Throughout the mini-series Hughie is involved in deception, caused by the struggles and hardships he faces trying to find his place in Surry Hills. Hughie, like many other of the characters in The Harp in the South has dreams outside of Surry Hills. He dreams of living in the country and being a part of a marching band, a dream that is shown through the use of drum rolls and marching band music whenever Hughie is present. However as an Irish immigrant living in the poorest area of Sydney he knows that he has little hope of ever achieving these dreams. Unlike his wife, Hughie is a realist. He turns to alcohol as a way of hiding from his lost dreams and protecting himself from further struggles and hardships. However this only creates struggles and hardships for his family. Hughie is scared to get close to his family out of fear of losing one of them, like he lost his only son and so he also uses his alcoholism to push them away. Out of all the characters Hughie is involved in the most deception; however the struggles and hardships he faces as a cause of this allow him to become a better person.
Throughout the mini-series Roie suffers to achieve her idealistic world, which involves deceiving her family. Out of all the characters Roie is the most idealistic, she feels the need to be in a relationship and feel loved, which leads to her sacrificing her morals. Roie sacrifices her virginity so that Tommy will love her. However this only leads to her suffering the consequence when she falls pregnant. Roie desperately seeks her parent’s approval of everything she does, and so she lies and deceives them to hide the truth, especially about her pregnancy. She craves a perfect, conventional family and she finds this in Charlie. Charlie gives Roie everything she could want, being love and marriage. Roie’s happiness with Charlie is shown through the use of bright colours and open spaces whenever they are together, rather than the dim and dark colours which were used by Buckley to show Roie’s relationship with Tommy. Roie suffers the most out of all the characters to prove she isn’t a misfit and to achieve her idealistic world.
Dolour is the only character who is not involved in deception; however she faces some struggles and hardships trying to fit in at school. Due to the Darcy families lack of money the nuns at Dolour’s school pay for her education and uniform. Dolour is constantly aware of this fact and does all she can to be like the other students, including going on the quiz show. Dolour is a sensible and wise girl and tries to make the best of her situation through study and hard work; she asks many questions and shows lots of curiosity. An example of this is when Hughie hurts Mr Diamond and there is blood everywhere “the rich colour, the smoothness of it, fascinated Dolour. It seemed to be the most wonderful stuff she had ever seen”. Unlike the rest of her family she is not accepting their living conditions; rather she is doing all she can to get out into the world and experience a different way of life. Dolour is not like Roie she is smarter and able to make more mature decisions, which define who she is. This and the fact that Dolour does the best she can to improve her life stops her from being a misfit and facing as many struggles and hardships as her family.
The Harp in the South explores the life of ‘misfits’ struggling to find their place in the world. Their quest to find their place often involves hardships and the deception of people the love. These ideas are shown through the characters of Hughie, Dolour and Roie. However throughout the mini-series the audience sees the family move past their deception and hardships and realise what is important in life, family and love, and as long as they have that it doesn’t matter what struggles they have to face.
