29 pages • 58 minutes read
Brian FrielDancing At Lughnasa
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1990A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Essay Topics
Dancing at Lughnasa is a memory play that examines the experience of memory throughout. How is memory used as a framework in the play? What does this play tell us about the nature of memory?
Dancing at Lughnasa establishes a number of strong juxtapositions between Catholicism and paganism. How are these belief systems characterized in the play? What are some of the similarities and differences Friel illustrates?
What role does music play in Dancing at Lughnasa? How do the song lyrics comment upon (and—in some cases—interact with) the events of the play?
Though Dancing at Lughnasa creates a strong portrait of this family as a whole, each sister is shown to be her own individual, dealing with her own personal struggles. Choose one of the five sisters and analyze her development over the course of the play. How do her personal struggles enmesh with the play’s overarching themes?
The remembered portions of this memory play are set in a very specific time: late August and early September of 1936. Michael’s adult monologues, however, come from a distant, unidentified time. What is the effect of this decision on our experience of time in the play? What role does time play in Dancing at Lughnasa?
At the end of the play, Michael Evans explains that Kate began to refer to Jack’s paganism as “his own distinctive spiritual search” (60). Do you believe this quote reflects Kate’s evolving perspective of religion, or is she simply doing whatever she can to normalize her brother’s behavior? What does either interpretation tell us about her character (and the play as a whole)?
In the play’s exposition and character descriptions, Rose is described as “simple.” Do you interpret this term as indication of a developmental disability, or do you feel Rose’s situation is more complicated? How does the perception of Rose’s “simple” character define her role, both within her family and society at large?
From Maggie’s riddles to Jack’s faltering recollections of English, Dancing at Lughnasa is filled with references to language. The play fittingly ends with the line “Dancing as if language no longer existed because words were no longer necessary…” (71). What does this play tell us about the various functions and problems of language? How does this closing line inform our understanding of the play’s language?
