Philadelphia Here I Come!

– Brian Friel

General Vision & Viewpoint Themes Literary Genre

• Role of Woman/Men • Theme of Relationship • Private and Public Gar

• Bleak and Bitter • Repressed • Stage directions
Overview of 1960s Communication • The Characters and how
Ireland • Theme of Family they’re characteristics are
• ‘’Strong Silent Men’’ • Society in Ireland in the depicted
• Negative View of the 1960s • Pauses between conversations
Catholic Church • The Pain of Emigration • Exclamation marks, dots, and
• Importance of • The Power of Memory hyphens to show hesitance.
Relationship and • Identity and Escapism • Music
Communication • Memory
• Edmund Burke’s refrain.

Fed up with the dreary round of life in Ballybeg, with his uncommunicative father and his humiliating job at
his father's grocery shop, his frustrated love for Kathy Doogan who married a richer, more successful young
man and with the total absence of prospect and opportunity in his life at home, Gareth O'Donnell has
accepted his aunt's invitation to come to Philadelphia. On the eve of his departure, despite the fantasies Gar
entertains of life in America, all it takes to stop him leaving would be one word of affection from his father

Stage Directions: A form of literary genre that allows the reader to get a clearer image of the setting or the
movements of a character. It’s particularly used in plays.

Edmund Burke’s Refrain: When Private starts to think about painful memories of Maire pregnant with
him, not being able to go out dancing, his life in general, his relationship with SB or his interactions with
Kate he invokes the words of Edmund Burke who was an Eighteenth-Century Philosopher and writer who
wrote the nostalgic book on Pre-Revolutionary France called ‘’Reflections on the Revolution of France’’. It
idealised the royalty and the past. The words taken from the book are: ‘’It is now sixteen or seventeen years
since I saw the Queen Of France, then the Dauphiness at Versailles’’. It is believed that Gar says this
throughout the play in order to distract himself from disturbing thoughts. It shows his attempting to idealise
the past due to his inability to linger on painful thoughts.

Dual Protagonist: There are two Gars, Public Gar and Private Gar – They’re ‘’two views of one man’’.
Public Gar is the ‘’Gar that people see, talk to, talk about’’ while Private Gar is the ‘’unseen man, the man
within, the conscience, the alter ego, the secret thoughts, the id’’. He’s invisible to everyone and nobody
except Gar hears him. Yet they cannot look at one another as ‘’one cannot look at one’s alter ego’’.
Music Played: Another aspect of literary genre.

• Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E Minor, Op. 64 Ceilidh music.

• All Round My Hat – First Verse is used. Gar uses music
as a form of
• She Moved through the Far – Second verse is used. escapism.
• California Here I Come! – It’s used as ‘’Philadelphia Here I Come!’’.
• Give the Woman in the Bed more Porter.

At the start of Episode 1 the stage directions allows the reader to get an accurate view of the setting. We’re
told the time which is ‘’present in the small village of Ballybeg in County Donegal, Ireland’’. We’re also
told the ‘’action takes place on the night before and on the morning of Gar’s departure for Philadelphia’’.

The stage directions display another aspect of literary genre being lighting. We’re told that when the
‘’curtain rises the only part of the stage that is lit is the kitchen’’ and this kitchen is said to be a ‘’bachelor’s
kitchen’’. It is described to be ‘’sparsely and comfortlessly furnished’’. There are two doors one leading to
the ‘’shop’’ and another to the ‘’scullery’’. Beside the shop door there’s a ‘’large deal table’’. There’s an
‘’old-fashioned dresser’’ and a large ‘’school-type clock’’ which serves crucial for the fleeting time
between now and Gar’s departure. The furnishing is very bleak as Gar’s bedroom is described to only
have a ‘’single bed, a wash-hand basin, a table with a record player and records and a small chest of
drawers’’.

The remaining portion of the stage is fluid and it’s used to represent other moments in the play.

Episode 1
From the stage directions, we’re introduced to the home of County Councillor S.B. O’Donnell who owns a
general shop. We’re also introduced to the housekeeper, Madge, who ‘’walks as if her feet were precious’’.
This is an important literary genre aspect where Brian Friel shows but doesn’t tell. The fact she ‘’walks as if
her feet were precious’’ shows weariness and tiredness.

