Conor McPherson's The Weir
1) In The Weir, we have folk tales being told in a contemporary setting. Why do you think these stories persist? Why do these stories continue to be told? Are they an extension of what Angela Bourke discusses in her essay--that they are "a way of dealing with the marginal and the transitional"? How so? Do these stories serve other purposes? Explain your answer.
2) At the end of Valerie's ghost story, the men make an attempt to "explain away" her experience, but Valerie is resistant. Why is that? Do you think it might be related to what Derrida says about "learn[ing] to live with ghosts, in the upkeep, the conversation, the company, or the companionship, in the commerce without the commerce of ghosts" (Specters of Marx xviii-xix).
3) The title of the play is The Weir, and Finbar explains that the weir was built in 1951 as a way "to regulate the water for generating power for the area." How does this idea of "the weir" reveal itself thematically in the play?
4) Both in Ni Duibhne's story "Newgrange" and The Weir tell of German tourists. How do both texts treat these tourists and how does Ireland as a "tourist destination" change the way the Irish see themselves in these works?
5) Jack says of his last story that it "wasn't a ghostly story" (67). Do you think that's completely true? Jack also says, "We'll all be ghosts soon enough" (67). How might you relate what Jack says here to the end of James Joyce's "The Dead"?
By: Ashley Kreul
ReplyDeleteThe Weir as explained by Finbar and he says “The weir, the river, the weir, em is to regulate the water for generating power for the area and for Carrick as well” (27). This to me explains that when in need of power the water flows to generate enough for the area. In life lessons with the characters stories though, I think that this goes more and more into what their stories are about. It’s about past moments in their lives that have had huge impacts and there is a love and loss type of flow going on. There is love for the person that they are talking about and always will be but in the end, they realized that they did end up losing them. I feel like the characters tell their stories of their past to help mend the hurt and cope with their feelings, kind of like them telling their stories of the past and or present and building a bridge between that and the idea of the afterlife. The stories which are interesting in the end tend to be about the idea of the loved, the loss and that feeling of being lonely. With the story of Valerie and her child, the idea of love comes in when it is needed and that is when her daughter Niamh is trying to sleep at night, the love is there to try and comfort her from the night. The love is shown in the story: “One of us would have to lie there with her until she went off, and even when she did, she’d often have to come in and sleep with us” (54). This quote clearly gives the idea of love and safety when needed to comfort her daughter. The idea of loss happens when Valerie comes to the pool meet to see that her daughter hit her head and she was being resuscitated. The loss affects Valerie in the ambulance as she gives her a hug and notes “She just looked asleep but her lips were gone blue and she was dead. And it had happened so fast.” Then she goes to show more loss as she explains how hard it was for her after the matter happened: “..It didn’t seem real. At the funeral I just thought I could go and lift her out of the coffin and that would be the end of all this” (56). I feel like this idea of love and loss ties into the flow of the weir, that life has moments in time of love and loss and when in need people are there to help you. The idea though is that the stories that were told were past impacts that had a lot of feeling and needed to be out in the open in order to continue and build a bridge to not forget the past but build a bridge between the present and the afterlife.
By: Lynn Schambow
ReplyDeleteValerie tells the story of her daughter and how she dies to the men in the bar. Then she goes on to tell them her own “ghost” story. She was home alone and the phone was ringing for a long time and then it started again. She thought that maybe her husband was calling but when she answered the phone she said “there were voices but I couldn’t hear what they were saying and then I heard Niamh” (56). Her daughter was on the phone asking her mom to come get her and that she was scared. She was seeing the man crossed the road and children were knocking on the wall. After Valerie tells the men this they make up reasons that Valerie thought she heard this. She doesn’t believe them and knows for a fact that is what she heard. I think this relates to what Derrida says about learning to live with ghosts. Ghosts don’t have to be what we see in movies or read in books. Sometimes ghost are just there to let us know something. When you lose someone you love they are always with you in this “ghost” form. It’s not that they haunt you they are just a part of your everyday life. You think of them often and remember them though little things. I think in this story that the mother just wanted to save her daughter. She remembers her daughter being afraid of the knocking and the man a cross the road at night. She knew that her being with her daughter at night calmed her down and she wasn’t scared anymore. I think that after this happened she wished she could have been there and saved her daughter. Losing someone is not easy to live with. Many people that haven’t lost someone find it easy to put in that done and over with stage. But those you have need to find ways of living with it as part of their everyday life and finding that new normal.
By: Lukas Wagner
ReplyDeleteIn the story the Weir is said to be “The weir, the river, the weir, em is to regulate the water for generating power for the area and for Carrick as well” (27). Throughout each of the stories told by the characters I think we can see the representation of the Weir itself. When each of the characters tell their stories they seem to be topics that they themselves have a hard time believing. I see these stories hard for them to talk about, because of this, but once they tell them they feel relieved, that someone else has also had an occurrence like theirs. This to me represents the Weir in a way because the Weir generates power for the people when in need the characters telling these stories were also people in need of someone to help them cope with their situation which to me in some way represents the Weir. To me these stories also give good examples to what Derrida says about learning to live with ghosts. They are just something there to help remind us of something or to help us. They represent something in the past and usually have to do with the love and the lost in one way or another. In the end The Weir seems to be a good example of Derrida thought because, all of the stories told have to deal with dealing with what they saw along with past memories.
By Kate Bruegmann
ReplyDeleteThe Weir takes place in a bar in rural Ireland near Carrick. The men, Brendan, Jim, and Jack from the bar try to do anything they can to make sure the new woman, that just rented an old house in the area, Valerie is comforted and at ease. Valerie came with the businessman, Finbar. The people that are in the bar all tell stories about folklore, like ghosts, fairies, and supernatural happenings. Finbar says that “The weir, the river, the weir, em is to regulate the water for generating power for the area and for Carrick as well” (27.) I think this means that the stories/gossip are generated like the water for the area. The gossip is what runs the town. I think the story Jack tells about the widow woman repeatedly telling jokes to her kids refers to the gossip that goes around. You should not always believe everything everyone says because if you spread that gossip it will soon or later come back to haunt you. This is an example of a ghost story. Valerie then told her story about why she left her hometown. It is now a ghost of her past and will remain in her past. Her daughter always had nightmares and needed her parents to sleep with her. She then went swimming for school and Valerie was going to be a little late and while she was only a little late her daughter had gotten in an accident. From then on the death of her daughter, never seemed real to her.