Structure

Question 1

ACT 1 - summary

Answer 1

lesson at start sets out main theme (problems of communication, language and translation)
Sarah is first act of translation
difference between brothers show division

Question 2

ACT 1 - recurrent themes and techniques

Answer 2

language is persistent concern
cultural differences between English and Irish explored
Implies that Irish are scholars
Lancey as humble but ignorant

Question 3

ACT 1 - setting

Answer 3

embedded with clues about existence of people in Baile Beag

Question 4

ACT 1 - characters

Answer 4

Hugh teaches the classics - shows importance of culture to this community
First scene sets out attitudes to English - no link to classical languages

Question 5

ACT 1 - languages and style

Answer 5

Hugh is highly articulate and latinate

Maire downplays knowledge of language

Question 6

ACT 1 - staging

Answer 6

Dramatic tension is created through the contrast between cultural identities
Lancey and Hugh differ hugely in attitudes to build destructive climax
Stage directions indicate that Maire is able to remain determined
Lancey and Hugh are both equally powerful

Question 7

ACT 2, SCENE 1 -summary

Answer 7

Yolland and Hugh are filling in place names
British, rigid and standardised approach vs. Irish subjective naming
Yolland has trouble anglicising names he has come to love
Despite denigration of Irish, Hugh recognises the state of the Irish language
Hugh’s views have elegaic tone, recognising the danger of Gaelic becoming extinct

Question 8

ACT 2, SCENE 1 - characters

Answer 8

• Hugh expresses the view that what Irish people lack in wealth they compensate for in spiritual riches (but points out effect of colonialism)
• Offers a way to become more of a part of the community
• Hint of irony in Hugh’s descriptions of language – describes richness of language as ‘only method of replying to…inevitabilities’
• Yolland seems to be like a schoolboy, enthralled by Hugh’s teaching

Question 9

ACT 2, SCENE 1 - recurrent themes and techniques

Answer 9

• Gaelic society and traditions are immemorial
• Place names seems to reflect the permanence of the natural features
• Hugh suggests that a culture which has based itself on the strength of its antiquity is not prepared for a leap into the modern world – challenge facing Ireland in 1833 and 1980
• Sense of irony in Hugh’s descriptions of the richness of the literature and vocabulary of the Irish. They spend all of their time and energies on beauties of their language but their language has become redundant.

Question 10

ACT 2, SCENE 1 - language and style

Answer 10

• Hugh is calm and confident in his expression; Yolland is excited and defers to Hugh’s authority
• Difference between them is shown through their manner of speaking – Hugh is articulate and self – assured with premeditation and a masterful control of language.
• Yolland is less masterful, changing subject in the middle of a sentence. He stammers with excitement
• Hugh speaks eloquently about abstract ideas whereas Owen speaks in direct and simple language

Question 11

ACT 2, SCENE 2 - summary

Answer 11

• Maire and Yolland are in love – they emerge from the dance together
• Both find it hard to communicate in words, yet are able to get across their affection perfectly
• Dramatic tension between characters has been building since act 1
• They move from the construction of language to simple sounds
• Passionate repetition of ‘always’ – ironic because it exists in a community which is threatened with extinction
• Rest of the play is taken up with recital of differences in perception between the languages. Here, language becomes irrelevant as they move beyond language

Question 12

ACT 2, SCENE 2 - theatrical conceit

Answer 12

• Used to describe the technique of having all the actors speaking English
• Friel makes it clear that people of Baile Beag use Gaelic in their day – to – day life (made to seem inadequate by Lancey’s attitude)
• They don’t speak to each other, they speak in parallel. Conversation is similar because of their emotional state.

Question 13

ACT 2, SCENE 2 - recurrent themes and techniques

Answer 13

• The possibility of communication and its fundamental unreliability are crucial to the scene
• Yolland and Maire seem to overcome a linguistic and cultural barrier
• Friel may write this to show hope for communication between cultures (or scene which tricks audience into believing this)
• Only in the strangeness of language do the names have any poetic or romantic significance
• The intention of the words is more important than the words themselves

Question 14

ACT 2, SCENE 2 - language and style

Answer 14

• The sound of the Gaelic language gives the scene its poetic tone non Gaelic – speaking audiences
• Each repeat a sound from the words of the other person – becomes rhythmic
• Words they use have several meanings – ‘Lag’ means weak or a stream. Shows the slippage of language.

Question 15

ACT 2, SCENE 2 - staging

Answer 15

• They move closer as the poetry of names becomes more intense
• Builds tension – shorter words

Question 16

ACT 3 - summary

Answer 16

• Yolland is missing – characters suspect Donnelly twins (can be seen as representing resistance to colonization)
• Lancey’s soldiers are already rifling their way through farms and houses nearby – Manus is suspected
• Manus only insulted Yolland – he wishes it was in English so it came across as an act of defiance rather than an attempt to communicate
• Calls it ‘the wrong gesture in the wrong language’ – has learned how some gestures are better than others, and must be understood to be effective
• Before he leaves, he coaches Sarah again – interrogates her coldly rather than encouraging
• Maire arrives and absent – mindedly recalls the place name Yolland talks about. These place names become like poetry
• Last words – ‘I’ll see you yesterday’ conveys the sense that there is a problem with communication
• In his confusion with tenses, he echoes the theme of being trapped in the past
• Lancey arrives and delivers a series of threats to destroy the community
• Play ends – Hugh is devastated, Maire is lost and confused, Jimmy Jack is consumed in the classics.
• Hugh drunkenly recalls 1798 rebellion. Jimmy and Hugh were young men full of enthusiasm and romantic idealism
• They return – like Ulysses, ‘homesick for Athens’

Question 17

ACT 3 - commentary

Answer 17

• Bridget smells the sweet stalks, prophetic sign of potato famine (representative of general destruction of community)
• In previous scenes, relationships are stable between characters
• Doalty was amicable to Yolland and now threatens violence. Manus also wishes to resort to desperate measures.
• Friel does not comment on the actions of characters.
• The fragility of human relationships and futility of communication are subjects of final act.
• Love between Maire and Yolland is bound to be difficult, but is destroyed by political antagonisms
• Jimmy Jack breaks down in tears, abandoning the pretenses of his mythical world, crying to Hugh about the need for companionship
• Hugh is made pathetic, knocked from his perch of knowledge and pomposity, made destitute by the national school.

Question 18

ACT 3 - characters

Answer 18

• Lancey is different figure from act 1 (used to figure of humour). He is now an efficient, colonial servant, executing standardiwed procedures in the wake of civil unrest.
• Becomes a ruthless commander
• Speech incorporates military language - ‘this entire section’ as if it has already lost some of the humanity that made it a home.
• Owen’s loyalties are questioned throughout the play – speaks with significance about what he thinks of Gaelic, then translates names, then translates back. Place names that sounded poetic when Maire and Yolland say them now sound elagaic.
• Bridget and Doalty have the function of being the index of ordinary thought, of the populace in general.
• Used to be excited by military – now we see them as demonstrating their power to destroy
• Jimmy Jack – used to show how natural learning has become. Now he is pathetic as the turmoil of the last few days has made him revert back to his stories (a landscape into which he feels safe)
• Hugh’s comment, ‘we must learn where we live’ is resonant. Literal – coming to terms with new reality. Also, he recognizes that he must learn his place; him and his language has lost its significance.