Owen decides in the end that he will keep the Irish names ! turnaround for the
character
...
Sappers : soldier
Lieutenant: leftenan
At first seem welcoming of the british ; do not see them as a threat
...
Fact that Hugh ignores him and
treats him badly
Hugh weak person: just drinks, does not pickup arguments ! represents weakness of
same of the Irish of the pass, Manus is handicapped by his past, history and context and
has been emasculated (no male qualities, lacks ambition, aggression)
...
Yolland does not represent the colonials ! orindary british civilian who is soldier by
accident ; does not represent imperialist attitude
...
Lancey is condescending
Owenleaves potentially upsetting information out of his translation
...
Feels foolish to be
working in Ireland without knowing the culture ; not working from a situation of
pompousness like Lancey; he is humble, he is open; has a poetic sensibility to him
...
Brit who appreciates beauty and poetry of Ireland (but will not survive)
...
Knows they have
misunderstood his name
...
Hugh completely in denial : appreciates the british
...
Act 2
Different names for place shows weakness in Irish community : cannot agree between
themselves
...
Giving mixed messages; there to do a
job but does not want to do it
...
Heat ! cows running everywhere ! tension
Yolland as “bloody romantic”
...
Cutting grass for Yolland as act of kindness, senses he is not like the others
maybe; shared humanity : possible for people to have relationship despite lack of
communication
...
Colonial powers as rigid, strict, cold, un-‐emorional
...
Nelly: motherly figure of metaphorically doomed child (mimics doom of Irish rebirth)
...
William wodsworth 19th century poet (famous poet)
Although not much money very rich in culture
Yolland very humble and modest regarding Hugh
...
Culture cannot keep up with progress
...
Owen playind devil’s advocate : putting forth british points of view
Irish not passing on the knowledge, children culture (like Tobair Vree well) ! own fault
if they are not doing that
...
Misnaming of Owen : trying to combine Owen and Roland does not work ;
Irish known as heavy rinkers
“Leap across the ditch nearly killed me” : space between his life and her life
...
Earth, wind fire : basis of life ! basis of human existence which is love
...
Manus upset, about to cry
...
Owen giving bag shows he is not leaving
...
Manus not used to coping with conflict ; tends to not cope with that
...
Is not listening to Yolland
...
Sounds like a mother (ironing, food, the lamb) …
Sarah being the Ireland that cannot speak and Manus leaving ! Manus giving up dreams
of Ireland that can speak and does have a voice
...
Little villages all have story or historical context to them just like the Irish names
...
Boat for Yolland present earlier in the evening but had gone
...
Lancey got promoted : most dominant; for crisis purposes
...
Owen translates names ! situation is reversed ; Owen putting things back into Irish
instead of putting them in English like previously
...
Catholic monks who maintained greek and latin within Ireland
...
Jimmy is getting married
...
Confession from Jimmy
Hugh seems t
Hugh : “it is not the literal past, the “facts” of history, that shape us, but images of the
past embodied in language
...
”
1798: rebellion by irish put down
...
Part of Hugh’s tirade linked to Gatsby (last page) ! infinite hope, green land,
Always as stupid word : nothing lasts forever
...
Trojan horse ! subversion to conquer
...
Lybia equated with Ireland
...
-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐-‐
Balance within the play ; no absolute dichotomy between Irish and English
...
Then Maire, must deal with leaving her country,
learning English, helping family in US, but also open to new horizons
...
Doalty and Bridget : light, secondary, humorous characters
...
Like Gatsby we don’t meet him at the very beginning !
sense of expectation
...
Lancey and Yolland : brits as outsiders, come last ; most recent addition
...
Christening of the baby; dancing around the maypole; drinking poteen ; education in a
hedge-‐school; food (soda bread); gathering in the hay; mention of the bog; fact of getting
drunk; ask others to write letters for them; having many children; hornpipe; corn and
potato; speaking in latin and greek; local herring fishing; swearing by the saints
Land has been fought over and won; the names;
Dancing around the maypole
-‐ Yollands disappearance
-‐ Owen’s arrival ! English have come to colonise ; Owen does not translate properly
...
-‐ Donnelly twins ! horse goes missing ; Doalty moves surveyors poles
...
-‐ Point A, Point B … foreshadows that there will never be and end to story of conflict
...
Yolland’s father is a typical colonial man ; emasculates his son just like british
emasculate the irish (not accepting responsibilities, living in the past)
...
No clear closure ; all threads created through the novel resolved in that resolution
...
If Sarah will be able to speak again ; what happens to Lancey;
What will happen to Hugh’s book? what will happen to Hugh without Manus to take care
of him
...
Unsatisfying end !
No real satisfaction provided throughout the play
Title: Translations analysis by Brian Friel
Description: Extensive and comprehensive of analysis that covers entire play.
Description: Extensive and comprehensive of analysis that covers entire play.