Dancing at Lughnasa

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Re-read Act 1 from page 20 (Chris: You’ve got some flour…) to page 23 (Kate: But now it stretches to buying a new wireless. Wonderful!). Discuss the significance and effect of dancing in this extract and elsewhere in the play. Brian Friel uses a variety of dance techniques to convey the significance of dance. Each outburst of dance involving the characters gives the audience an insight into their real personalities but also the strain of their current situations. In Maggie’s monologue, the audience become aware of how beautiful dance is but it can be misunderstood. “They were just so beautiful together.” This point Maggie is making strengthens the aspect of a connection between two people through the means of dance. Dancing acts as a means of escaping social boundaries and also a way of self-expression. It is only through dancing that the Munday sisters feel satisfaction and take pleasure in their lives. Dance being one of the main themes and this may be because the sisters live a very repressed life and stand by strict Christian rules. This point is also enhanced with the connection between Chris and Gerry as the audience become apparent of the emotions these characters share when they dance, and further on in the play all the characters especially Chris, soften to Gerry giving implication of the true and raw feeling they have for each other represented through their dance. Throughout the play the theme of dance continues especially with the characters of Chris and Gerry. Chris is apprehensive when Gerry turns up out of the blue but that soon all changes. (They dance off… Chris enters quickly left, hugging herself… she laughs pirouettes flirtatiously before him and dances into the kitchen.) Dancing acts as a way of communicating and the lack of mature conversation between Chris and Gerry helps build on their relationship. Gerry uses dance as a charming way to

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