Discuss how Friel presents the characters and introduces the main themes in Scene 1 of Making History.

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Discuss how Friel presents the characters and introduces the main themes in Scene 1 of Making History.

The play starts with Harry Hoveden telling Hugh O'Neill about a christening party he has been invited to. This introduces the play as “being born”, and is now about to begin. This naming ceremony also links in with O'Neill and Harry's conversation about the name of the flower that O'Neill is filling the room with. This discussion of 'Spanish broom' is a foreshadow of a discussion O'Neill has with Lombard about the Spanish influencing Ireland.

Hugh O'Neill is characterised as being a very indecisive person: he uses interrogative sentences ('isn't it?', 'doesn't it?'), and can't even decide if he likes his jacket or not. Also, he flits between 'upper-class English accent' and 'Tyrone accent'. This indecisiveness hints at O'Neill's inability to choose allegiance to just one side and to stay loyal to it, which becomes very important in the play later on. In Scene 2, he admits that he is 'loyal today – disloyal tomorrow', and blames it on the capriciousness of the Gaels. This shows that he is using both his Gaelic ancestry and his English nobility to his advantage – manipulating his “dual nationality” to appear loyal to one side, so he can more easily deceive whoever he needs to deceive at the time. This, however, comes later on in the play, and in Scene 1 he still doesn't know which way to turn.

Harry Hoveden is extremely loyal to Hugh O'Neill. He is well-educated, as he quickly translates 'Spanish broom' into its Latin name 'Genista', something that O'Neill cannot do. He also mentions the works of Virgil, which implies familiarity with them, further demonstrating his classical education. He is very discreet with matters concerning O'Neill (he leaves the room when he realises O'Neill wants a private conversation with Lombard). Also, he is a very close friend of O'Neill, as he knew about his marriage to Mabel Bagenal before anyone else.

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Mabel Bagenal is described by O'Donnell as 'that Upstart bitch' before he has even met her. This demonstrates the constant conflict that England and Ireland are in. She is an unusual choice of wife for O'Neill, as he is Irish Catholic and she is English Protestant. This suggests that maybe the relationship between England and Ireland are starting to improve and, on a small scale, their marriage represents harmony between the two nations. The fact that Lombard and O'Donnell at first disagree with this marriage could be seen to represent resistance to the unity of England and Ireland.

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