Homecoming and Brian Friel’s Translations

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Convention is an integral part to both Harold Pinter’s Homecoming and Brian Friel’s Translations , affecting both the plot and the way the audience perceives the two plays. The two playwrights explore the theme of convention in many different ways, including through the characters’ struggle to change convention, their relationships and historical conventions. The playwrights of these plays force the audience to question what they know about convention, both in a modern context and in the context of the plays, and decide what message the playwrights are trying to put across about convention.
Both The Homecoming and Translations feature strong, independent women who try to break free of social conventions. In The Homecoming, this character is Ruth; she constantly shows her dominating personality through her interactions with other characters. For example, Lenny tries intimidate Ruth with stories of his encounters with women, but is left defeated when she says, ‘Why don’t I just take you’ to which Lenny has no response other than ‘You’re joking’. Teddy cannot seem to win against her either, not being able to go the ‘whole hog’ and Max is simply ignored when he demands, ‘Kiss me.’ Ruth is also fiercely independent, which she exhibits by choosing to stay in England to become a prostitute, rather than return to America with her husband and lead a conventional life. In 1960s Britain, women were beginning to gain more freedom, however they were still bound by many traditional social conventions such as a woman’s role in the home. Ruth, through her dominance and through the decisions she makes, challenges these conventions, giving her freedom and independence. In Translations, Maire similarly shows her fierce independence by making plans ...

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...entions, using the social context of Ireland in the 1830s and characters that are willing to break social conventions in order to achieve change.

Works Cited

1. The Homecoming (Harold Pinter, Faber, 1991)
2. Translations (Brian Friel, Faber, 1981)
3. The Cambridge Companion to Harold Pinter (Editor Peter Raby, Cambridge University Press, 2009)
4. The Homecoming (Dir. Peter Hall, DVD)
5. Power and Impotence in The Homecoming (John Hudson, The English Review, 1 September 2003)
6. The Ordnance Survey of the United Kingdom (Thomas Pilkington White, Blackwood, 1886)
7. Reinares, Maria Laura Barberan, "Remapping and Renaming Ireland: A Postcolonial Look at the Problem of Language and Identity in Brian Friel's Translations." (2007). Graduate English Association New Voices Conference 2007.Paper 1

8. Pinter’s Fractured Discourse in The Homecoming (Maurcie Charney, 2011

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