AskEssays.com - Discover essay samples

Examine the ways in which lang

4.9 of 5.0 (116 reviews)

Contains
876 words
Category
Other

Examine the ways in which lang Page 1
Examine the ways in which lang Page 2
Examine the ways in which lang Page 3
The above thumbnails are of reduced quality. To view the work in full quality, click download.

Examine the ways in which lang


Examine the ways in which language and identity are treated in ?Translations?

?Translations? is set in 1833, in County Donegal, which was soon after the time when Britain had claimed Ireland as part of its empire. The British and the Irish therefore had differing languages, so the British decided to go through the process of naming or renaming Ireland's geographical features. In ?Translations? language and identity are used more as a plot device and plot feature rather than as part of stylistic technique, which is their most common role.

When the play was first performed by Friel's own theatre company it was performed in the Irish language, and at the start of the play, all the characters speak Irish as their first language, the English language comes into the script a lot later, which reflects the course of events in Ireland over the past two centuries. All these characters have been brought up speaking the language and it is a fundamental part of their life, culture and identity.

English is the second main language in the play. It represents the future to Maire and Owen, and ?a mistake? to Hugh and Manus. The two English speakers come as part of the same assignment, to make a map of the country and to 'see that the place names are ... correct.?, but they have greatly differing attitudes towards Ireland and its identity. Captain Lancey sees the Irish as inferior to the English, which is evident when he is willing to evict a whole village of them, over the disappearance and probable death of one Englishman. Yolland however falls in love with Ireland, its language and culture and he feels that 'something is being eroded? by his task of renaming the geographical features of Ireland. Yolland is not the stereotypical English male of the time, because he ?missed the boat? to India and that stereotypical way of life, which would be following his father's wishes.

The other two languages used in the play are Greek and Latin, which are spoken only by Hugh and Jimmy. These two classical languages create an identity of intellectualism in their users and it is significant that it is the Irish rather than the English characters who can speak them contradicting Lancey's view of them being inferior.

Friel shows us the use of language in several different forms. The first scene where Manus is teaching Sarah to speak shows us that language is used to create communication. This can also apply with the lack of communication between the English and Irish characters, for instance how Maire and Yolland fall in love with the

sound of each other, despite not being able to understand a word that the other actually says. Different languages create boundaries of communication and the play shows that a lack of communication through language leads to violence, like when the Donnelly twins are supposed to have hunted after Yolland and when Lancey threatens to

terrorize the villagers. One of the problems of using communication through language is that it is a weapon that can be used against you as well as for you. This is evident when Sarah, (who has just learnt to talk) tells Manus (who taught Sarah to talk), that she saw Maire with Yolland together.

The play is set at a time when colonization is occurring through education and thus language in Ireland, rather than through brute force. It is a time of division in Ireland between those who claim to be looking forward to progress in Ireland with the

incorporation of the English language and those who want to preserve the use of Gaelic as it is a part of their culture and it is an important method of fighting colonization. Friel creates characters who represent both of these groups.

Maire sees the conversion to the English language as part of a process of progression in Ireland, ?We should all be speaking English?. This follows the arguments of Daniel O?Connell (the only real person who is mentioned in the play), who believed that the transition to the English language would help in achieving better

civil rights and social conditions for people in Ireland. ?Translations? is set soon after the Catholic Emancipation Act, where O?Connell fought against the Penal laws, which oppressed the Catholics in Ireland. The significance of this is that relations

between England and Ireland were changing and it could be argued that it was partly thanks to the idea of modernization, through the conversion to English that the act was passed.

The character who is most opposed to colonization and the English language is Hugh. He believes that English is for ?commerce? , but more importantly that it ?couldn't really express us (the Irish)? I think that English could express the Irish beliefs, but it is more important to say if it should express them. Hugh can be seen to represent the past on the basis that he is an older character who like Jimmy Jack fought in the Irish Rebellion of 1798, ?The road to Sligo. A spring morning. 1798. Going ...

You are currently seeing 50% of this paper.

You're seeing 876 words of 1751.

Keywords: discuss the ways in which new languages are created

Similar essays


Public education vs

. home scho Public Education vs. Home Schooling Education in our public schools has been on the down slope for over twenty years. With an increasing amount of school shootings, drugs, and other dementia, many parents today are home schooling their children. Although most people deem public education more suitable, many statistics and fact...

