Comment closely on the following episode, paying particular attention to Friel’s presentation of Gar’s decision to emigrate at this point in the play.
In the tragicomedy ‘Philadelphia, Here I come!’, Friel uses ominous symbolic stage directions, tragic irony, and two-faced, conflicting dual characterization to explore Gar’s ill-fated self-induced delusion of America being an ideal utopias and warn the audience that broken relationships and closed-off humans are unfortunately part of the world – nowhere is perfect, not even the glorious land of America. He criticizes man’s inability to cope with emotion and its detrimental effect on relationships but also explores America’s appeal as a thriving futuristic land and the home of the affectionate only mother figure Gar has.
Firstly, we can observe how, in this extract, Friel uses Lizzy’s energetic and pressing personality and her attractive descriptions of America’s luxuries to explore the factors that Gar feels are pulling him to leave his deprived, dull life in Ballybeg and go to America. The luxuries Lizzy describes sound pleasant and tempting, her long sentences making the list seem endless, ‘a car that’s air-conditioned’, a ‘colour TV’, a ‘deep freezer’ and a ‘big collection of all the Irish records [he’s] ever heard’. It’s interesting that she mentions records, as we, the audience, know Gar loves music and listening to records in his room (it’s his escape from the dullness of his life and surroundings) so perhaps she knows exactly what to ‘bait’ him with (her use of adjectives like ‘great big’ and ‘deep’ emphasising her attempt to paint America as a glorious land where everything is abundant and great). Indeed, he is a young man, only recently a boy, and all this progressive technology would excite him and attract him to the country that is home to the most highly developed technology. Lizzy herself admits it’s ‘sorta bribery’ and that she is trying to ‘coax him’. Perhaps not only is Gar tempted but he also feels pressured by Lizzy and her frantic ‘growing urgency’, made clear by her long, cluttered sentences (contrasted sharply with her husband Con’s short reluctant monosyllabic comments), full of repetitions (‘and’) and breathless pauses (marked by dashes: ‘and-and-and-’) as if she is stammering and stumbling over her words in desperation to get him to agree. We, as the audience, do get the impression that Gar is affectionate towards his aunt despite his awareness of her vulgarity and eccentric personality, and does not want to upset her. He may not want to say no because he doesn’t want to hurt her feelings. In fact, she could very well be the other reason for his attraction to America. He could see her as a potential motherly figure, offering to give him ‘all the love we had in us’ and be tempted to accept as he’s never experienced that kind of motherly love before and nor does he know anyone in Ireland to be as vivacious as her. It would be natural for this foreign affection to appeal to him and make him curious to explore it further. In a way, Lizzy is the symbol of Gar’s view of America – lively, different, luxurious and open.
Furthermore, despite exploring the reasons for Gar’s attraction to America, Friel also grimly reminds the audience that America may not live up to Gar’s expectations and that even ‘Gawd’s own country’, as Lizzy puts it, isn’t free from strained relationships and cold, removed people that Gar already lives with in Ireland. Lizzy’s husband, Con, presses his wife to get her gloves and leave, reminding her it’s ‘a long drive back to the hotel’. We get the impression he’s reluctant to stay, not wanting to stay to hear Gar’s answer to his wife’s offer, perhaps hoping his nephew will eventually forget or never get the opportunity to reply. This is a tragic foreshadowing that tension and another awkward father-son-type relationship, similar to Gar’s one with S.B. awaits Gar in America. Just like S.B., Con is a dull, unenthusiastic and infuriatingly repetitive character. His patronizing repetition of the word ‘honey’ drains the name of all affection, making it lose meaning and thus implying it is an insincere use of the word. So not only is he unaffectionate and distant, his repetitive habits mirror S.B’s monotone, routine-centred lifestyle (his newspaper reading, his game nights with the Canon and the same old conversations). If Gar accepts the offer and moves to America, Con will become the new father figure – a warning that Gar will find himself re-living the same problems. As Ben, an American man, himself says in this extract ‘[America] is just another place to live, Elise. Ireland – America – what’s the difference?’ He clearly feels no difference between the two countries (is he implying both countries are home to the same socially-inept people?) and his question, although rhetorical, challenges the audience and cause them to fret for Gareth, who has built up this idyllic image of the United States in his mind – a land of glory, success and fame where an Irishman could become president! He will be dreadfully disappointed to discover America is not that different from Ireland.
