Sympathy, Freedom Of The City

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The Freedom of the City – Practice Essay Delwyn Johns 11D “It is hard to feel the same level of sympathy for Skinner and Michael as we do for Lily.” Do you agree? The freedom of the city by Brain Friel is a two act play occupied much of the time with just three central characters. Its plot is simplicity itself; on the run from a demonstration broken up by British troops, three civil rights marchers find refuge in the London Derry Guildhall. We are sympathetic to all though would feel more passionately towards Lily. Elizabeth Doherty is a good natured though gusty but vulnerable woman. She functions in two ways: to appeal to us – enlisting out sympathy and getting us ‘on side’ with the rebels as well as exemplifying more clearly perhaps than any other character the socio-political situation which Friel is demonstrating. Lily is not the brightest crayon in the box. She is an uneducated woman, barely articulate, who has difficulty even understanding why she marches. She acts as a central part of the authors messages. Lily represents the extreme hardships of the Irish people which Friel is at pains to bring to the world. She is a poor, catholic woman in a society dominated by men. Her husband abuses her and the governments do nothing to assist. Lilly is in a society that favours the rich and disregards the poor as scum which just amplifies her misfortune. The play write continues to use Lily to symbolise what is wrong with such a grotesque system. Although skinner may also show colours of this Lilly is its case in point. This is not to say that Lily is just a stereotype. Her loveable humanity comes through in every scene and she is convincingly real, poor grammar tippling and all. After taking into account everything we learn about Lilly – the condemned housing, the invalid husband, the 11 children, the never ending work and a hopeless future we gain
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