Meghan O’Leary
ENGL 404
August 4, 2014
Connection Between Language and Identity in Irish Literature
As a pillar of any culture, language is a significant part of both national and
personal identity. Since English slowly replaced the Irish language, first by the
British and then through integration into normal Irish culture, language was a shifty
part of Irish identity that was problematized by its foreign roots and the small but
determined faction who resisted the change. Analysis of the ways in which
literature presents language reflect forces exerted on the Irish through time and
indicates why the Irish as a people may act they way they do. Various authors and
poets utilize language in specific ways as well as presenting or writing about it in
order to convey the complex influences on means of communication in a culture. In
The Speckled People, “Translations,” and “The Shape of Saying,” language is
represented as an important factor in determining Irish identity and is portrayed as
both a positive and a negative influence.
In The Speckled People, language is often used as a destructive or even
limiting tool against the development of the children. However, Hamilton’s ability to
integrate languages and use alternative forms of communication ultimately
contributes positively to his sense of self-identity as he grows up. Hamilton’s father,
who imposes the Irish language on his household, taints his relationship with his
family and even loses business because of his refusal to use English. He wields the
Irish language like a weapon, hurting not everyone around him in addition to
himself with his zealous commitment to Irish. Language is a hindrance for him, a
stubborn part of his identity that alienates him from others. The Hamilton children
are ostracized by their peers because they can only speak English when their father
is certain to be absent. Hamilton utilizes language in The Speckled People to convey
the homesickness of the characters: the father’s for an outdated Ireland, as well as
the mother’s for Germany, as she only speaks German throughout the memoir.
Language, often seen as a tenant of civilization in a culture, is also used to exclude
and differentiate the foreign or unwanted; Hamilton’s mother is affected by
language in this way. Hamilton’s mother’s relationship with language serves to cut
her off from connecting with others in Ireland and allows the father to retain his
tight control over the family. Her meek personality is an outward manifestation of
her lack of self-esteem; she is unable to gain confidence through interactions with
other adults, and so she remains helplessly submissive to her husband’s
authoritarian parenting style. Hamilton’s mother is homesick and unable to fight
back against her husband because of the weapon of language he holds in his arsenal.
She manages to connect with only her family, and as such, her perception of herself
is tied up inextricably with them and she is unable to enact any kind of resistance
against her husband for herself or her children. The children are unsure where they
belong, speckled with three languages at an age when they cannot understand the
complexities of their father or country. They belong to a family and a nation, forced
to abide by certain stigmas, without awareness of the tangled history behind each.
Young Hamilton hears, “some people say that the Irish language reminds them of the
big famine when they had nothing to eat except the old poems in Irish.” Language
here is a demoralizer and an association with a part of identity that nobody wants to
remember, of past poverty in Ireland, even though it makes up a large part of Irish
character.
In addition to using language through the spoken interactions of his
characters, Hamilton’s voice pervading the entire memoir comes form the
perspective of a child. In order to convey the youth and confusion of the speaker, his
younger self, Hamilton does not analyze or interpret the events of his childhood in
hugely philosophical soliloquy. Rather, he speaks in an uncomplicated, descriptive
way that allows the reader to draw his or her own conclusions, with gentle nudges
in the right direction formed by the author’s simple introspection and reflection. In
the end, Hamilton’s convoluted experience with language gives him a more holistic
sense of understanding the world and his own culture. “I’m not afraid of being
homesick and having no language to live in. I don’t have to be like anyone else.” He
takes his father’s immoveable rules and strict use of language, combined with his
mother’s longing for a home and culture to which she can belong, and turns them
into a way to adapt to the changing world.
In Brian Friel’s “Translations.” The very concept of the play centers around
(mis)communication between and among languages. As the play is performed in
English, the audience can understand everything while the characters constantly
misinterpret and overreact to each other, emphasizing the pitfalls of communicating
with those who speak different languages. Relationships and social connections are
formed and strengthened through communication with language, and make up a
vital part of identity. Many languages, including English, Irish, Latin and Greek, are
present in “Translations,” but effective communication is few and far between. As
evidenced by this play, more is not always better, as the various languages serve
only to muddle the events and intentions surrounding the characters. Owen is
originally indifferent to the conversion of Irish to English, one of the main
perpetrators of the change in names. As the events of the play progress, he grows
more aware of the impact of language on his life, and begins to reclaim his roots,
even correcting the British officers who call him Roland. Names have power, Own
learns, and the beginning of his resistance to changing Irish names to English ones
starts with himself, as it must to truly impact his identity. What people call
themselves and others affects the way one perceives the world. Anglicizing the Irish
country, using the British military, while not translating the whole story for the Irish
people, uses language as deception. Using language this way hides identities and
replaces them with shinier facades, more acceptable to the always-conquering
British. Hugh, the traditional Irish drunk, uses language in his own way to depart
from the stereotype. Obsessed with words, he strangely seems to use them alone,
suddenly interrupting himself in the middle of sentences in order to quiz his
students on definitions and word roots. Unlike the rest of the characters, Hugh sees
words as standalones, and seems to look to the base of the language without al of
the meaning and connotations that blur the simplicity of the language. This makes
sense when one examines his character, which does not want to be troubled with
the complexities of political life an reality when he can get away with existing
simply. Identity of character is similarly displayed in Lancey’s first introduction in
the play, in which he is unable to communicate directly with the Irish people.