The opening of episode 1 is quite deceptive. Gar is said to be ‘’ecstatic with joy and excitement’’ as
‘’tomorrow morning he leaves for Philadelphia’’. This is a great contrast to what he’ll be feeling later on in
the play. His ecstatic state is depicted when he constantly sings: ‘’Philadelphia, here I come, right back
where I started from’’. His close relationship with Madge is instantly spotted as he suggests dancing an ‘’old
time waltz’’ and the banter between himself and Madge depicts how comfortable he is around her.

In the midst of all the happiness, Gar speaks about how on his ‘’last day with him he got ten minutes’
overtime out of my hide’’. He’s speaking about SB, his father, who has gave him ’’five packs of flour and
says: ‘’make them up into two-pound pokes’’’ instead of telling him to rest before his departure. Although
it’s delivered in a comical form, it provides a hint of the strained relationship between Gar and his father.
But Gar seems like he doesn’t care as he constantly fantasizes about his trip to the US. This is a form of
escapism, it’s a coping mechanism in which Gar attempts to depart from his true inner feelings, showing his
inability to linger on painful thoughts.

To him Madge is an ‘’aul duck’’ and he absolutely adores her. She ironed his clothing before he leaves and
her ease of speech with him – ‘’don’t put them smelly hands on them!’’ – indicates the proximity of their
relationship. She’s a motherly figure to him and can speak to Gar about his relationship with his father but
Gar stubbornly says: ‘’Whether he says good-bye to me or not, or whether he slips me a few miserable quid
or not, it’s a matter of total indifference to me’’ and claims that ‘’I’m damned if I’m going to speak to him
first’’. Brian Friel is showing human stubbornness or human pride and how that can halt a problem being
solved such as the strained relationship between Gar and his father. Yet Madge tells him ‘’just because he
doesn’t say much doesn’t mean that the hasn’t feelings like the rest of us’’. But SB’s love isn’t inexistant.
Madge claims to have heard ‘’his bed creaking’’ the night before showing his restless state and she claims
that SB didn’t say anything even when Gar’s ‘’mother died’’.

This indicates the society of Ireland in the 1960s. Males weren’t encouraged to show their inner feelings
whatsoever and it wasn’t considered normal for a male to express their emotions and for this reason many
father and son relationships were in this manner during the 1960s – GV&V

Gar calls his father ‘’screwballs, skinflint, skittery face’’ and his impatience is seen when he yearns that day,
he’ll ‘’spit down on the lot of them’’ showing his resentment for repressive Ireland – GV&V. In the stage
directions SB O’Donnell is said to be a ‘’responsible, respectable citizen’’. We meet him and we see how
abrupt their relationship and conversations are which only entails matters about the shop.

A certain striking literary genre aspect used in this play is the quoting of Edmund Burke’s refrain: ‘’It has
been sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the Queen of France, then the Dauphiness at Versailles’’.
Whenever Private Gar starts to think about painful memories of either his mother being pregnant or his
failing past or the fact that he’ll depart tomorrow and leave Ireland despite its repressive state, he invokes
the words of Edmund Burke who was an eighteenth century philosopher and writer who wrote a nostalgic
book on pre-revolutionary France called ‘’Reflections on the Revolution of France’’. It idealised the royalty
and the past and this shows Gar trying to distract himself from disturbing thoughts and attempting in a sense
to romanticize the past. It shows how emotionally stunted he is. (LG).

