PhD thesis,
"Celtic Subtleties": Brian Friel's Appropriation of the O'Donnell Clan
University of Louisville, (2008)
Abstract
The first chapter of this thesis examines the 1980 play Translations , whose central nuclear family includes impoverished but highly intelligent O'Donnell men. As the play ends in eviction at the hands of British forces, the reader can quickly move to 1964's Philadelphia, Here I Come! Chapter two of the thesis discusses the growing mercantile pressures of this O'Donnell generation, as the protagonist Gar must decide between new opportunities in America or a return to his communal roots in his native hometown. Finally, Aristocrats is set in the late 1970's, as the O'Donnell family has achieved the social status it has sought but whose family members have scattered to foreign countries, unfulfilling professions, and deteriorating characters. In examining the O'Donnell cycle, one can see not only how a single Irish family in a singular setting react and adjust to the external forces but also how they react internally as a unit. The changes that ultimately demolish the O'Donnell family are, in essence, both uncontrollable and self-imposed.
