'An English historian has claimed that Hugh O'Neill was "a great man as far as savages go." How far does Friel's presentation of O'Neill support this claim?'

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‘An English historian has claimed that Hugh O’Neill was “a great man as far as savages go.” How far does Friel’s presentation of O’Neill support this claim?’

Charlie Green.

The claim by an English historian that Hugh O’Neill was “a great man as far as savages go” shows the historian’s opinion that O’Neill was a man of a race and culture below his own. Friel’s presentation of Hugh O’Neill in ‘Making History’ both supports and disagrees with this comment.

        Friel first stage directions introducing the character of Hugh O’Neill describe him as, ‘a private, sharp-minded man…out going and talkative’ who speaks in ‘an upper-class English accent.’ This introduction of O’Neill shows him to be an intelligent and well-educated individual, showing that at the beginning of the Act I, scene I, the audience should not consider him to be a “savage”. He also presents O’Neill as a sensitive man, a characteristic not commonly associated with savages. Shortly after his marriage to Mabel, he shows great enthusiasm when planning to, ‘make the room upstairs into’ their bedroom. This characteristic continues when O’Neill defends his marriage to Mabel in front of Lombard and O’Donnell. He calls her a, ‘very talented, a very spirited, a very beautiful young woman’. Further more, he presents her with a ‘watch’, claiming the only person he knows, ‘who has one is Queen Elizabeth’. This gift is hugely significant as it once again shows O’Neill’s love for Mabel, despite their two-decade age difference.

However, O’Neill’s affection and care for Mabel, it could be argued, is no more than skin deep, shown when he sexually desires her, telling her, ‘I want to devour you’. Frayn’s use of the word ‘devour’, shows a savage side to O’Neill, a man who pursues sexual pleasure rather then love in his marriages. This idea is first presented when Harry reveals that O’Neill has had two previous marriages, the first of which was, ‘never properly dissolved’. This presents O’Neill as hypocritical, for in Catholicism, O’Neill’s religion, marriage is a gift to be protected and divorce is seen as undesirable. Further more, during his exile in Rome, O’Neill has no moral conscience when visiting ‘Maria’, a prostitute; even despite the fact he is married to ‘Catriona’, a woman whom, in violent drunkenness, refers to as a ‘bitch’. This shows that his love for Mabel was an inconsistent quality, one not found in his other treatments of women. The watch which O’Neill presents to Mabel – although a romantic and no-doubt costly gesture – could be viewed as an inexpensive present and nothing more. For O’Neill, the Earl of Tyrone, with his vast extent of wealth, a present such as this would not have been overly costly and, proven in Mabel’s reaction of disbelief and flattery, could have been an easy way to, once again, win his wife’s heart.

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Throughout the play, O’Neill has powerful allies who appear fond of him. In Act I, Scene I, the pope sends him, ‘a silver birdcage and a gold and silver candelabra,’ sent with his, ‘warmest wishes’. Friel’s presentation of O’Neill being sent personal gifts by a figure as powerful, influential and religious as the Pope does not agree with the historian’s claim that O’Neill was a “savage”.

However, there is evidence in the text to suggest that the letters and gifts sent have a far less personal and more political objective. Lombard hints at this when he tells O’Neill that the ...

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