A key moment in the play is Gar finding the newspaper ‘’The Clarion’’ dated ‘’1 st January 1937’’. This is
the day his father and mother married, and it leads him to recall the little he knows about their marriage. He
follows the information with the line ‘’Madge says’’ because he has only her account and because he
obviously loves Madge and trusts her to believe it. His mother ‘’Maire’’ was ‘’small, Madge says, and wild,
and young, Madge says, from a place called Bailtefree beyond the mountains’’. She has ‘’bright’’ eyes and
her ‘’hair was loose’’. What’s interesting in this moment is the fact that private Gar is providing this
information while Public Gar distracts himself with prayers. But ‘’Madge says, for many a night he must
have heard her crying herself to sleep’’ and she even states that ‘’maybe it was good of God to take her
away three days’’ after Gar was born. Private Gar shows Public Gar’s masked anger. Gar’s mother was
19 when she married SB who was 40 and this depicts women’s role during the 1960s. They were required to
marry for security rather than love and SB carried the security of his shop. At this moment, Gar recites the
refrain and constantly attempts to depart from those thoughts. He sings ‘’Philadelphia Here I Come’’ and
puts on the ‘’Mendelssohn’’ in attempt to escape his thoughts (LG).

In quick succession he thinks of Kate Doogan, his ex-girlfriend and through these painful thoughts Private
Gar is seen quite self-deprecating as he calls himself ‘’bugger’’ and ‘’old rooster’’ and ‘’stupid bloody get’’.
He calls Kate an ‘’aul bitch’’ and again Private Gar is expressing the anger that Public Gar masks. He
ridicules himself at how he was going to ‘’ask Screwballs for a rise in pay – in view of your increased
responsibilities’’ and how he wanted ‘’seven boys and seven girls’’. In a flashback his last moments with
Kate are shown. His relationship with Kate is genuine. He admits that he’s ‘’mad about you’’ and that ‘’I’ll
never last till Easter’’ or that he’ll ‘’bloody-well burst’’. This is quite poignant as his love is clearly shown
but the outcome isn’t as expected. Their relationship has been demolished by many barriers in society
at the time. Kate Doogan is the daughter of Senator Doogan, and Gar is the son of a councillor who owns a
‘’general shop’’. Class, society, gender roles has diminished their love. Gar lives on 3 shilling 15 pence,
and this isn’t sufficient to convince Senator Doogan to let him marry Kate. He’s economically poor and
lacks self-confidence. When Kate tells him: ‘’We’ll go now, rightaway and tell them’’ Gar instantly stutters
and says: ‘’God Kathy, I’m in no-look at the shoes-the trousers’’. But Kate is well aware of Francis King
and tells him it ‘’must be now Gar, now!’’ but again he’s extremely insecure as he says: ‘’God they’ll wipe
the bloody floor with me!’’. When Gar meets Senator Doogan, lawyer, in his mid-forties, Doogan instantly
knows what Gar’s here for and steers the conversation to Francis King who’s a doctor and hints at how he’s
going to marry Kate. This is quite poignant as it indicates that rich married rich and this is one of the
obstacles that stopped Kate and Gar from marrying. Class is a major component of life in Ireland in the
1960s and it repressed many people from seeking opportunities or from following their hearts. Doogan
marks Gar’s faults and tells him: ‘’Kate is our only child, Gareth, and her happiness is all that is important to
us’’. This shows that Gar isn’t good enough and it further supresses his self-esteem. Gender roles is also
crucial here. Kate couldn’t tell her father that she wanted to marry Gar as it wasn’t a female’s role to do so.
They were required to obey their father and to marry for security and within their class. This experience has
emotionally scarred Gar as he says: ‘’it left a deep scar’’ on his soul yet despite this deep feeling he steers
away and starts fantasizing again and it shows this ineffective coping mechanism that he’s carrying on.
Public Gar holds the face of being ok and coping but Private Gar yearns for courage and that’s what Gar
lacks: ‘’Give me a piece of your courage, Madge’’.