Moreover, in addition to warning the audience of the ominous fate that could await Gar in America, Friel explores the destructive inability of males to cope with emotions or reality through the characterisation of Con and Ben, both American men, in this scene and Gar’s struggle to surpass this stereotype barrier. When Lizzy ‘begins to sob’, it is clear Con wants to leave the house as soon as possible, obviously embarrassed by this emotional scene as he presses his wife to get her gloves and leave. He seems more weary than sympathetic over her outpour of sadness as she grieves over her dead relatives and lack of children. He treats her like a child having an irrational tantrum, ‘softly’ and patronisingly coaxing her to calm down. His thin and unconvincing repetition of ‘honey’ and ‘it’s okay’ as well as the drained trailing off of his sentences (made evident by the use of ellipsis ‘Elise…’) creates a sort of lullaby singsong effect – a slow, nursing rhythm like he’s soothing a whining baby to sleep. Ironically, the audience gets the impression he just wants her to shut up, not really paying attention to what she is saying. Friel could be saying that Con’s inability to cope with emotion is not just his own personal problem – it is a universal one for all men. The character Ben, Lizzy and Con’s American friend, reinforces this – he too attempts to escape the emotional scene by saying he’ll ‘get the car round the front’. The stage direction ‘He goes off through the scullery’ gives the audience the physical image of his flight from the emotion which is half comical as they witness the men fleeing emotion like frightened rabbits despite it being such an invisible, non-hostile thing but also depressingly tragic that they can’t live with such a deep, important thing that is vital when it comes to human relations. Even Gar as a male also cannot deal with emotion and it is incredibly arduous for him to be able to accept his Aunt Lizzie’s request to live with her as her son. Here Gar’s split character comes into play with Private, the defensive type who protects Public in his everyday struggles to interact with other people, frantically yelling ‘No! No!’ ‘Keep it! Keep it!’ when he hears emotion-related proposals or words such as ‘love’ and Public, the softer, more innocent childish side of Gar, although struggling, admits he wants to go. On one side, he realizes that if he goes to America, he’ll have to deal with his aunt’s often-times-physical overwhelming affection and emotional personality, some thing that he is not used to but also that he finds difficult to cope with as a male (clearly illustrated by Private’s alarmed exclamations as Lizzie speaks of family and love) but on the other hand, he is tempted by this emotion his aunt is displaying – it is so alien to him, his life is almost devoid of this form of love: parental love. In contrast to Private, Public is silent, as if struggling to resist Private’s urges to harden himself and then ‘impetuously’ announces he wants to go, as if he’s just uttered something very daring and brash, dashes marking his hesitation as he realizes what he’s just said (‘-if you’ll have me-’). Private usually a man of many words, echoes this same shock and potential shame Gar feels through a disbelieving monosyllabic exclamation ‘Laddy!’. Here, Gar has dared to break through the male stereotype – his desperation to get out of the unfeeling, bland relationships he has suffered through has trumped his masculinity. This shows the terrible effect the unemotional bland relationships he shares with every male in his life has had on him – so desperate is he for real love and connection he has broken out of that he has managed to go against his own nature as a male (supposedly). Through this, Friel shows the audience that it is in fact possible for men to deal with or be comforted by emotion if they would only break out of their stereotype and be daring. It will lead them to a more exciting life full of new experiences and opportunities just like Gar opens up a new life in America for himself by softening himself whereas all the hardened men around him stay locked in their same lives.
In conclusion, it can be argued that in this extract, Friel is criticizing the detrimental effect of male incapacity to cope with emotion on human relationships through Gar’s split personality and the conflict he experiences – on one hand desperate to experience emotion and love and on the other, desperate to shield himself from it. Despite having warned America may not be all Gar expects, Friel leaves the audience with hope through Gar’s decision to go to America – a revolutionary decision going against his male stereotype which may benefit him in many ways and take him on the path to the success all the other males in his life seem to lack. Another interesting thing to explore further at in this extract is the contrast between Lizzy and the male characters, especially in their contrasting length and content of speech, which would have represented women as the sole ones capable of being honest about their feelings and explored their depicted roles as sources of comfort in a bleak world of hardened men.