How Friel Involves his Audience in the Conflict Between Coloniser and Colonised in his Play Translations
The play 'translations' by Brian Friel is set in Ireland in 1833.
During this time, the area was undergoing colonisation by the English
and the play represents a microcosm of the events occurring all over
the nation at the time. The consequence of this colonisation was
inevitably that the Gaelic language native to Ireland was eventually
lost and replaced by English.
Friel develops a pre-disposed bias towards the colonised through the
characterisation of both Hugh and Lancey and this creates an
allegiance between the audience and the Hedge school natives. Hugh's
humerous persona is in stark contrast to Lancey's dictatorial
character. The fact that the audience knows the inevitable outcome of
the situation adds weight to the empathy felt for the Irish because
the audience knows that no matter what Irish natives do in an attempt
to protect their identity, it will eventually be taken away from them.
During the complication of the play, Hugh discusses the difference
between the English and the Irish languages. "English succeeds in
making it sound … Plebian". Hugh is referring to the translation from
Irish to English and the fact that the poeticism of the words are lost
in the translation and the phrase becomes "Plebian" in his eyes. The
three dot ellipses used in this sentence adds to the emphasis of the
word Plebian and the audience realises the passion that Hugh has for
language, and this leads them to feel empathy for his cause. When
Yolland comments on Latin being "enormously rich and ornate", Hugh
responds with an over elabor...
... middle of paper ...
... to prove accurate. The 'fact' that
the English cannot be dispelled indicates that along with the new
place names, a new language will also be enforced.
Friel involves the audience in the struggle between coloniser and
colonised by forcing them to choose which side they feel most
empathetic with. It is clear that Friel has created the character of
Lancey to be utterly repulsive and the audience responds to this by
disliking him and his cause. On the other hand, Friel has created
humerous, likeable characters in the Hedge school that the audience
can relate to and this creates an understanding between the characters
and the audience. Because the play is written in English, it is
accessible by both the colonisers and the colonised and this will
therefore evoke a reaction of some sort from every person who reads
it.
Ralph joins Jack and the hunters in the hunt for the pig and gets caught up in the excitement of the kill. Prior to this, Ralph has been the voice of reason and common sense on the island. Now, he has let his urge to kill take over, and he is obviously excited and enjoying it.
Fundamental to our understanding of El Médico de su Honra, and of any other play is the notion that it was for performance and not intended for reading. Therefore, the action, text and spectacle all work together in producing an overall effect upon the audience. Calderón is described as a `craftsman' of drama and is famous for the dramatic devices which appeal to the various senses in order to convey the play's message with greater profundity. However, the seventeenth century playwright was limited by the facilities available to him. The rudimentary nature of their theatres affected the way in which a play was staged and therefore its interpretation. Public theatres were situated in courtyards, or `corrales', surrounded on three sides by private dwellings. A basic, but nevertheless important point is that theatres were generally exposed to the elements. By necessity, plays were performed during daylight hours and inevitably this would affect the presentation of the play. Atmosphere and mood were of paramount importance in a play, and this is of particular significance in El Médico de su Honra, where darkness is crucial both to the plot and the underlying themes.
shall firstly do a summery of the play and give a basic image of what
Mark Lambeck uses the drama’s setting to relate Intervention to the audience. Specifically, he uses a vague yet understandable modern time. An audience can relate knowing they could experience the same thing on any given day. The location of the play is also a place an audience could easily find themselves. It is vague place that could represent almost anywhere, perhaps in where the audience is. In the current world, one could easily find themselves walking down the street on their cell phone. The characters are constant...
Mannoni, O., Prospero and Caliban: The Psychology of Colonizaiton, trans. Pamela Powesland (New York, Praeger, 1964).
...ing something that they had either experienced or had a family member experience. As a result, it caused them to identify with the play. The manner in which this play has been configured such that it is drawing on the predatory and imperialistic tendencies displayed by multinational conglomerates provides a way for today's audience to identify with the plight of the characters and their realm.
