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AWE (A Woman’s Experience)

Keywords

Brian Friel The Freedom of the City, second wave feminism in Ireland, Irish Women’s Liberation Movement

Abstract

In Brian Friel’s The Freedom of the City, Elizabeth Doherty (Lily) is a mother of eleven children who stumbles into the Guildhall, along with two young men, after a peaceful civil rights protest turns sour. During the hours spent in the Guildhall, Lily is subject to demeaning and oppressive comments. From the reporter Liam O’Kelly to Michael and Skinner, each of them makes quick assumptions about Lily without letting her speak, leading her to believe that she never had “an experience, an event, even a small unimportant happening been isolated, and assessed, and articulated”. However, over the course of the play, the characters begin to shift their perspectives and see Lily as a person who has real thoughts and emotions. Because of that, Lily also begins to see herself in a better light.

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