Mcguinness Dialect
The choice of having such deep stereotypes as characters allows for their actions to be predictable. However when one reads through the play, one cannot help but recognize and appreciate the true fourth character, which is the language. The choice of having three English-dialects helps to create at atmosphere that is both familiar for the audience and comical from the start. Through the use of dark humor McGuinness is able take a dire situation and bring light to it. The men themselves use language as a means to bring light to their dark cell. The only character that does not receive the true human quality of language is the captors. By keeping the Lebanese captors as bodiless and unknown the audience sees them as inhuman while instead recognizing
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It meant to be seen as timeless and although based on the actual kidnapping of Dr. Keenan, the backdrop of Lebanon can easily be substituted for another nation if the play were to be modernized. The final lines of the first scene solidifies that although these three men are very different, they are together in this. Adam states, “I miss my home” to which Edward replies, “I want to go home” (6. McGuinness, Frank). The three use language to voice their similarities. Although they speak different dialects, are from different cultures and disagree on many things, they all aren’t home. Their thick accents once used to separate them start to feel more alike as the play goes on and the three are united in their misery and uncertainty of the future. This is solidified even further when Adam declares that he is “in Lebanon” (6. McGuinness, Frank). To this Edward replies, “So am I” (6. McGuinness, Frank). This line is also meant to alienate the captors. The captors are home. They aren’t a part of this bonding experience of the three men. They are together in this and through their ability to communicate they recognize that they are not so different. The captors too see the three men as the same. To the captors they are not Irish, English and American. They are simply
It meant to be seen as timeless and although based on the actual kidnapping of Dr. Keenan, the backdrop of Lebanon can easily be substituted for another nation if the play were to be modernized. The final lines of the first scene solidifies that although these three men are very different, they are together in this. Adam states, “I miss my home” to which Edward replies, “I want to go home” (6. McGuinness, Frank). The three use language to voice their similarities. Although they speak different dialects, are from different cultures and disagree on many things, they all aren’t home. Their thick accents once used to separate them start to feel more alike as the play goes on and the three are united in their misery and uncertainty of the future. This is solidified even further when Adam declares that he is “in Lebanon” (6. McGuinness, Frank). To this Edward replies, “So am I” (6. McGuinness, Frank). This line is also meant to alienate the captors. The captors are home. They aren’t a part of this bonding experience of the three men. They are together in this and through their ability to communicate they recognize that they are not so different. The captors too see the three men as the same. To the captors they are not Irish, English and American. They are simply