Dancing at Lughnasa. Final. MA PDF

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Dancing at Lughnasa, Brian Friel The main themes that we'll focus on in this chapter are migration and memory. The role of memory in this play has received much critical attention, especially in relation to the sense of history that is evident in it. History is a method of understanding the past in a structured and consensual way, while the memory is a fluid and individual way of remembering the past. Memory Activity 1 Now we look at ways in which memory works as a theme or through characters. The theatrical device that foregrounds the theme of memory is that of not having the boy Michael present onstage. (the boy's absent-presence onstage). Michael's memories are the substance of the play. Since it's the narrator who's recalling his childhood self, he cannot visualize the boy clearly. You don't see yourself as a child in your memories, you simply are the child in them. To support that device, in his narrative monologues Michael makes an explicit theme of memory. He speaks of his memories as memories, seeming to reflect on memory itself at times. Also, characters in the play make sense of their 1936 present in Ballybeg, and their relations to each other, by remembering their pasts. The sisters consider going to the harvest dance because of their memories. On the other hand, Jack's memories of his life in Uganda are a separate matter from the sisters' memories. His memories are of a distant and strange world that is only remembered by him. This sense of a separate world of Jack's memories is strengthened by his isolation from the surroundings and everyday life of Ballybeg, particularly by his difficulties with the English language. When Jack remembers their mother and Chris as a baby, the memory comes to him like a photograph. This is a familiar way of thinking about memories, in terms of still images that recall photographs just as photographs recall the past. Activity 2 Now we look at the ways in which the past is accounted for in historical terms in the play through references to historical periods, places, events and persons. There is a specific period and place that the narrator Michael remembers (August 1936 in the imaginary village of Ballybeg in the real County). The audience isn't informed what year or place the narrator Michael is speaking from, they know only that it must be after the mid-1950s because of the letter that Michael received from his half-brother. Little

mention is made of political events or socio-historical observations related to the village, county or Ireland generally in the play. There isn't any direct reference to recognizable events of Irish history. The historical events mentioned are intentionally outside the local sphere and even outside the nation, e.g. Jack's involvement in the First World War, and Gerry's joining up with the international Brigade for the Spanish Civil War. The small, everyday details is what creates the play's sense of period and location. E.g. The importance of the radio, the persistence of pagan rituals like the Festival of Lughnasa, Maggie's Wild Woodbine cigarettes, Kate's loyalty to her Catholic heritage and neighborhood. These small, everyday details convey a strong socio-historical sense of the context. It seems like a period of transition towards modernity. These everyday details are exactly where memories merge with history. These details may be remembered by those who lived then and such details have a place in historical narratives. A close consideration of the role of memory and history in the play suggests that memory dominates over history. Dancing at Lughnasa is structured around memory and focuses on the workings of memory more than on historical events and narratives. The manner of distinguishing between memory (fluid and more individual) and history (organized, evidenced and relatively consensual) may appear artificial. It has been argued that historical narrative can be fluid too and that history may be regarded as an aspect of memory (collective memory) and that a reasonable understanding of the past or present should be aware of both the individual and the collective dimensions of memory. The manner of dealing with reality in a 'memory play' is not simply a coherent recalling of the past, it's also a settlement with the processes of memory itself. In Dancing at Lughnasa, Friel uses the form of the memory play. It presents a coherent and realistic picture of the domestic setting of the Mundy household while, at the same time, foregrounding the slippages and distortions of memory, which is smoothed over by narrator Michael's linking speeches. Activity 3 Now, we look at examples where the realistic features of the play seem to be in tension with the role of memory. The memories of conversations recorded in the play are those witnessed by the boy Michael and recalled by the narrator Michael. So, how comes that sometimes they both are missing from the space where the conversations took place. There are gaps in the narrative, which makes it unrealistic. Also, it's unlikely that the boy Michael would have a

photographic memory so that his adult self would be able to remember accurately. The flow of memories that the play starts and ends are more like still photographic moments. But memories are not as stable as pictures. The memories that characters speak of within the play are nostalgic, reflecting feelings more than reality. E.g. Maggie's memory of her adventures with Bernie when she was 16 is a memory of a youthful and exciting past, Jack's memories are painted with pleasant colors, unpolluted by cultural and colonial conflicts, nothing about Chris's memories of Gerry stains her love for him. Migration The play's structuring is completely bound to the theme of migration. Seamus Deane has noted the importance of the 'theme of exile' in the Friel's early work. He talked about the conflict between emotional loyalties to the backward and rural area and obligations to the sense of self that desires freedom in a more modern and urban world. The experience of migration is deeply rooted in Irish colonial/postcolonial history and collective/individual memory. In this play, migration is thermalized in some clear ways. Activity 4 Here's a list of the characters who are or become migrants in the play, the reasons for migration, and the effects it has on them. 1- The narrator Michael: It is clear from the beginning that he is remembering from a distance in time and place. His vivid memories are of a distant childhood and a distant home that he has left behind. No clear explanation of his reasons for leaving. That feeling of being torn between loyalty to a backward area and obligation to the self that seeks freedom is spread throughout the play, both in the narrator's nostalgic memories and in what's revealed of each character. 2- Jack: The isolation of the returned emigre Jack shows that migration is not just about physical movement but about cultural displacements and replacements. Every aspect of Jack's sensibility had migrated (his linguistic ability, religious convictions, cherished memories, relationships, adaptation to everyday life). The return is a process of incomplete re-adaptation wherein he is unable to accept Ballybeg as home again or regain his sense of belonging to the family. Jack is unable to readapt. 3- Gerry: He is a constant migrant, a wanderer always looking for a new destination, from Ireland to Spain, and back to Wales. He has the ability to adapt quickly wherever he is. But he can’t be in one place for too long, he always needs a new destination. Gerry and Jack are similar in their feeling of displacement in Ballybeg, though in completely different ways.

4- Rose and Agnes: Their emigration and sad ending after the events covered in the play are explained by narrator Michael. He thinks that they might have emigrated for economic reasons, or because they just wanted away. Only Kate, Chris and Maggie do not become migrants. They experience, at different points in the play, feelings of oppression with their circumstances in Ballybeg, but appear to be unable or unwilling to try to escape them. Activity 5 There are moments in the play where expressions appear through means other than words (images, music, movement, and their symbolic echoes). 1- The Festival of Lughnasa: It's described in Michael's opening narrative. Also, Rose gives an account of one of the bonfire rituals of the festival. Kate too gives her own different account of the festival from her devoted Catholic perspective. 2- Dancing: which the sisters express their subconscious desires through. 3- The Radio: Its music has the ability to release suppressed and unspoken emotions and desires. 4- The boy's paintings on the kites: The effect of these stage images is described in Friel's stage directions. The effect is purely visual in performance, indicating childish, yet deep and disturbing layers of consciousness. These suggestive expressions that are beyond words in the play seem to push towards perceptions beyond the socially bound. They present a kind of uncertainty and fluidity. They also provide an equivalent of escapes within the Mundy household.

Composed by: Mennah Alshafey. [email protected]...