Lord of the Flies is a novel written by William Golding in 1954 about a group of young British boys who have been stranded alone together on an island with no adults. During the novel the diverse group of boys struggle to create structure within a society that they constructed by themselves. Golding uses many unique literary devices including characterization, imagery, symbolism and many more. The three main characters, Ralph, Piggy, and Jack are each representative of the three main literary devices, ethos, logos, and pathos. Beyond the characterization the novel stands out because of Golding’s dramatic use of objective symbolism, throughout the novel he uses symbols like the conch, fire, and Piggy’s glasses to represent how power has evolved and to show how civilized or uncivilized the boys are acting. It is almost inarguable that the entire novel is one big allegory in itself, the way that Golding portrays the development of savagery among the boys is a clear representation of how society was changing during the time the novel was published. Golding is writing during
In staging reality, setting is critical for both Chad and Undine’s performances. In expatriate fiction, Europe is associated with more freedom than Puritanical America and is used as a medium for performers to present and explore both themselves and cultural and social differences between their home in America and abroad. In Going Abroad, William Stowe suggests that Europe is a space in which higher class and non-essential laborers can “prepare for or advance their careers” (Stowe 7). As a continent with a vast collection of cultural goods, Europe conflicts with the barren American landscape. Acquiring a “Europeanized” persona helps Undine and Chad to gain experience that they employ at home, and cultural accumulation provides an advantage
It shouldn't be forgotten that in the body of the play those who are masters of a language of extraordinary wit and polish - language that seems to guarantee rationality and good judgement - get things almost completely wrong. The resolution of the play comes via the agency of the people whose discourse is an assault on language, who are dismissed - by Leonato - as 'tedious' when they should be patiently listened to. But, as Borachio says 'what your wisdoms could not discover, these shallow fools have brought to light' (V.1.221-222). And even more disturbing, that resolution comes by mere accident: by the chance overhearing of a conversation.
The community, although it is very tight and strongly bound by tradition and family, is also troubled and varied. The potato crop is failing, the maps are being changed for the convenience of the English, people want to move out of Ireland, (for example when Maire tells Hugh she wants to learn English for when she moves to America). Things appear to be at peace when we are put into this environment and everything seems well at first, but as we look further into it we can see things are much more deep seeded and dark than at first glance. For example, Doalty steals a piece of equipment from some English soldiers; this cheeky mischief seems harmless until we hear about some of the English horses being lead off a cliff to their deaths. Nothing is what it seems in this play, there are many more issues that lurk beneath the rather innocent surface of this seemingly simple, rural community; feelings of hatred and betrayal course through the bodies of many of the populous. What the English are doing is not right, nor is it fair. They have no right to change the identity of a people for their own convenience.
Characters in the play show a great difficult finding who they are due to the fact that they have never been given an opportunity to be anything more than just slaves; because of this we the audience sees how different characters relate to this problem: " Each Character has their own way of dealing with their self-identity issue..some look for lost love o...
Imperialism, is it the big, bad master who enslaves the good, little child or is it the good, big master who protects the bad, little child? As history has shown in the past; sometimes, it is both. Through examination of three important pieces of literature “Shooting an Elephant by G. Orwell, White Man’s Burden by R. Kipling, and The War Prayer by M. Twain, it becomes obvious that there are serious consequences in supporting imperialistic ideals. Three very important ideas about Imperialism can be gleaned from these writings, which then provide a distinct concept about the subject.
In précis, through comparing and contrasting the inclusion of certain themes and textual features, and their transformations, the main motifs behind these alterations are clearly established. These transformations are influenced by the author’s social and cultural context, as well as their present defined social order, which is extensively reflected in BBC’s adaptation of the Shakespearean play, “Much Ado about Nothing”.
For the characters in the story, they struggle to feel part of American culture. Ashima worries about how her child will grow up in a foreign land with a mother who barely knows anything about it. For Gogol, he has grown up with the culture, but due to his heritage, he is not completely seen as an American. These struggles the characters face perfectly reflect how other humans like them have to deal with these situations. By detailing their struggles in a work of literature, the reader can better understand the emotions and hardships people with the same conditions must