117 reviews
Download
Email what is it good for

J E-Mail or Snail Mail? L Remember those letters you used to write to your grandmother? Oh, who am I kidding, if you are under twenty, chances are you have never even written a letter. A tidal wave has emerged from beneath and grabbed us by a storm. It's called an E-mail. E-mail is a word that has echoed in our society for the past severa...

165 reviews
Download
Boxing a safe sport

Boxing - a safe sport Many sports can cause injuries such as football, soccer, and even golf. Athletes can tear a ligament or cartilage in their knee by just doing something as simple as running. Often, the healing process can take weeks, months, or even years to recover from the injury. One of the least understood sports is amateur boxing....

91 reviews
Download
Web advertising

Web Advertising , not to mention the Internet itself, finds itself in a stage of relative infancy and therefore provides marketers with novel challenges and situations which need to be dealt with caution . The realm of is unchartered terri tory! In terms of South Africa, the country finds itsef somewhat behind technologically. However, this ma...

192 reviews
Download
Hemp Around the World

HEMP AROUND THE WORLD AUSTRALIA While hemp is currently banned, government officials have permitted one farmer to grow the crop on a small-scale research plot. Public support for hemp farming is gathering. An informative one-hour Australian TV documentary, The Billion-Dollar Crop, is available on video. The Tasmanian Hemp Company is ca...

190 reviews
Download
Efficient market hypothesis an

The quote shows a strong relation to the efficient market hypothesis (EMH), as it implies that the costs of capital are dependent from the amount of information given by the company. According to my opinion, agency theory is a good explanation for costs of capital. Agency theory defines contracts as under which one party ' called principal...

22 reviews
Download
Problematic sollutions

Problematic Solutions With the New Year approaching great change will undoubtedly accompany the new millennium. Changes in technology and the arts will emerge naturally but as the times change it is our responsibility to ensure that social policies are designed to best benefit society. Drugs, crime, violence, poverty, and illiteracy are...

61 reviews
Download
The Consumer Price Index

(CPI) is the measure of the average change over time in the prices paid by urban consumers for a fixed market basket of consumer goods and services. The CPI provides a way for consumers to compare what a market basket of goods and services cost this month with what the same market basket cost a month or year ago. The CPI affects all Americans bec...

109 reviews
Download
Siberian husky

Siberian Huskies are thought to have come from Siberia when there was a land bridge between Alaska and Siberia. The Siberian Husky has some very unusual characteristics. Some of the characteristics are behavioral and some are physical. Overall the Siberian Husky is a beautiful, trustworthy and loyal companion to its master and...

63 reviews
Download
SAR

Bookreport Konstantin Heiller The Sun Also Rises There is no flabbergusting plot in this book as it doesn't contain twists, intrigues, or goals for any of the characters and the dialogue is the only thing that moves the reader through the book. Hemingway uses so much dialogue that it seems difficult at times to follow wh...

199 reviews
Download
Drivers

Trying to sort out what type of driver a person might be is an extremely challenging task. In a person?s own mind, they think they are the aggressive type of driver, or the cautious type, but no one will ever admit that they are the ?I got my license in a cracker jacks box driver?. The only fact that is certain about a person is they are never al...

39 reviews
Download
Can Skepticism Be Defended, Perhaps In A Limited Form?

? 1. Introduction This essay centres around what it means to know something is true and also why it is important to distinguish between what you know and do not or can not know. The sceptic in challenging the possibility of knowing anything challenges the basis on which all epistemology is based. It is from this attack on epistemology that the def...

43 reviews
Download
Canadian Mosaic - The Policy B

Title: ehind the pieces Canada has long been called "The Mosaic", due to the fact that it is made up of a varied mix of races, cultures and ethnicities. As more and more immigrants come to Canada searching for a better life, the population naturally becomes more diverse. This has, in turn, spun a great debate over multiculturalism. Some of the iss...

56 reviews
Download
Circular Flow Of Income Model

The demonstrates the important relationships between sectors in the Australian economy. It can also be useful for understanding and explaining current conditions of these sections. It is a useful tool in evaluating the government budget and areas of spending to keep the economy stable. The is made up of five sectors. These include the household,...

39 reviews
Download
Atsisiųsti šį darbą