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The Importance of Harry Hoveden in Making History Essay

Decent Essays

The Importance of Harry Hoveden in Making History

In making history, Brian Friel uses Hugh O’Neill to define the characters in the play, and the way in which his actions affect them gives the audience some characteristics to decide on the personality of particular characters.

Harry Hoveden is obviously an important character in the play because he plays a major part in the play, and appears in most of the major scenes. It is also clear that he is important to O’Neill because he is often the one person he turns to in times of crisis.

Harry is presented as a very loyal and sober character by, he serves to balance out some of the other characters almost like a buffer. His calm nature in times of distress or excitement …show more content…

This calming and soothing effect also reflects on the audience because if he was not included, the play would be a lot more negative and the audience would be more likely to feel insecure about the flow of the play. His character contrasts so much with most of the other characters that it adds diversity to making history. It makes some scenes more interesting because of the presence of this calm and obviously intelligent character and his political soundness can mock characters like O’Donnell. When compared to characters like O’Donnell
Harry is a very likeable character and appears as someone to be trusted and relied upon.

Brian Friel also uses him and his overwhelming loyalty towards O’Neill to show a weakness in O’Neill’s character. O’Neill uses Harry to portray certain characters via contrast and particularly O’Neill by the way he treats Harry. It often appears that O’Neill takes Harry for granted showing another side to his character that can be thought of as weakness. Also the fact that whenever O’Neill puts Harry down he regrets it almost immediately shows that O’Neill is insecure and sometimes does not think before he speaks, so Brian Friel uses Harry to show a very important side to O’Neill that could have affected his judgment during the wars he fought and led.

Harry is also an expositional character, and Brian uses him to expose
different

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