Communication: other examples
Similarly in the final episode - when S.B. can鈥檛 sleep - he gets up and sees the cases outside Gar鈥檚 room. The stage directions note that he 鈥済oes over to them, touches the coat, goes back towards the table, and sits there, staring at the bedroom door鈥.
While S.B. may not communicate his feelings, Friel shows that the impending departure is playing on his mind and that he is going to miss Gar.
In contrast to S.B., Madge seems very emotionally open. This is evident when she loses control after her frustrations and exhaustion build up. We also see it in her ability to talk openly to Gar about his mother.
Yet she also hides her feelings at times. When her nephew and his wife have a baby she is delighted that they 鈥渁re going to call this one Madge鈥. This is contrasted with her revelation in the final episode that 鈥淭hey鈥檙e going to call it Brigid.鈥
Madge doesn鈥檛 bring this up in her subsequent conversation with Gar, perhaps hiding her disappointment in much the same way many of the other characters hide theirs.
The boys too - despite this being the last time they will see Gar - seem unable or unwilling to communicate that they will miss him.
Their macho posturing and tales of girls and adventure - which Private鈥檚 contradictory commentary tells us is all untrue - seem to be a way to avoid talking about Gar鈥檚 imminent departure.
When Ned removes his belt and presents it to Gar as a leaving present, he is described using the adverbA word that describes a verb (an action or a doing word). "shyly, awkwardly". This shows that even during a farewell he is uncomfortable about any kind of real affection.
Friel shows us that even in the past this problem with communication was an issue. Aunt Lizzy recalls S.B. and Maire鈥檚 wedding day, and how her 鈥渟houlders are sorta working 鈥 you know 鈥 and you couldn鈥檛 tell whether she was crying or giggling 鈥 she was a helluva one for giggling 鈥 but maybe she was crying that morning鈥.
There seems to be a suggestion here that Maire wasn鈥檛 as happy in the marriage as S.B. and that she was perhaps trapped in a marriage with an older, rather cold man. However, because of the time and the circumstances, she just had to accept the consequences and ignore her regret.