There are some dramatic devices and techniques that Friel uses to illuminate the play's central themes. These could be the structure of the play, language and translation, and the ending.

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What are the dramatic devices Friel uses to illuminate the play’s central themes? (Consider names and naming, language and translation, map-making etc).

There are some dramatic devices and techniques that Friel uses to illuminate the play’s central themes. These could be the structure of the play, language and translation, and the ending.

The structure of the play allows it to explore the theme of cross-cultural conflict and communication. The play could be about whether two communities can be together without conflict resulting in a change to the original community. In this play a change happens to the Irish community and they feel their traditions and ways of life have gone and at the end it look as if the whole way of life for Irish community is coming to an end. This happens as the result of the English becoming involved with the Irish.

At first the audience is introduced to the situation. An Irish community is to be mapped then its place names standardised. The English soldiers are doing this and this means that the linguistic and cultural traditions of the Irish community may be compromised or destroyed. This is one of the complications of the play. Most plays will begin with a situation and then bring some complications and resolve them at the end. However at the end of the play, the whole way of life for the Irish community looks like it may be coming to an end. The situation of the cultural and linguistic traditions being compromised or destroyed is not resolved at the end of the play. There are also other complications that arise after we are introduced to the situation. Negativity between characters occurs such as Manus being jealous of the relationship between Yolland and Maire. Evidence in the play of Manus being jealous of the relationship between Yolland and Maire have is shown when Manus trys to find Yolland to strike him with a stone. Then Yolland goes missing who we think has died. Friel did not resolve these problems for us and we are left to make up our own minds about what happened.

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Friel uses language and translation as a dramatic device. A dramatic technique that Friel uses is showing the difficulties that the English and Irish have in understanding each other. Friel is interested in this and wants to show this to the audience. Friel must know that not many of his audiences will understand the Gaelic language and so uses English instead of Gaelic so that the audiences can understand. However, the Irish characters are speaking in Gaelic in the play. This dramatic technique illuminates the theme of alienation and the power of language because the Irish and the English ...

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