Quotes Flashcards
I think your countryside is - is - is - is very beautiful… I hope we’re not too crude an intrusion on your lives.
Yolland, Act 1:
Identity, colonisation, outsiders
‘Yolland’s hesitancy had vanished - he is at home here now.’
Yolland, Act 2:
Colonisation, identity, culture.
‘It’s only a name, isn’t it?
Owen, Act 1
Identity, translation, communication, naming
‘You can learn to decode us.’
Owen, Act 2:
Translation, communication, community, language, isolation
‘Do you know the Greek work ‘endogamein’? It means to marry within the tribe. And ‘exogamein’ means to marry outside the tribe. And you don’t cross those borders causally - both sides get very angry.’
Jimmy Jack, Act 3:
Language, translation, isolation, conflict.
Education, political conflict
‘Sweet smell! Sweet smell! … Sweet God, did the potatoes ever fail in Baile Beag? Well, did they ever - ever? Never! There was never blight here. Never. Never.’
Maire, Act 1:
Potato famine, emigration
‘Your feet must be wet. The grass is soaking.’
Yolland, Act 2 Scene 2:
Communication, translation, relationships
‘I understand the Lancey’s of this world perfectly, but people like you puzzle me.’
Manus, Act 2:
Isolation, communication, conflict, colonisation
‘We must learn where we live. We must learn to make them our own. We must make them our new home.’
Hugh, Act 3:
Language, colonisation, identity, community
‘Take me away with you, George.’
Maire, Act 2 Scene 2:
Relationships, communication
Emigration, poverty
‘Will you, Master? I must learn it. I need to learn it.’
Maire, Act 3:
Language, identity
Patriarchal society
‘The lame scholar turned violent…the wrong gesture in the wrong language.’
Manus, Act 3:
Language, conflict, identity, colonisation, translation
‘I’d always be an outsider here, wouldn’t I? I may learn the password but the language of the tribe will always elude me, won’t it? The private core will always be…hermetic, won’t it?’
Yolland, Act 2:
Translation, language, colonisation, identity, isolation
