The Postcolonial Secret Within

The Enemy Within is quite different from most of Friel’s other works. As the setting was in the early Christian period, and the play focused on a religious saint, postcolonial critics did not find relevance in the play and quickly turned to more current and political plays as Friel published them. Postcolonial critics were concerned with material that discussed issues after colonization, and The Enemy Within is set pre-colonization in Ireland. This implies that traditionally The Enemy Within was thought to be politically and thematically irrelevant to the postcolonial movement. Critics did not see the relationship between Saint Columba and the Irish people as a whole. Many saw the play as simply a historical play about the saint. While it may be thought that The Enemy Within is too simple of a play to be focused on, the reality is just the opposite. The Enemy Within’s complexity is precisely why it should be a focus play for anyone studying Friel’s work and Postcolonialism.

Columba's Struggles: More Than Personal

While on the surface, The Enemy Within may seem to be simply a religious play, it is much more than that. Columba’s struggle with his inner self represents the struggle of all Irish people to understand their true identities. Richard Pine, author of The Diviner, The Art of Brian Friel, states, “The Enemy Within marks the beginning of what can now be seen as a conscious line of exploration of the themes of self-discovery, exile, the relationship of time (and distance) to affection, and the problems of communication” (53). All of the themes mentioned relate to the struggle that the Irish people go through to achieve a free republic. Friel uses Columba’s identity crisis to comment on more than just the saint. Friel states in the preface to the play that he wanted to explore the saint; he didn't really know if any of the scenes in the play actually happened (7). However, the similarities between the struggles of the Irish people couch nicely in the struggles that Columba in the play experiences. In Act 1 of the play, Columba struggles to discover his true purpose at the monastery. He struggles to understand how his acts as a founder of churches merit his fame (Friel, Act 1, 21). He does not know how to bring himself above earthly things in order to reach fulfillment. Like Columba, the Irish people struggle to discover their true purpose. While they are not as focused on the religious side, they struggle to discover the true path of Ireland. According to Eamon Phoenix, a political historian, civil war breaks out because brothers cannot agree on the best way to achieve freedom (560). Many question whether they are making the right decisions, just as Columba does. Because Friel does not use true historical events in the play, the idea that Columba's struggle is a reflection of modern Irish struggles is very plausible. Even though The Enemy Within doesn’t seem to be very complex on the surface, there are deeper issues connecting to the current politics that are not immediately apparent.

Postcolonial Themes

The Enemy Within is important when studying Postcolonial Literature because it contains all the components of Postcolonial Theory. The main issue, of course, is Columba’s ontological issues (previously discussed). The agents within the play, the military and missionaries, clash while fighting for Columba over their opposing agendas. The monks in Iona desire to reach enlightenment through God and desire to keep Columba where he can do the same (Koch 32). While Columba’s tribe is not an organized military, it is as close to a military as there was in early Ireland. Realms of Power are not immediately discernible, which suggests why critics tended not to focus on the play. Language makes the most sense in this case. Language is connected to culture, and the missionaries and the tribes are different cultures in themselves that Columba attempts to juggle. The monks and tribal warriors may not have actually spoken different languages, but the functionality of the language is what separates them. Each area of specialization has a unique function for the language that outsiders may not understand. What makes this play especially important is that it contains these components even before colonization happens in Ireland. This suggests that Friel had his own postcolonial condition in mind when writing this play and used an earlier setting as an allegory to represent the problems his people had in communicating their opposing viewpoints within Northern Ireland.

Creative Indirect Commentary

The play’s importance also lies in its creativity. At the time The Enemy Within was published, Friel was not yet directly exploring political concerns. By placing the political themes he wished to comment on under the surface of the plot, Friel could explore political concerns without enduring the backlash of political opposition. Pine states, “He established a substantial reputation in this genre, in which he conducted a ‘private conversation’ exploring certain areas of his own background and of the Irish psyche” (53). Friel used historical Irish events of the past to discuss the issues of the present. This suggests that Friel wanted to introduce Irish issues in a less explicit way, and the fact that he was able to couch the current issues in an Irish history play gives Friel extreme credibility. Friel’s creativity in writing about political issues makes him an important player in the postcolonial study.

The big “secret within” this play is that it addresses the postcolonial concerns affecting Ireland and other postcolonial cultures through a removed setting and a single person. It sends the message that postcolonial theory is much more flexible than was originally thought. The Enemy Within illustrates the incredible talent of Friel and exhibits the many reasons why not only this play, but all of Friel’s plays should be studied within the postcolonial context.

Works Cited/Consulted

Friel, Brian. The Enemy Within. Loughcrew: Gallery, 1992. Print.

Phoenix, Eamon. “Nationalist Politics in Northern Ireland.” Encyclopedia of Irish History and Culture. Vol. 2. Donnelly, James S., ed. MI: Macmillan, 2004. 558-561. Print.

Pine, Richard. The Diviner, The Art of Brian Friel. Dublin: University College Dublin Press, 1999. Print.

Koch, John T., ed. Celtic Culture A Historical Encyclopedia. Vol. 4. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2006. Print.