Brian Friel Uses The Play To Investigate The Idea Of The Personal Needs In Lieu Of Colonisation. Discuss.

The sheer diversity of the characters in the play contributes to the multitude of personal needs which become apparent to the audience. Within the play itself, the different kinds of personal needs fall into four general categories: the need to have a sense of identity; the need to escape from reality; the need for modernisation and the need for love. Many of these are in direct conflict with each other and allow Friel to then force the audience to contemplate on the wider issues in the play. The effects of colonisation, is an example. By the end of the play, the fine and intricate web of relations that exists between the characters and much of the characters' hopes and dreams have been shattered. Friel uses it to make a statement about how colonisation often dwarfs and undermines the spirit and essence of the place. It is evident that as the play progresses, personal needs become swept away and destroyed by the wave of colonisation. Thus, from a certain perspective, it can be seen as a prop underlining the evils of colonisation.

Sarah's need for identity is most clearly able to illustrate this. As one of the first characters Friel allows us to see, Sarah's lack of ability to express herself explicitly creates a profound impact on us. By following this up with a halting first sentence which gives her her identity, Friel immediately embodies the central theme of the play through her words. Manus praises Sarah's accomplishment by saying

"Now we're really started! Nothing'll stop us now! Nothing in the wide world!"

His words indicate that he thought the greatest barrier and hindrance to Sarah's progress was the fact that she couldn't identify herself. It's almost as if by helping her find her identity, Manus has provided her with a key to solve the rest of her problems. It shows how important a commodity identity really is.

Also, Sarah's disability makes her vulnerable and Friel intends for the audience to feel protective and sympathetic to her plight. Sarah is embarrassed by her show of affection for Manus through her gift of flowers:

"Sarah has fled in embarrassment to her seat and has her head buried in a book."

This action pangs of inexperience and the simplicity which comes with the child-like innocence endears her to the audience. Friel has ensured that the audience will forevermore feel a compulsion to dislike any character which brings harm unto her.

At the end of the play therefore, when her precious and new-found capability is taken away from her, resentment is created towards the colonisers. Friel makes the loss all the more poignant because of Sarah's calm acceptance at something akin to theft of her hard won achievement:

"Sarah shakes her head, slowly, emphatically, and smiles at Owen."

It is with difficulty, that the audience swallows such a setback and the fact that Sarah is able to merely "smile" and move on makes us dislike the colonisers even more. Also, when Yolland's liaison with Maire breaks Manus and in the process, Sarah, Friel shows once again that it's the outsider, the coloniser, which has wrecked the fine balance between the characters. While the audience is never made to hate Yolland, they certainly will link him with the disintegration.

Another character which has identity problems is Maire. Friel creates Maire as the outsider on the inside. Her drive to learn English and break away from the close-knit community of Baile Beag is a little disconcerting because of the familiarity we share with each of the locals by the time she makes her surprising request. The audience finds it hard to understand why she would want to leave that heartening world Friel paints. With Doalty's antics and Jimmy's oddities, it doesn't seem to be too bad a place to survive and her venturing outside of Baile Beag -which the audience knows close to little about- seems to be imprudent. Friel makes us sceptical about her use of Daniel O' Connell to substantiate her claim because the quote she used was:

"The old language is a barrier to modern progress"

Friel makes the audience indignant about how dismissively this man relegates Greek and Latin as hindrances to progress. He therefore makes the audience stand against this purported change and effectively, modernisation at the whim of the colonisers and people influenced by them. Also, her request, brought about by who she called the "Liberator", sent shockwaves through the community of Baile Beag which creates the first signs of the rift which will slowly surface between those who stand on Maire's side and those who stand for the conservatives. This is clear through the volley of responses that come after her voicing of her request:

"Suddenly several speak together"

"What's she saying? What? What?"

"It's Irish he uses when he's travelling around scrounging votes"

"And sleeping with married women"

The slow but sure emergence of this rift means that Friel is able to manipulate once again, the audience's favours about the colonisers. It seems like once more, they have become the source of the conflict. By the end of the play, when Hugh has agreed to teach Maire English, it seems therefore to be a gesture of submissiveness, of surrender and acquiescence to the unreasonable, heightening dislike of the colonisers.

Like Maire, Owen is a character caught in the middle of the modernisation versus conservative battle. Owen, having the more 'progressive' background with him being the prodigal son and all, seems to need to not pass up a good opportunity when he spots one. However, he struggles with the notion that what he is doing, helping the colonisers modernise, is damaging and eroding who he is. Like Maire's needs, Friel uses Owen's personal needs to raise questions. Friel make us like Owen more than Maire because he seems more approachable. He is charismatic, making a firm impression in the audience from the moment of his entrance:

"As he crosses the room he touches and has a word for each person"

The fact that Owen's stance is more readily forgiven than Maire's gives Friel this