In his play, Molly Sweeney, Brian Friel
utilizes theatrical dialogue between his three main characters, situated in
connection with Molly’s blindness. Her blindness enables her to ‘see’ the world
in a way that the sighted cannot. She transports the other characters and thus,
the audience, from ignorance to awareness of cultural
expectations. Friel’s Molly Sweeney is a literary representation of the
iconic figure of Cathleen Ni Houlihan, and he creates the icon as a realistic
woman with real perceptions in order to bring the audience to an awareness of
the cultural dilemma of the dichotomy within the Irish historical perception of
self. Friel connects Molly’s new sight with an overall feeling of anxiety
that could be the personal reactions of one individual’s yearning for courage
or a nation’s.
