Sarah Character Analysis

A waif-like woman who could be anywhere from seventeen to thirty-five years old, with a speech impediment so severe that she communicates primarily through gestures and grunts. Manus teaches her to say her name at the beginning of the play, and she thanks him with flowers. Sarah’s attentiveness to Manus throughout the play suggests her affection for him, though his increasing coldness towards her suggests he does not feel the same way. Sarah sees Yolland and Maire kiss after a local dance and runs to tell Manus. When Yolland then goes missing, Sarah cries to Manus that she is sorry. Captain Lancey arrives and demands that Sarah tell him her name, but she finds she can no longer speak at all. Despite Owen’s later assertion that she was simply frightened in the moment, Sarah emphatically shakes her head and leaves the stage for the final time. In this way Sarah represents the Gaelic-speaking people of Ireland, many of whom were only just finding their voice—that is, to read and write in their native tongue—when they were silenced forever by the British colonists.