Another Key Moment is Gar eating with SB. It shows how recurring his life is. SB is a man of routine.
There’s absolutely no unexpected aspect of their conversation to the point where Gar can minic exactly what
SB will say and do during this interaction – the tedium of their conversation is so damaging - This humorous
moment is actually a covering of Gar’s pain and sadness. It’s considered a tragically comic moment. Again,
Screwballs is a creature of habit and Private Gar mocks this mercilessly. He pretends to a commentator at a
fashion show, giving an account of SB’s attire. This is another aspect of how mundane their life is as SB
wears the same clothes every day. The juxtaposition in this moment and the commentary replete with
fashion terms along with SB’s slow and deliberate movements is comic however it turns into pathos when
we see Private Gar becoming increasingly frustrated with the tedium of the conversation and the fact that
nothing new or important is going to be said before he leaves for America. SB says: ‘’Another day over’’,
‘’I suppose we can’t complain’’ and ‘’Sure you know I never take a second cup’’. But poignantly Gar states:
‘’Screwballs, we’ve eaten together like this for the past twenty-odd years and never once in all that time
have you made as much as one unpredictable remark’’ and quite painstakingly Private Gar announces that
‘’even though you refuse to acknowledge the fact, Screwballs, I’m leaving you forever’’. Private Gar is
showing his anger at his father who treats him ‘’as if I were five’’ and finally that ‘’we embarrass one
another’’.

Madge subtly attempts to encourage conversation between them. Her role as a housemaid restricts her ability
to do so but she ‘’gives SB a hard look’’ and says quite sarcastically: ‘’The chatting in this place would
deafen a body’’ or that a ‘’body couldn’t get a word in edgeways with you two!’’. It shows her true love for
Gar and her genuine concern about his relationship with his father. It’s not often that you’ll find a
housemaid this genuine and this loving but Madge acts as a mother and perhaps the fact that she doesn’t
have children herself binds her to Gar and the O’Donnell’s.

Private Gar displays his need to speak and communicate: ‘’let me communicate with someone’’. In this key
moment lack of communication is shown and its effect on young people such as Gar. He wants to
‘’communicate with someone’’ and ‘’pour out’’ his ‘’pent-up feelings into a sympathetic ear’’. He wants his
father to ‘’just listen to me’’ and is shows how surly he is with his father.

Another Key moment in this play is when Master Boyle, Gar’s old teacher, visits. In this key moment the
main themes shown are escapism, identity, and repressive Ireland. The effects of society in Ireland is
shown in Master Boyle. Master Boyle is a depiction of possibly what could happen to Gar if he remains
in Ballybeg. Master Boyle is said to be in his sixties, he is ‘’white haired, handsome, defiant, shabbily
dressed’’ and he is constantly ‘’moving’’. He’s jittery as he’s an alcoholic and his uneasy state is shown
when he ‘’sits for a moment and rises again’’ and his uneasiness is further enforced by SB’s lack of
acknowledgement to him. Master Boyle is the only person who actually addresses Gar’s departure and in
fact he encourages him to leave. He tells him ‘’you’re doing the right thing, of course, You’ll never regret
it’’ and even more strikingly he states that the US is a ‘’vast restless place that doesn’t give a curse about the
past’’. He speaks longingly about the ‘’impermanence and anonymity’’ in the US that is very much lacking
in Ireland. At the time, in Ireland in the 1960s, society held onto the past like a grudge and never forgot it.
Everyone knew each other’s past and their secrets and never allowed people to escape from it in contrast to
America. Again, this indicates the theme of identity and Mater Boyle tells him to be : ‘’one hundred percent
American’’ and not to ‘’keep looking back over your shoulder’’ but this requires courage and that’s
something that Gar lacks. Master Boyle speaks to Gar about his fight with the Canon, Mick O’Byrne, and
instantly we get a negative view of the religious role in Ireland in the 1960s (General Vision and
Viewpoint). The Canon is seen to threatening to sack people from their jobs rather than connecting
and being merciful publicly in front of students who were supposed to see their teacher as their
‘’dedicated moulders of the mind’’. The Canon humiliates Master Boyle, and this is a negative perception
of religious figures.

There’s a tender and comical moment as Master Boyle gives Gar his ‘’mawkish’’ poems and bluntly tells
him that Gar is of ‘’average intelligence’’ and that he won’t ‘’notice any distinction’’. He even tells him
‘’I’ll miss you Gar’’ and this unusual bond makes Gar suspect him of being his father specifically after
mentioning Maire twice. It shows Gar’s attempt to search for his identity. The context of males in Ireland
during the 1960s is also depicted when Master Boyle hugs Gar. Private Gar battles with Public Gar
telling him to ‘’stop it! Stop it! Stop it!’’. It shows his discomfort in this situation and illustrates the
lack of emotion males were accorded to show during the 1960s, yet Gar is touched by Master Boyle and
his reluctancy to leave Ireland begins to show as he runs to bedroom. This moment is somewhat diffused
when he asks Gar for money for drink and Gar is left deflated once more. Gar is touched by the master’s
sentiments and is berated by his private self for cain at the first sign of emotion: ‘’He’s nothing but a
drunken aul schoolmaster – a conceited arrogant wash-out’’.

