Discuss Friel’s presentation Essay

In the time Dancing at Lughnasa was set Gerry and Chriss kinship would nurse been extremely unorthodox and would have circulated a lot of townspeople gossip. Having a child out of wedlock was extremely shocking and making the decision to then keep Michael unconstipated more so. In 1936 women had feignu anyy a few(prenominal) accountabilitys and with the shock of Michael being born only the towns respect for their brother, a missionary, kept them from being societal lepers. Friel presents the relationship between Gerry and Chris by utilize stage directions to show the true feelings between them and how their relationship is sustained.Having Gerry and Chris talking in the garden piece of music the four other sisters are inside earshot intently shows how little privacy the both have in their relationship. When Gerry front arrives Chris appears extremely cold and offhand in front of him using unmatched word answers Chris Hello, Gerry yesyes. All of this gives the impression that she has very little time for him and doesnt particularly dole out closely him. However Friels staging shows the audition that she really does care because we see her reaction sooner Gerry strikes on stage.Friel portrays her as standing stock dummy up in shock then, when approach to her senses, boot around panicking, adroitly ad erects her hair and clothes. It is the panic before the pick that shows her more than Chris truly does care about Gerry and also about how little the sisters have in their lives due to the their scramble to make themselves presentable. This high well-heeleds how Gerry is a key wild-eyed figure in the play because even though all the objet dart the sisters are saying Kate He wont stay the wickedness here and riseI hate him they still all lay off up crowding around the window to listen in and watch, suggesting that though disapproving they still half wish to be in Chriss shoes. The social constraints of the situation lead them to wanting Ge rry out of the families lives, notwithstanding still the desire is there through the constant comments. These comments are key to the tincture of an invasion of privacy, Maggie you should see the way shes looking at himKate theyre not still talking are they? Friel is trying to show how hard it must be for Gerry and Chris to live in such an enclosed discipline where every angiotensin converting enzyme knows everyones business, thus exploring a theme of romance, or lack of romance. This is proceed throughout the extract, the particular that Gerry neer visits Chris 13 months making the relationship face very one sided Chris remembering the last visit to the day while Gerry dealt remember the month. Gerry proposes to Chris at the very end of the extract and this gives a sign that maybe he does care about her. hitherto though Chris turns him down there is still the slight remembrance of this event throughout the rest of the play, leading to the references opinion that maybe G erry does truly care for Chris despite leaving her alone with child. However through Michaels tarradiddle closer to the end of the play in the second act we convalesce out that Gerry already had a wife and three grown children, Friel choosing to fall in this revelation till the end to produce a far more dramatic climax to their relationship. It is then that the audience realises that Gerry never intended to get married Chris and only offered in the knowledge that she would refuse.This all gives the impression that there is never any real closeness or intimacy for the two of them and the alone summer of happiness before, suddenly he takes her in his arms and dance. was a lie. A large influence on Friel when writing Dancing at Lughnasa was the changing role of women in confederation. Thatcher had just been Prime Minister and womens rights were becoming much more accepted in the 1990s, possibly wherefore Friel chose to make this such a large part of the play. Set in 1936 the Mu ndy sisters would not have been at all accepted by society with Chris having Michael out of wedlock and then deciding to keep him.Changing attitudes indoors society would have influenced Friels interpretation of Chris and Gerrys relationship. Friel depicted this family as an example of what is thus far to come, the sisters supported Chris throughout and later her pregnancy even though it went against societies beliefs, thus inflicting Chriss embarrassment upon themselves as well yet still sticking together as a family. Friel emphasizes that women should have the right to do as they please through the disruption of outside influences.At the beginning of the play the sisters are happy in their little spill the beans making jokes about the outside world Maggie steady on girl, today its lipstick tomorrow its the gin bottle although never alive(p) in it. Its when they begin to allow others into their circle that things begin to go down hill for them. Before Gerrys arrival they were all dancing and laughing but his arrival marked a change for them all, Friel perhaps suggesting that women dont need the influences of men and all they bring with them is destruction.Danny Bradley and Rose are another example of this, the death of Roses defenceless white rooster is symbolic of mans predatory nature and the violence of this act implies violence between Rose and Bradley. Therefore Friel is portraying women as stronger without the manly interference, Chris and Gerrys relationship is used to highlight this as it is obvious to the audience that Chris would have been better off without Gerry in the first place but it is this continued procrastinating relationship that truly destroys her.The audience views Chris and Gerrys relationship with horror throughout the play due to Friels depiction of him as a stereotypical womaniser. Kate calls him a Loafer Wastrel but conveniently neglects to quotation the obvious charisma he has. In a short few minutes of conversation he has turned Chris from cold and unwelcoming Chris Thirteen months. To one who is warm and laughing and allows Gerry to dance her lightly, elegantly across the garden. The audience views this mass meeting with surprise having heard only very negative things about Gerry from the sisters the tardily acceptance from Chris confuses them.The audiences mistrust of Gerrys character increases after the small discussion of Agnes between the two. Having already seen Agness rigid, almost laboured disinterest in Gerry, and then to have Gerry asking specifically after her Friel creates a slight unease for the audience, suggesting that something may have between the two of them. This leads to the audience beginning to see the cracks in the familys foundations with Gerry seemingly at the centre of this. Friel enforces this idea of him being a womaniser later in act 2 when he begins to flirt with Agnes GerryDance with me Agnes. and then kisses her forehead, all of this watched by Chris. The aud ience begins to really mistrust Gerry at this point as it is obvious that he is the cause of conflict between the family they have come to love. The audience is seeing men in a bad light which relates to the feelings at the time it was being performed when the term glass ceiling was coming into existence, women in the workplace being oppressed by men and now, in the play, them to being oppressed in relationships.There is the feeling that men can get away with any sort of misdemeanour by just walking away, leaving, whereas women i.e. Chris, are always left with the result a baby. Gerrys carrying on represents this stereotypical male so that when the audience discovers that Gerry in fact has a wife and three grown children it comes as no surprise.In conclusion, Friel presents Gerry and Chriss relationship as something parallel to that of a pre 1990s relationship. He wants to suggest to the audience that women no need longer depend on men by showing how much better off the Mundy siste rs were before the arrival of Gerry and the conflict he brought within the family.Although the influences on Friel were all about the empowerment of women, he presents Gerry and Chriss relationship with Gerry as the dominant figure, lay the play in the context of its setting and to show how the male lateralisation was a cause of the family breaking down. Through his presentation of the relationship he is evoking the idea that there are more possibilities available to an empowered women or else than a dominated one.