Lancey’s initial speech, translated due to his use of English, strips away Irish identity
from people who do not understand the loss.
Lack of language is exhibited as another example of identity in
“Translations.” Yolland and Maire manage to connect without language, showing
that the absence of language, a refusal to let it distance people, is possible as well.
Sarah, who cannot speak English and communicates mostly through pantomime, is
still one of the most human characters in the play. Sarah’s struggles with learning
English betray her inner feelings, about Manus and her belief in herself. Learning
her own name even gives Sarah a literal connection between language and identity.
In the beginning of the play, the audience hears Sarah struggle to introduce herself
in English, and eventually succeed under the guidance of Manus. Yet when the
British officers enter the room and harshly command her to give her name, she
freezes and all her new learning flies out of her head. The imposition of the British
on the Irish and their unreasonable expectations for the Irish to immediately adapt
echoes both past interactions between the countries as well as coming problems
introduced by the officers’ intentions to Anglicize the Irish names. Just as Sarah has
problems adapting to a new language so quickly, Ireland as a country is struggling to
reconcile its past and future. The language difficulties in the play can be interpreted
as a microcosm of the larger changes happening across the country as Irish heritage
is stripped away and replaced with new English customs. Sarah’s sense of identity
is entangled with her own failures with language, yet her personality is more
sympathetic than the conflicted Owen or self-involved Manus, both eloquent and
bilingual. Language and lack of language are neither exclusively good nor bad, but
their usage forms a concrete part of identity.
In “The Shape of Saying,” Mary O’Malley ponders the integration of English
into Irish culture. O’Malley writes, “They call it Received English as if it was a gift
you got by dint of primogeniture,” disparaging the idea that English was a selfless
gift to the Irish people. Instead, the speaker implies that this language is not a
birthright, as foreigners impose it upon the people and it is often received without
provocation or gratitude. The speaker ruminates on how the Irish people claimed
the language as a new part of their identity by prodding it into something with
which they could connect. Likening language process to the actions of agriculture, a
tenant of traditional Irish character, the speaker envisions language like a sheep:
“we sheared it, carded it, fleeced it and finally wove it into something of our own, fit
for curses and blessings for sweet talk and spite, and the sound of hearts rending,
and the sound of hearts tearing.” In the end bit, the reader is encouraged to think
about the way the Irish people will use language, and emphasis is specifically placed
on the point that what people actually say and do with language is as important as
the language itself. If the Irish people are going to receive English, they will turn it
into something personal that they can share; they will weave the language, not burn
or whittle it, take the English and do something constructive with it rather than
destructive, to the best of their ability. This aligns with Irish history, as they
interacted with various other countries with whom they differed in language and
customs. The Irish frequently had to rebuild out of the ashes of previous generations
or whatever leftover scraps they received. The ability to adapt while unable to
efficiently communicate with more powerful countries is prevalent in Irish history.
Language barriers are tough to overcome, but how one chooses to interact with
people is a different type of communication. Language and identity are wrapped up
inevitably and inseparably in Irish culture.
In addition to describing the Irish use of language, O’Malley utilizes language
herself in the poem as a tool to convey the importance of language in how words are
interpreted. She writes that English was “full of cornered consonants and pinched
vowels, all said from the front of the mouth” to enunciate the lack of refinement she
feels English had in the mouths of its original owners, evolving to the softer sounds
of “no softness, no sorrow, no sweet lullabies” to indicate how the Irish would
change the language to reflect their natures. Using language purposefully in order to
impart a message regarding language serves to subtly underline her point that
language is important in culture and identity.
Language can help or harm its users, and forms a vital part of identity
through human interactions and sense of self. This entanglement of language and
identity is portrayed both positively and negatively in Irish literature such as Hugo’
Hamilton’s memoir The Speckled People, Brian Friel’s play “Translations,” and Mary
O’Malley’s poem “The Shape of Saying.” Like many other worldly, physical influences
on people, language itself seems to be neither extreme of good nor evil, but can be
wielded as either depending on the intentions of the person and his or her identity.
Characters in Irish literature are particularly effective in portraying this question of
the human condition because of the country’s complex history and influxes of
different languages over its native language. Authors both represent and utilize
language in their works in order to display an awareness of the impact language has
in both the course and the portrayal of Irish history. This representation in
literature can indicate the real motives behind actions of the Irish people both in the
past and in modern times.