Episode 2
At the beginning of Episode 2, a while after Master Boyle left, Public and Private Gar are left battling (LG).
Public Gar is broken but Private Gar constantly encourages him to ‘’keep working; keep the mind active’’.
Public Gar goes on to make fun of ‘’Screwballs’’ and to childishly imagine and fantasize his future in
Philadelphia where ‘’something great in store for’’ him but at this point, Gar’s attitude is seen as a coping
mechanism that assists him in forgetting and not addressing both his past and present life. In the midst of his
jokes about SB he poignantly notes how he ‘’seldom speaks’’ and as he hears Madge flapping across the
kitchen and out to the scullery, he feels a speck of the loss he’ll have to endure when he leaves to the US.
He reflects on the ‘’memories and images and impressions that are going to make’’ him ‘’bloody
miserable’’. The pain of emigration is shown here and its unspoken effect on young men like Gar.

A key moment is when Gar thinks back to the visit of Lizzy Sweeny, his Irish-American Aunt, her husband
Con Sweeney and their American friend Ben Burton. They’re described to be in the ‘’fifty-five to sixty
region’’. Lizzy is said to be ‘’garrulous’’ and a small ‘’energetic woman, heavily made up, impulsive’’. Con
on the other hand is ‘’quiet, patient’’. Lizzy is irritatingly said to have the ‘’habit of putting her arm around
or catching the elbow of the person she is addressing’’ and as expected ‘’This constant touching is new and
disquieting to Public’’. Lizzy is boastful about her life in America and Private Gar mocks her mercilessly.
Lizzy is telling a story about the day of Maire’s wedding and shockingly we’re told that Maire’s
‘’shoulders’’ were ‘’sorta working’’ and that she was either ‘’crying or giggling’’. The fact that someone
could tell Gar a story of his mother intrigues Gar and again it shows his need to find identity and to learn
more about his past. A striking thing that Lizzy said was that SB was ‘’good to her . . . real good to her’’.
Another striking point about this moment is that it took place on the 8 th of September, the day of Francis
King and Kate Doogan’s wedding. Lizzy has caught Gar at a moment of vulnerability. He’s heartbroken and
in a state of mind that makes him make impulsive decisions. Gar is well aware of Lizzy’s or Elise’s
manipulation and isn’t fooled but it’s the highlight of his love’s marriage that makes him decide to leave for
Philadelphia to work in the Emperor Hotel. She manipulatively showcases the materialistic aspects of her
life: ‘’ground-floor apartment’’, ‘‘A car that’s air-conditioned and colour TV and this big collection of all
Irish records’’. The audience finds out that Con and Lizzy have no children of their own Lizzy is desperate
to share it with someone and particularly Gar who’s ‘‘The only child of five girls’’ and prompted by
recounting the news of Kathy’s marriage and finally wanting to have a mother and a family, Gar
impetuously accepts: ‘’I want to go to America’’. This reveals how this life-changing moment came about
and why is he is so uncertain about it in the future. Private Gar is extremely harsh on him after and
mocks him for his softness, the need to be cared for: ‘’Poor little Orphan boy!’’. It shows the mindset of
young men in Ireland in the 1960s and they’re need to suppress their feelings in order to suite society.

After this moment, back in the present, Gar decides to go out with the boys. Madge and SB are seen alone,
and Madge angrily says: ‘’you sit here, night after night, year after year, reading that aul paper and not a
tooth in your head!’’. But as Madge dashes off, we see that SB has been reading the newspaper upside
down. He looks across at Gar’s bedroom, sighs, rises, and exists slowly to the shop. The silence is deafening
and the fact that SB wasn’t reading shows he was pre-occupied with Gar’s departure. It shows his true love
for Gar but also his inability to communicate it.

