It is clear that at the beginning of the play we Brendon – the bartender is more passive character in the play compared to his friend Jack who we find out that drinks a lot and has more aggressive characteristics. We find out later on that Brendan in fact more polite even when he swears, his thoughts seem to show the audience that he is a fair person. “Brendan: The dirty bastard. I don’t want him using in here for that sort of carry on. A married man like him.” This quote for some people might trigger that it is all about jealousy, we can argue whenever it is or not but most importantly it shows the fact that Finbar is married and still brings another girl to the pub, which makes them jealous as both Jack and Brendan are single men and still in their forties and thirties. Brendan in this case finds the fact that Finbar is bringing a girl to his bar is unfair and at some point he finds it as if Finbar is cheating her wife by hanging around with other girls.
While their conversation Jim is mentioned before his arrival, especially when Jack and Brendan start talking about Finbar. Jack : “Well. Jim says he met Finbar Mack down in the Spar. Finally, either sold or’s renting the, the thing after how many years it’s sat there?” – This quote specifically shows the audience that they get all information about Finbar threw Jim, this happens when they talk about Maura Nealon’s house. And on the next page (page 6) where all jealousy is shown Brendan says “Fucking… Jimmy talking all that crack with Finbar.” This quote shows the jealousy and the fact that Brendan does not like what Finbar does and he does not want people like Jim talking about it.
As readers or audience we can clearly see that as the time passes Jack becomes more aggressive and uses more swear words, he is angrier and his jealousy is up to its limit. He constantly drinks and asks for more from Brendan. Brendan in fact is calmer by his conversation tries to calm his friend. : It’d take a bomb under you’ this quote more tries is important as we can clearly identify that the author represents Brendan’s calming and controlling character, this shows how well Brendan knows his friend Jack and knows what it will lead to if Jack continuous drinking. They both drink so this might also cause future problems and conflicts, “Brendan takes the glass and pours a fresh bottle”; after this Brendan pours himself a whisky after drinking beer, so he actually mixes two alcohol drinks which has negative effect on people, so this might catch an eye on the audience. After Jim’s arrival three characters Jim, Brendan and Jack continue drinking – “Jack takes a long drink” ‚”JIM: Good luck. (Drinks.)”.
Jim, Jack and Brendan gambling might also lead to some interesting circumstances. Since men like to gamble during their free time on horse racing, after a couple of drinks and the presence of the new people, they might start making silly bets, continue talking about their success and by this maybe try to impress other people joining the conversation, to show how lucky they are and how they win. Brendan: Were you in Carrick yourself? ; Jack: I was. Flew in about eleven, threw on a fast bet. Jimmy was there, we went for a quick one in the Pot”.
As the play continues there is lot more evidence of jealousy and at the same time loyalty in their friendship we later find out that three friends sitting in a pub are jealous of Finbar, “Ah Finbar’s in real need of a few shekels”. Besides the jealousy we see the excitement of news when Jim tells Jack and Brendan about Valeria, “Em, I only saw her for a sec. I’d say, like they were in the car and all. I’d say about thirties, very nice looking.” – this quote represents men’s interest and curiosity about a woman coming from Dublin.
“ The Weir “ name of the play is very carefully chosen by the writer, in real life the weir is a small overflow dam used to change the flow characteristics of a river or small stream. This has great importance in this play as at the beginning of the play nothing is mentioned about a river and so audience is more likely to think that the weir will come up after few scenes without understanding that this play is tale of ghostly remembrances and the weir is used to symbolize the characters in the play as their thoughts alter as the time passes.
From my point of view by observing the play in pages from one to twelve we can clearly identify these three men as crude, rude and harsh people the fact that they are from countryside backs it up as well as they are all single and are jealous of others. This fact leads us to think that when lady from Dublin arrives all men will try to show themselves, impress woman from city, but considering that they do not have the experience makes us readers think that their way of talking won’t change a lot. They might start talking about stuff which won’t interest Valerie. The writer uses very good technique of foreshadowing to hint the audience or the readers about future events, it is very likely that an audience can guess what will happen afterwards based on information heard already, in fact this can also be a tricky hint, so the audience might think about the future events but in the play it might go in completely different way, this technique helps to keep the audience more entertained as their curiosity rises.
