Summary
Act 2. Owen is taking down the Gaelic names of places for Yolland, and then anglicizing them. It is a hot day, a few days later. Owen is on his knees looking at a map, with Yolland beside him, leaning on a creel. The stage directions state that Yolland now seems much more at ease in Ireland. They discuss the name for the body of water nearby, named because it is the "mouth of the river." Owen suggests they anglicize Bun na hAbhann to "Burnfoot."
When Yolland calls Owen "Roland," Owen tries to correct him, but Yolland does not listen. Yolland tells Owen that representatives in London are getting impatient about the maps and getting angry at Lancey who in turn gets angry at Yolland. Manus comes downstairs and tells them that class is starting in another half an hour.
Yolland and Owen continue to translate and Yolland tells him he'll send over a crate of oranges later. Manus warns Owen to hide the bottle of poteen he has, so that Hugh doesn't get to it. Manus then says of Yolland, "I understand the Lanceys perfectly but people like you puzzle me."
As Manus walks away, Yolland asks Owen if he has always been lame. Owen tells him that Hugh fell across Manus' cradle as a baby, which is why Manus feels so responsible for their father now. He alludes to the fact that Manus has no salary, and then gets back to work. Yolland has a drink and talks about the fact that some of the locals resent them, and that a little girl spat at him the other day. He then tells Owen that Lancey is looking for the Donnelly twins, a pair of brothers that Owen describes as "the best fishermen about here."
Yolland asks about Maire Chatach, whose surname means "curly-haired." He tells Owen that he hears music coming from her family home every night, and Owen encourages him to go in one time. Yolland then asks if Owen thinks he could live there, but Owen is dismissive, insisting that just because it's a hot summer does not mean that Yolland could ever survive a winter in the region.
Suddenly, Doalty enters in a rush looking for Manus. He says the cattle are going mad in the heat and they go off to round them up. When they are alone, Yolland tells Owen that Doalty cut a path through the tall grass from his tent that morning, "so that my feet won't get wet with the dew." He then tells Owen that his father got him a job with the East India Company about 10 months ago, but that he missed his boat. To avoid his father and earn a modest salary, he joined the army and got sent to Ireland. He expresses his gratitude for being in Ireland rather than India.
Yolland tells Owen that Lancey is just like his father, "the perfect colonial servant." Yolland says, "I'm afraid I'm a great disappointment to him. I've neither his energy, nor his coherence, nor his belief." He then says that when he first arrived in Baile Beag, he was filled with a curious sensation that it was his fate to be there. He describes the fact that in Ireland he feels less striving and agitated, but more at ease. Growing suddenly embarrassed, he suggests that he will always be an outsider there. "The private core will always be...hermetic, won't it?" he asks, but Owen suggests that he can learn to decode the Irish ways.
Hugh comes down the stairs, with energy. He translates some Ovid for Yolland, and tells them he is going to acquire a testimonial from the barely literate parish priest, and then to talk to the builders of the new school about his living accommodations. He then takes a swig of the poteen, as Yolland tells him he once lived down the road from the poet, William Wordsworth. Hugh has never heard of Wordsworth, suggesting that the Irish tend to look towards the Mediterranean for their poets.
When Yolland compliments the Gaelic language, Hugh says, "You'll find, sir, that certain cultures expend on their vocabularies and syntax acquisitive energies and ostentations entirely lacking in their material lives. I suppose you could call us a spiritual people." Owen becomes embarrassed, but Hugh keeps talking to Yolland, telling him the title of his new book: "The Pentaglot Preceptor or Elementary Institute of the English, Greek, Hebrew, Latin, and Irish Languages; Particularly Calculated for the Instruction of Such Ladies and Gentlemen as may Wish to Learn without the Help of a Master."
Before he leaves, Hugh tells Yolland that he hopes he will feel more at home in the village, with Owen and Manus' help. When he leaves, Owen complains about his pompous drunkard of a father, but Yolland seems to admire Hugh, and suggests that the soldiers' work is "an eviction of sorts." Yolland and Owen argue about preserving the Gaelic language in the map; while Owen is interested in anglicizing the names and moving society forward, Yolland wants to preserve the history of the region. Suddenly, when Yolland calls Owen "Roland," Owen corrects him, and Yolland is horrified. The two of them explode with laughter about the long-held misunderstanding.
Analysis
The colonial influence of the English soldiers in Ireland is felt most distinctly on the level of language. Owen's duty as a translator for the army is to take the Gaelic names of places and objects and anglicize them. His task is literally to make the native language more amenable to foreigners. For those Irish people who can speak English, this is already an ambivalent conversion, but for those who speak no English, it is a complete takeover of their culture and their methods for communicating with one another.
While Owen does not feel personally offended by the English intruder's interest in Anglicizing names, Manus sees their project as nefarious and completely disrespectful. He barely speaks any English in Yolland's presence because Yolland talks so often about wanting to learn Gaelic. His insistence on using his native language is a way of calling Yolland's bluff, of showing the ways that the soldier is making no real effort to connect with and understand the Gaelic speakers. Meanwhile, Owen blithely answers to the wrong name and finds no problem with the fact that the history of the region is being changed.
Yolland is a complex character in that, while he is not making a very concerted effort to learn much about the Irish culture, he has more of an interest than many of his fellow Red Coats. His ambiguous investment puzzles Manus, who has an easier time understanding the disrespectful attitude of someone like Lancey. Left alone with Owen, Yolland wants to imagine a world in which he speaks Gaelic and lives there, but Owen insists that he isn't cut out for it.
In this section of the play, we learn more about the nuances of Yolland's character. After Manus has left the house and Yolland is left alone with Owen and a bottle of poteen, he delves into his life story. He tells Owen that his father had gotten him a job with the East India Company, but when he missed his boat, he decided to enlist in the army instead, which sent him to Ireland. He describes his father as an excellent colonial servant: dutiful, hardworking, and strict. This description seems to serve as a way to differentiate from his father, and suggest that he himself is more of an ambivalent colonial servant, seeking to understand and integrate with the culture that he is entering, rather than simply pillage it.
In his differentiation from his father, Yolland describes some generalized differences between the English and the Irish attitudes. He tells Owen that when he came to Baile Beag, "I had moved into a consciousness that wasn't striving nor agitated, but at its ease and with its own conviction and assurance." He speaks of his admiration for Hugh and Jimmy, and in many ways it appears that Ireland provides an alternative paternal model for Yolland. In Ireland, he can feel more at ease, and like less of a disappointment.