When the boys come in to the kitchen, they have an ‘’exaggerated laughter’’ and they attempt to create a
purposeful busy impression of their selves but Brian Friel states that they’re something false about it:
‘’Tranquillity is their enemy: they fight it valiantly’’. ‘’Ned is the leader of the group, Tom is his feed-man,
subserviently watching for every cue. Joe, the youngest of the trio and not yet fully committed to the boys’
way of life, is torn between fealty to Ned and Tom and a spontaneous and simple loneliness over Gar’s
departure’’. This is a tragi-comedy of a moment. The boys are grown men who talk of football and women
(the role of women). They are full of swagger. They recall many of their times together, how they’ve always
had a good laugh, and this prompts Gar to wonder whether he should leave them and their stories behind. It
provides some sort of light for Gar and a reason for him to stay. Joe, the youngest is the only one who asks
Gar about going to the US and Ned tries to move the conversation perhaps trying to steer away from that
emotional moment. Gar attempts to comfort himself by assuring himself that he’s better off going to
America and leaving theme to their fictive adventures but he can’t help but know that he will miss them and
their adventures. It shows the effect of emigration and how much it impacts people. They’re leaving behind
their home and anyone they know and grew up with for life and this information is difficult for Gar to
process but it’s diminished when Gar realises that the boys didn’t visit on their own accord but because
Madge asked them to come for tea: ‘’tell Madge that the next time she asks us up for tea we’d bloody well
get it’’ and out of anger Private Gar states: ‘’they’re louts, ignorant bloody louts and you’ve always known
it!’’.

The value of memory and its importance in life is reflected here by Private Gar. He states that he only has
the ‘’memory of it’’ and the fact that it could be ‘’distilled of all its coarseness’’. He treasures it and says
‘’what’s left is going to be precious, precious gold’’.

The final key moment in episode 2 is when Kate Francis visits Gar. This is the outcome of their relationship
and it’s quite a negative one. Kate ends up married to Francis King, they’ll never truly reunite again and
when they do, it’s filled with tense and bitterness. When Kate comes back to visit Gar before he leaves for
Philadelphia, he’s extremely bitter and unfair. Their answers to each other are abrupt and for the first time
during the whole play Gar completes Edmund Burke’s speech: ‘’then the Dauphiness of Versailles. And
surely never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her
just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she just began to move in – ‘’ -
Similarly, Gar often finds himself pining for the past, wishing he could recapture the happiness he had when
he was still with Kate. However, he’s also aware that it’s impossible to change what has already happened,
which is why he recites Burke’s speech about the Queen of France, holding it up as an example of what it
might look like to dwell in vain on the past – Escapism. The fact that he completed the speech this time,
shows his strained state of mind, his gaping need to idealise the past because of his incapability to dwell on
this loss.

Private’s anger finally is shown on Public Gar. He angrily states: ‘’If I spend another week in Ballybeg, I’d
go off my bloody head!’’ and that he’s been around this ‘’hole far too long’’. He calls Ballybeg a ‘’bloody
quagmire, a backwater, a dead-end’’ and this indicates Brian Friel’s negative perception of repressive
Ireland in the 1960s.

He feels the loss at this moment and attempts to demean Kate’s own life for the sake of romanticising his
own. It’s a form of escapism and indicates his struggles: ‘’you’ll die here! But I’m, not stuck! I’m free! Free
as the bloody wind!’’.

At the last section of Episode 2, a striking aspect of the literary genre is shown. He reflects on all the past
events almost as if it was rolling in his head. It depicts how overwhelmed he is and how he’s in turmoil
almost like a monologue of the past events and finally in a whispered shout he bursts and says: ‘’Screwballs,
say something! Say something father!’’.
 Episode 3:

Part 1:

Episode 3 is divided into two parts.

In Part one, Gar is seen kneeling with his back to the audience along with SB and Madge saying the Rosary.
The incorporation of this moment indicates the importance of religion in the 1960s in Ireland and its
dominance in the life of Irish Families. Gar fantasizes of what’ll happen when he leaves, telling a story very
similar to his parents story but he’s straying away from the fact that he’s leaving Ireland and he’s attempting
to escape reality.

