Friel reminds us of the fondness that Maire has for Yolland, in Act 3 when Maire recounts the last time she saw Yolland. Whilst doing so she reminds the audience of the difficulty the two have in communicating with one another verbally but easily Maire understands Yolland through gesture, “he pretended to get cross,” and how much they enjoyed each others company, “And he went off laughing.”
In this small extract, Friel demonstrated how Maire and Yolland communicated with one another and how Maire describes this to Owen, we can see how much she has learned from Yolland: “And there’s Little Walsingham- that’s his mother’s town land.” Maire has learnt simple things like place names through Yolland drawing her a map, so despite the two speaking completely different languages they are able to communicate through maps. This highlights the willingness of the two to learn each others language, which makes the tragic ending of the love story have such an impact on the audience. It almost seems hopeless that if their relationship cannot work then what hope have any other cross-cultural relationships got.
Furthermore, by Friel juxtaposing the death of Nellie Ruadh’s baby with the disappearance of Yolland, it is almost a pre-echo of what is to come. The writer is almost hitting the audience with the hard reality of life, death and the inevitable failing of cross-cultural relationships.
However, it could be argued that Friel is trying to demonstrate the similarities between Yolland and Maire. Although Yolland comes from an upper class English background, which is totally alien to the Irish Gaelic community and Maire comes from the rural West coast of Ireland which is equally alien to East Anglia, they are both exactly the same. They both come from “wee villages,” whose nearest neighbours are other tiny rural villages, they both find it equally hard to pronounce their names “aren’t they odd names? Sure they make no sense to me at all.” So the two characters are not that different at all despite having different backgrounds and living in different countries, they do have similarities. It is Maire and Yolland’s ability and willingness to find these similarities which heightens the impact of the ‘doomed love story.’
On the other hand, it could be argued that the reason this ‘doomed love story’ has such an affect on us as an audience is because Maire and Yolland’s relationship resembled the possibility for peace and by this being destroyed the thought of a peaceful cooperation between the two nations is also crushed. So on a simple level we are affected by the sadness of these two peoples relationship being ‘doomed’ beyond their power and eventually destroyed, but also on a wider scale we are affected by the meaning behind their relationship.
The inevitabilities of the love story are what makes it have such a lasting impression on the audience. By the audience being able to anticipate the tragic ending it makes the audience feel even more compassionate towards Maire and Yolland’s relationship. Because Friel allows ‘us’, the audience, to follow Maire and Yolland’s relationship from the start, we almost feel a part of their sadness when the relationship comes to its tragic ending. By Friel giving us an insight into how people from completely different nations and cultures can learn to love one another, we are lulled into a false sense of security. By this relationship being destroyed we are reminded of the reality and consequences of crossing cultural boundaries. By the audience being able to experience Yolland and Maire’s relationship on an intimate level and being able to see how their relationship worked we are deeply affected by their ‘doomed love story’ coming to a tragic end.
It is the tragic ending that gives the play an element of ‘Romeo and Juliet’. Both parties seem to have insurmountable objects preventing them from being together.
In Maire’s case, we feel she would never be accepted in Yolland’s world by his peers and family. He is an officer of the British Army in a time when snobbery and social standing are probably at their highest. We can envisage a scene where Yolland brings Maire into the officer’s mess or indeed into his family home in Norfolk, for introductions. We can almost hear the sharp in take of breath and the whispered comments amongst those present, Maire would undoubtedly be rejected. Maire would never be in any physical danger from Yolland’s peers and friends but we feel she would be emotionally steamrollered by the undoubted hostility because she would be at the very bottom of their social ranking.
Yolland, on the other hand, would be in great physical danger by coming to live in Maire’s world. Maire’s people are a poor rural community; although they are poor in wealth they are very rich in a bonded tribal sense, they are a group that have grown up on adversity living very much a hand to mouth existence they live in humble crofts and this is a far cry from the waiter service and regular fine meals we feel Yolland must receive daily without thought or reflection.
If Yolland was to isolate himself away from the safety of his soldiers we know he would be at great risk from the darker elements of the community. This apparent naivety makes the audience fear for him, he seems to romanticise the whole situation turning Baile Beag into a Utopia, yet we know of the Donnelly Twins existence and we feel we know their intentions. It is hard not to feel sympathy for Yolland when we know that the Donnelly Twins are ‘out and about.’ Although we are never told in any detail we are drawn to the conclusion that the Donnelly Twins have brought an end to Yolland’s young life.
Jimmy encapsulates this “doomed love story” in his final lines, “Do you know the Greek word endogamein? It means to marry within the tribe. And the word exogamein means to marry outside the tribe. And you don’t cross those borders casually- both sides get very angry. It is Maire and Yolland’s willingness to attempt to cross these borders and to learn from one another, which has the deepest impact on the audience.
