Comparative Study


Ending There are moments in which the audience could be forgiven for hoping that there will be a breakthrough in communication between father and son, but as each of these is dashed, the situation grows increasingly hopeless. In the final scene of the play, Friel cements the bleak vision of life that the rest of the play has established.


S.B. cannot sleep, and the stage directions make it clear that he is distressed at the thought of Gar’s emigration. He goes over to Gar’s cases, touches his coat and stares at his bedroom door. Gar hears his father coughing and wakes up. S.B. tries to talk to Gar about his departure but can only discuss the weather and which part of the plane it is safest for Gar to sit in. Even this piece of advice seems to strike S.B. as possibly too personal or emotional and he quickly stresses that it was the Canon who suggested Gar sit at the back: ‘So he was saying … not that I would know – just that he was saying it there …’ It is heartbreaking that even in their final moments together, S.B. cannot be honest and open with his only son.


Gar senses that S.B. might be trying to communicate properly with him by offering advice about the journey, so he asks his father if he remembers a happy fishing trip they took together when Gar was very young. S.B. does not, and instead focuses on facts such as what colour the boat was and what exact song he sang. S.B. is incapable of putting his feelings into words and has avoided any real conversations with Gar for so long that he cannot now change the habit of a lifetime. When Gar brings up the fishing trip, S.B. is unable to see that his son is trying to connect with him emotionally. By focusing on the unimportant details, S.B. ruins the moment and Gar rushes off to the shop, embarrassed and upset. The final glimmer of hope has been extinguished.


One of the saddest moments in the play occurs when Madge enters just after Gar rushes off. Three times S.B. seeks Madge’s reassurance that he’ll cope in Gar’s absence: ‘Madge, I’ll manage rightly, Madge, eh?’, ‘I’ll manage by myself now. Eh? I’ll manage fine, eh?’ It is clear that S.B. will not manage at all, something Madge knows but does not say. Seeking solace in happy memories of times gone by, S.B. reminds Madge of a time when Gar was a little boy and wanted to work with his father rather than go to school. In the end, Gar would only agree to go if S.B. walked with him: ‘the two of us, hand in hand, as happy as larks – we were that happy’. The worst part of this exchange is that we know Gar would have given all to hear S.B. express such affection and pride. Earlier, Private urged Public to ‘make the move’ and bridge the gap between them. At this stage in the play, we feel not only great compassion for S.B. and Gar but also a sense of frustration and sorrow that, despite their love for one another, neither father nor son can take the initiative.


As she slips money into Gar’s coat after S.B. has gone to bed, Madge reflects that he and S.B. are ‘as like as two peas’. She says that when S.B. was Gar’s age he was ‘the very same as him: leppin, and eejitin’ about and actin’ the clown’. Madge feels sure that when Gar is ‘the age the boss is now, he’ll turn out the same’ and will have ‘learned nothin’ in-between times’. Nobody knows the two men better than Madge and we cannot help but believe that her pessimistic view of the future will come to pass.


In the final lines of the play, Private asks Public, ‘Boy, why do you have to leave? Why? Why?’ Public answers, ‘I don’t know. I – I – I don’t know’. Despite all his bragging about the great life he will have in Philadelphia, it is obvious that Gar does not really want to go to America. He agreed to go on an impulse that he almost immediately regretted. Gar’s self-destructive tendencies indicate that he will be as unhappy in America as he was in Ireland. We are therefore left with little hope for a positive outcome.


430 King Lear and Comparatives


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