Dancing at Lughnasa | The Importance of Ceremony and Ritual
In the following essay, Leah Ryan examines the effect of the loss of meaningful ritual in the lives of the characters in ancing at Lughnasa.
Friel's Dancing at Lughnasa, written in 1990, surrounds the lives of five grown sisters in rural Ireland in 1936. Though the eldest sister, Kate, struggles to maintain a hard-working, god-fearing Catholic household, Ireland's pagan origins beckon constantly, and the tension between the two ideologies threatens the family's already tenuous harmony. The characters have many unrequited longings (such as romantic love and material possessions) but the lack of religious or spiritual ritual is conspicuous.
Brian Friel was born the son of a Catholic teacher in County...
[The entire page is 2155 words long]
Join eNotes
The above is a free excerpt. Get total access to this content with the:
Summary and Analysis – Themes – Characters – And much more...
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
Tell a friend about Dancing at Lughnasa at eNotes.