He longs that behind his father’s: ‘’dead eyes and that flat face’’ there are ‘’memories of previous moments
in the past’’. Gar himself remembers every detail of a memory with his father ‘’15 years ago’’. It was an
‘’afternoon in May’’ and he went with his father to ‘’Lough na Cloc Cor’’. He describes how the ‘’boat was
blue’’ and ‘‘The paint was peeling’’, how there was ‘‘An empty cigarette packet floating in the water at the
bottom between two trout’’. He recalls how his father gave him his ‘’hate and hat put (his) jacket round
(Gar’s) shoulders because there had been a shower of rain’’. Gar uses strong positive adjectives to describe
this moment: ‘’bubbling joy’’ that the feeling was ‘’richer than content’’ and how that day was extremely
‘’precious’’ to show the value of this priceless moment. The fact that Gar is holding onto a memory so
clingingly shows the lack of communication and his repressed relationship with his father. Gar defies his
stubbornness and decides to speak to his father about this memory but as soon as he starts to do so, he gets
interrupted by Canon Mick O’Byrne.

The fact that he’s interrupted is quite frustrating and shows the Canon to be irritating. This puts him
and his religious role in a negative light which indicates Brian Friel’s negative perception of the
Canon. This moment provides an insight into how stiff life is in the O’Donnell household. The Canon and
SB play draughts and Gar can rhyme off the whole conversation: ‘’She says I wait till the rosary’s over and
the kettle’s on’’, ‘’How’s the O’Donnell family tonight’’, ‘’Back for the crows and white for the swans’’
and they speak about weather matters. It shows how rigid his life is and how desperate Gar is for change or
for a sign from his father and the canon to stay. He even asks Madge, why his mother married SB when she
could’ve married Boyle, but she responds: ‘’she married the better man by far’’. Gar is extremely emotional
at this moment and questions the purpose of the Canon if he doesn’t ‘’translate all this loneliness, this
groping, this dreadful bloody buffoonery into Christian terms that’ll make life bearable’’ for him. It
shows Brian Friel’s viewpoint of the Catholic Church and it’s a negative one. A series of moving incidences
occur after this. Private Gar begs his father to ‘’listen! Listen! Listen!’’ to the music that says ‘’once upon a
time a boy and his father sat in a blue boat on a lake on an afternoon in May and on that afternoon a great
beauty happened, a beauty that has haunted the boy ever since because he wonders now did it really take
place or did, he imagine it’’. This memory is occupying his mind because he’s searching for a soft moment
with his father and the fact that he’s doubting the memory portrays how little they speak. In a rage Gar says
to ‘’to hell with all strong silent men’’. This was what’s expected from Irish men in the 1960s: to remain
emotionless, externally and to supress all affectionate gestures. SB mentions something enlightening. He
said that it’s ‘’powerful the way time passes’’ (link with LB – Song – The Eve of Parting before LB’s departure). It
shows the message that if we don’t grasp time and make use in cherishing each moment, it’ll pass faster than
anticipated and the chance will be lost’’.

Part Two:

The last part of Episode 3 contains two key moments. The first being Gar and SB meeting in early hours and
the second being Madge and Gar’s final moments.

SB is seen in the kitchen looking saddeningly at Gar’s suitcases. He goes over to them ‘’touches his coat’’,
goes back towards the table, and just sits there starting at Gar’s bedroom door. There’s no communication
here and the use of stage directions indicate SB’s true love for his son Gar. He feels the loss but is incapable
of communicating it. He loves him but cannot show it. Brian Friel is depicting the negatives of repressive
Ireland. This is a very moving moment where we see SB and Gar not being able to articulate the truth. Gar
attempts to make conversation with SB. He tries to bring up the memory of Lough na Cloc Cor, but it only
resulted in SB recalling a different memory. Gar becomes devastated at this as his only precious moment
with his father is conflicted by his father’s other remembering. The fact that the memory mightn’t be true
and made up is absolutely devastating to Gar and Private Gar torments him saying ‘’it never happened! Ha-
ha-ha-ha-ha’’. Private Gar states that ‘’It’s the silence that’s the enemy’’ and begs his father to ‘’Go on!
Keep talking!’’ even if it’s just on shop matters. The constant pauses and dots in their conversations
displays hesitance throughout this interaction and once again the strained relationship is depicted.
The only sense of care that SB shows to Gar at this moment is telling him to ‘’sit at the back’’ of the plane
but even them he keeps on steering the points he makes back to the Canon as if to say it wasn’t SB himself
that thought of it – Inability to communicate.

