Script: Adaptor's Analysis - scene twenty-three

Brightness and relaxed lightheartedness open the scene, to make a contrast with Chris's emotional state and the solemnity of the funeral which follows. The movement of Rob, Chae and others working the land as they pull on their coats and gather round the grave illustrates the communal nature of the event. The Speak as narrator is a neutral observer, who makes specific the echo of another communal gathering - the threshing-day at Chae's. Chris's sense of detachment is conveyed by her unemotional observations, moving from domestic normality to the symbolic antiquity of the Standing Stones, to the arrestingly original vision of a disquieting afterlife; and returning abruptly to the lonely reality of her dead father and the finality of his death. Ewan's offer of help provides a small moment to indicate a special sympathy between them, foreshadowing their future, suggesting development of new emotions and issues in Act 2. The farewell to John Guthrie from Rob and Chae embodies their virtues of plainness, simplicity, directness and equality.

The second section of the scene is a reworking of Chris's personal revelation at the graveside, as she moves from a dull dismissive detachment to a sudden understanding of her father's life and struggle and a final reconciliation. Turning this into verse, setting it as a song, is intended to heighten the emotional register and its significance, by formalising the moment. As with the opening monologue in Scene One, it is a direct address to the audience, implying an intimate connection with Chirs, and complete honesty. All the conflicts and pressures of Chris's childhood and life under her father's domination are resolved in the final line, which also ends Act 1.

Read the script: Act One, scene twenty-three

Adaptor's Analysis: