Gender issues in Friel Play Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Gender issues in Friel Play - Essay Example The literature discussion in this paper will focus on Friel’s play: Gender issues are as important as memory in Friel’s play, from Helen Lojek’s article the Dancing at Lughnasa and The Unfinished Revolution. The paper will use external literally articles to support the above argument. The paper will use the external article Brian Friel, Dancing at Lughnasa by Suman Gupta while focusing on the topic to assert the truth in the statement. Gender issues command a great influence in social lifestyle as described by Lojek and Gupta their articles. Lojek introduces her article by describing the views she observed in Brian Friel play about gender inequality. Friel (1993:46) observed the women struggle in the Irish Republic and indicated that societal revolution has yielded very little in creating equal opportunity for women (Lojek, 2007:79). The religious paternalism and secularisation that is evident in the society has not revolutionised the women world; instead, it has subjected them to social imbalances where women are symbols of insignificant ideals. The cultural trend in the Irish society promoted legislations that subjected women to roles within their homes. These cultural trends did not only infringe the advancement of women bright within their home boundaries, but also within the whole nation. Preservation of equality in the Irish society was equally hard because of the cultural influence. Lojek (2007:80) observed that despite the constitutional declaration in 1922, women could not rise from the bondage of culture to enjoy the newfound freedom that set them free from the tyrannical gender perception. Lojek (2007:80) pointed on the early work of Friel in which the central focus was the father son relationship. The relationship inspires the play while setting trends for women to follow. Women had limited choices to make especially when it came to making controversial decisions that were outside the home boundary. The play of Friel is a revela tion about the societal perception about how gender is instrumental to civilisation. The society could not make steps without the contribution of women, yet it does not appear in Friel play that the same society acknowledged women efforts. The cultural perceptions created patriarchal system where gender perception characterised the choice that the society made. Concerning this, Friel could not miss to acknowledge the characteristics of the Irish community as described by Lojek in her article. The documentations of gender related issues have given rise constitution amendment, which aimed at transforming the society into a much better place for human survival. The traditional trends in the Irish community promoted the male gender bias as opposed to equality centred community. Gupta described societal inclinations in her article by focusing on human activities shaped by gender perception. In particular, Gupta (2012:242) observed the social trends in Ireland in relation to gender and re marked that the social trends were subject to gender inclination. The same would apply to the views projected by Friel. The society has defined its social chores with respect to gender, thus a woman place would be the kitchen. The same trend was applicable during the world war where male gender was subject war while the female gender was subject to duties within their homes. The correlation that exists between two paradigms is the place of gender in relation an individual position in the society. The participation of women in political activities as well as running church matters is a concern that Lojek has addressed in her article. She posits that women do not participate in political affairs of their countries or geographical origins (Lojek, 2007:83). The same trend seems to apply in churches. Women are critical to the societal growth at whatever level, however, the society does not seem to recognise their role in steering the societal ideals. Politics is crucial to development so cial ideals because it influences