A rare moment is shown between SB and Madge. SB is shown stuttering, filled with questions (literary
genre to depict fear, uneasiness etc). ‘’I’ll manage by myself now Eh?’’. For once, SB thinks back to a
memory of his own where Gar was wearing a ‘’ wee sailor suit’’. He was being stubborn that day insisting
on working in his ‘’daddy’s business’’ and not going to school. SB says they were ‘’as happy as larks’’ (LG)
and describes Gar to be a chatty person: ‘’you couldn’t get a work in edge-ways with all the chatting he used
to go through’’ but now Gar doesn’t say a word. This is quite interesting seeing SB’s point of view of their
relationship. SB sees that Gar is a victim of not speaking out as well and he’s quite insecure about it: ‘’It’s
because I could have been his grandfather, eh?’’. He doubts he was a good father, and his insecurity and lack
of confidence is a contrast to what I would’ve perceived about SB beforehand. It seems like both Gar and
SB are seeing the same faults in each other, but they cannot address it whatsoever without
communication. He truly loves his son but the society at the time and what was considered normal in
Ireland at the time has prevented him from expressing it to Gar.

The last moment in the whole play is Madge being alone with the suitcases of Gar. She’s heartbroken herself
at the fact that her niece was named Brigid and not Madge as promised. The fact that the child was going to
be called Madge gave her a sense that she had someone of her own and the fact that the baby is called Brigid
made her realise the only person she’s truly close to in life is Gar and even Gar is leaving the next day.
Madge’s selfless self-slips an into the coat pocket of Gar’s jacket. It’s such a kind gesture and it shows her
caring nature. She’s a mother to Gar and she feels the pain that a mother would feel if she were losing her
son. It shows that family is by love not by blood when Madge and SB’s acts are put side by side. A
striking thing that Madge mentioned is that both SB and Gar are ‘’as like as two peas’’ and it provokes the
idea that the way a person has been reared is most likely the way they will be in the future, despite their
hatred towards that way of life. She mentions being ‘’very tired’’ in the last moments of the play. She could
be tired of the useless efforts she put in order for Gar and SB to talk or maybe she’ too tired of her own
inability to pursue her ambitions. She has no one of her own and now she’s losing Gar. This depicts the pain
of emigration and the loss felt as Gar instructs himself to ‘’watch her carefully, every movement, every
gesture, every peculiarity. Keep the camera whirring for this is the film you’ll run over and over again’’.
He’s treasuring these moments and isn’t planning on forgetting them. Private Gar calls this moment:
‘’Madge Going to Bed On My Last Night At Home’’. The use of capital letters here is an important aspect
of literary genre and it shows the importance and significance this moment is to him. He claims: ‘’Madge,
Madge, I think I love you more than any of them’’. Private Gar asks him: ‘’God, Boy, why do you have to
leave?’’ and Public answers hesitantly: ‘’I don’t know. I-I-I don’t know’’. He’s breaking at the end and the
pain of emigration is exceedingly shown in this ambiguous ending.

The ending of this play is very negative – Lack of Resolution – none between Gar and his Father, SB, nor is
there a positive perception of different aspects such as the church, the society of Ireland, repressive Ireland,
and the lack of opportunities – Bleak overview of Ireland in the 1960s.

• Literary Period: Realism, Postmodernism

• Climax: When S.B. finally lets down his emotional guard, Gar hurries into the next room because
he’s unable to recognize his father’s openness.

• Antagonist: Gar and S.B.’s inability to show affection for one another