Literary Elements

Structure

The storyline of Brian Friel’s play The Freedom of the City is set up in a way that evokes strong emotions from either the reader or audience member of the play. Instead of being a simply linear storyline following the experiences of the three main characters and ending with their eventual death, Friel begins the play with the deaths of those characters. Through this technique, Friel is able to establish the horrible way in which Lily, Michael, and Skinner die early on. Because of this, he is able to keep the characters' deaths in the reader or audience member's mind as the play goes back and forth in time, allowing more to be learned about the characters.

By starting with the deaths of the main characters, the audience knows that their eventual deaths are inevitable which makes learning more about these characters more heartbreaking. The audience watches as the three unlikely friends get to know each other, share their life stories, and create a bond. Most importantly, the audience is able to see and understand that the characters are innocent, and are not the terrorists the soldiers believe them to be. Through this, Friel creates a situation in which it is clear that innocent people will soon become victims of colonization. Michael Parker describes “The combined effect of this overtly ‘loaded’ structure and the irony-generating, narrative anachronous running through it is to bond the audience’s sympathies with the dead” (Parker 50).

Friel also uses a flashback like portrayal of the events to further show the injustice of what happens to Lily, Michael, and Skinner. The scenes with the three protagonists in the Mayor’s Parlor are interrupted with snippets from the present time as the officials try to determine what happened. William Jent discusses Seamus Deane’s idea that the dialogue of the judge and other officials is “bogus,” and that “its official jargon represents something more and something worse than moral obtuseness. It also represents power” (Jent 573). The way the language changes from the characters to the formality of the judge’s tone suggests a crucial difference between the two groups. Lily, Michael, and Skinner and their natural language that represents their lifestyle also seems to portray moral high ground, especially considering their innocence in the play. On the other hand, the formality of the judge and the officials shows their upper class place in society as well as the fact that they overlook what really happened. Because of this, the judge and officials make inaccurate assumptions that lead to the death of three innocent people. This contrast shows the difference in class as well as the difference in morals.

Role of Dodds in Play Structure

Friel also uses the speeches from Dodds as a way to continue to tell the story and apply it to other places and situations. Several times, Dodds’s speech directly relates to what the characters do next. An example Jent uses occurs ofter Dodds’s first speech. In that speech, Dodds mentions that the poor have more fun. Immediately following this is the scene in which Skinner, Michael, and Lily put on the Mayor’s robes and give themselves the freedom of the city (Jent 582). Additionally, the content of his speeches and the fact that he is distanced from the play is a way for Friel to show that poverty is an issue no matter where a person lives. Dodds’s character is American and is placed on the very side of the stage, distancing him from the action of the play. However, the content of his lectures are addressed directly to the audience and stresses the theme of poverty. Through this distanced character, Friel is able to make a broad point about poverty and compare it with the example situation that is the rest of the play.

Friel uses several different elements to create a play in which its structure brings his point across in a strong and emotional way. The order the events take place in and the use of flashbacks creates a greater emotional response from the audience because they are able to see the injustices happening to the innocent characters. Friel structures the play in a way in which it is made clear that those from the lower class and who experience poverty have no control or power in this situation, whereas the government officials who are in control hold all of the power even though their assumptions are incorrect.

Works Cited:

Friel, Brian. The Freedom of the City: A Play in Two Acts. London: Samuel French, 1974. Print.

Jent, William. "Supranational Civics: Poverty and the Politics of Representation in Brian Friel's The Freedom of the City." Modern Drama 37.4 (1994): 568-87. Print.

Parker, Michael. "Forms of Redress: Structure and Characterization in Brian Friel's The Freedom of the City." Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies 5.1 (1999): 47-70. Print.