Characters in the play Translations.
While Friel's small group of characters in the play Translations, hold stereotypical qualities and are all citizens of the rural Irish-speaking village of Baile Beag being affected culturally and personally by the Ordance Survey. Each character is carefully delineated with his or her own particular traits as well as being different representatives of particular views and beliefs. At first Sarah who is mute is seen as the stereotypical silent woman. Her loss of tongue and hence loss of identity is symbolic of the powerless, submissive female. "Which should I take Sarah" highlights the patronising, denigrating, and belittling attitudes towards females. Sarah is very much plays the role of society's expected female, "maybe you'd set out the stools," females are merely servants and slaves. However as the play precedes the audiences sees Sarah's developing individuality through her gestures, dress and actions. The name Sarah, maybe deliberately chose by Friel, refers to the Hebrew Sarah - mother of the nation, in this play's case the nation being Ireland. She is not just a mute village folk but also a representation of Ireland as a silenced voice, as it is a nation that does not speak the language of the colonisers. 'You were lovely last night, Sarah is that the dress you got from Boston, Green suits you." This further highlights Sarah's symbolism of Ireland seeing as green is
Account for the popularity of the play 'Translations' by Brian Friel.
Task: Account for the popularity of the play 'Translations' by Brian Friel. The play Translations was written by Brian Friel an Irish playwright and a founder of the 'Field Day Theatre Company' who, for their first production, presented 'Translations' in 1980. The popularity of the play was so that productions were the staged regularly within England and Ireland through out the 1980's but what was it that made the play so popular. Within the 1980's troubles had sparked within Northern Ireland, the horrific 'Bloody Sunday', civil rights marches and the formation of the terrorist group calling themselves 'The Provisional IRA' created a deeply divided nation. These political troubles echoed those of Irelands past when the divide between the protestant landlords and the Catholics who worked the land and were heavily taxed, like the occupants of Baile Beag in 1833, for this reason the play would have been of interest to audiences in the 1980's as a historic background to the current events. But the play was not historically correct although it was based loosely around historic fact there were major deviances for which the play was criticised. For instance the Sappers Yolland and Lancey who are mapping Ireland using English place names, although they may have been employed by the army to map the landscape they were not soldiers and would never have had the man power to destroy the