PDF file: Drama - Higher - Lovers - Education Scotland

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OVERALL DIRECTORIAL INTERPRETATION AND DRAMATIC COMMENTARY
parents. Her speeches reveal the importance of religion in her life.
We see that she is deeply in love with Joe. We see her contradictions
and experience her isolation.
Joe
• Joe is used as a contrast to Mag. Friel states the following: ‘Joe is
seventeen and a half. He is a serious boy, a good student, interested
in his books. He is at the age when he is earnest about life; and he has
a total and touching belief in the value and importance of education.’
• This scene establishes Joe’s character. He is quiet and reflective in
comparison to Mag. He shows that he is proud and independent. He
is conformist.
• He has started to find practical solutions to their problems.
• His mimicry reveals the frustration that he feels at living in a
restrictive environment.
• We see flashes of rebellious youth in the slaughterhouse sequence
when he pretends to shoot the pillars of his community.
Man/Woman
• The Man/Woman (The Commentators) are used as a catalyst for the
dramatic irony in Winners. Their formal, unemotional, impersonal,
impartial style is in complete contrast to Mag and Joe’s lively
naturalistic interaction.
• They are used as an alienating device which builds dramatic tension.
• They are also a symbolic representation of the restrictive, repressive,
rural Irish society in which Mag and Joe live. We are told that they are
in their fifties. The fact that they are so much older than Mag and Joe
is significant. This age gap helps to reinforce their symbolic
representation.
Establishes central themes and issues
• Frustrated love: Mag’s pregnancy has forced the young lovers to
conform to society’s expectations. Mag’s romantic rhetoric contrasts
with Joe’s pragmatic attitude towards his studies. Mag has doubts
about marriage to Joe and her future happiness. She needs
reassurance. Mag gives an insight into the dysfunctional marriage of
her parents and is determined not to end up like them. Joe’s angry
outbursts reveal a deep-rooted resentment at finding himself caught
in the predicament of having to get married because of Mag’s
pregnancy.
• Frustrated Christianity: Mag and Joe live in a Christian community
and yet the majority of people in this community have shown them
no benevolence, understanding or sympathy. They get little in the
way of support outside their families. They are ostracised by their
schools and by certain factions in their community.
DRAMA