We see attempts to cross boarders in many of the characters. The first example is our first introduction to Owen, Hugh’s sophisticated and charming son who works for the British forces. It is made obvious from the description of him in the stage direction that he appears to have crossed from the typical rural Irish stereotype that has been formulated to a more commercial English one. He is “smartly dressed” and described as looking like a “city man” in a great contrast with Manus, the “lame soldier”, who we discover is his brother. At this point in the play Owen seems to be trying to make what could be termed as a crossing bridge between the two cultures and languages; he is the “go between.” While this could first imply that he has ‘changed sides,’ so to speak, we see later in the play that this is not the case. If you analyse the language he uses when he first appears at the hedge school it is difficult to decide if he genuinely appreciates and elevates his heritage and traditional culture, thus supporting my argument, or whether he is mocking it. For example: (Act I p27)”I come back after six years and everything’s just as it was! Nothing’s changed!” (Act I p29)”Honest to God, it’s such a delight to be back here with you all again-‘civilised’ people.” While at this point in the play we could be lead to believe he is saying such things in mocking and thus abandoning his old culture and successfully ‘crossing boarders,’ later in the play we see a shift in his tone and language. He looses his enthusiasm for the British colonial cause and begins to disagree with the English thinking that the Irish names should be ‘standardized.’ (Act III p68) “The original’s Saint Muranus. Don’t you think we should go back to that?” We see him appreciating the historical significance of names that he had previously discarded in Act I as insignificant: (Act I p37) “Owen-Roland-what the hell. It’s only a name.” However, reinforcing my argument, even in his temporary shift of loyalty Owen creates tension, particularly with Manus. Hugh on the other hand is just pleased to have him home. This is emphasized in the stage directions. (Act I p 26) “He embraces Hugh warmly and genuinely…Hugh’s eyes are moist-partly joy, partly the drink” contrasts with Manus’ cold tone and manor “You’re welcome Owen”; he speaks to Owen like he would when welcoming a guest. By attempting to cross boarder he is estranged. And so, even though he manages to cross the boarders of language, he never completes the transition to the other ‘tribe.’ However, even this periodic shift of loyalty causes tension thus linking to the idea of ‘Exogamein’ that Jimmy Jack refers to.
One of the most conventional structures for a play is to begin with a situation, then introduces some complications, before moving towards a resolution. Friel follows this for the first two acts but in Act III he avoids resolving some situations. We see this is the character of Maire, the pragmatic rural woman who wants to learn English and emigrate. Even from the beginning of the play she is portrayed as a tough rural “strong minded, strong-bodied woman,” but still shows her practical character and pragmatic approach: (Act I p 8) “Fit me better if I had that much English” She is the only character who wants to speak English thus showing her adaptability and acceptance to change in the early stages of the play. In the same way that whether or not Maire emigrates is left unresolved, so is the death of Yolland. We have little doubt that if Yolland is still alive he and Maire will get married and will the be only characters to successfully ‘cross boarders.’ Their relationship is probably the most relevant to the title statement by Jimmy Jack in the last scene. It is interesting, in terms of the theme of the play, that Brian Friel chose not to resolve this issue, that he chose not to confirm their failure. Their relationship, however, causes many more serious consequences than Owen’s temporary shift of loyalty. We suspect the Irish rebels kill Yolland and then as a result the British Forces threaten to ‘level’ the Irish town of Baile Beag. Friel was obviously trying to show the disastrous consequences of what such a simple innocent relationship can result in. This, again, can be linked to Jimmy Jack’s statement. It is interesting that Friel chose the last scene of the play to draw particular attention to this theme and leads us to believe that he does this so the audience will go away from the performance with the imagery of ‘ravished’ farm lands, and militant violence and this theme fresh in their minds.
In conclusion, after analysis of the play’s structure and central ideas we can see that the theme of crossing boarders is the most significant in the play as in a way, all aspects, whether they be linguistic, cultural or geographical are connected to it. Although Friel is quoted to have said Translations is a play about ‘language and only language’ cannot be doubted that in writing Translations Friel wanted to make his audience aware of the consequences of crossing ancient barriers built by language, and made impenetrable by language.
