Change in the Play Translations

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Change in the Play Translations

Introduction

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From the statement above I am going to consider the way in which Friel

introduces changes that occur in Act1.

The First change that we come across in the play is the change of

education, changing from a Hedge school into national schools. " Did

you apply for that job in the new national school?" Hedge schools were

underground throughout the eighteenth century. Their name came from

the fact that, that literally was where most of the classes took place

at that time. The School Master (Hugh), with 35 years of experience

behind him, is dogmatic, peremptory, and short with his pupils, and

hoping to "trade up" when a new regional school gets built, though he

takes a dim view of emphasizing English.

"Did you apply for that job in the new national school?" This quote

indicates that Marie realises that there is a change that is going to

take place and that times are changing so you just have to accept it.

By saying this quote

"When it opens, this is finished, nobodies going to pay to go to a

hedge school" Marie also shows that the value of a hedge school is

nothing as time progresses things modify and you have to accept that,

this indicates that Marie is a self-assured, forward thinking

character.

A further sort of change is that Friel's drama describes the arrival

of English soldiers to a remote section of Ireland as they attempt to

create the first accurate map of the area. Making the map, however,

means renaming places and eroding tradition, in addition to preparing

the area for military occupation. The two characters Captain Lancey

and Lieutenant Yolland ...

... middle of paper ...

... to come to this conclusion. Friels

play has become concerned with the problems of language, so much so

that they constitute not just a theatre of language but also a theatre

about language. The ordinance Survey, contemporarily described as

associating geography with "the history", the statistics, and the

structure physical and social of the countries. Fiel dramatises the

alienating effect on Gaelic speaking people of the Gaelic place names

being translated into English, or anglicised, by the Ordnance Survey.

In fact his was only superficially alienating experience because the

Gaelic names, at least for the places in their own direct localities.

Something much more alienating happens when the spoken language

changes into English, for the characters a whole network of local

place names dissolves in a collective amnesia.

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