Sailmaker Revision Notes Key Themes The key themes

Sailmaker Revision Notes

Key Themes The key themes of Sailmaker are: • Poverty • Religion • Prejudice

Poverty Alec and Davie live in poverty for most of the play. Davie is addicted to gambling and is unable to move on after the death of his wife. He turns to loan sharks and his friends (Billy) to make ends meet. He has been made redundant from four jobs. By the end of the play Davie is not moving on and is living in a dirty flat with no electricity and no heat. He is unable to move forward, prompting Alec to leave him to make his own future.

Religion features heavily in Sailmaker. Primarily it focuses on the conflict between protestants (Church of Scotland) and Catholics. Alec gets sucked into this and goes frequently to the Bible studies class and is friendly with the minister. Alec also claims to have seen either his mother or the Virgin Mary in the sky near the beginning of the play. This suggests that Alec is spiritual in some way.

Prejudice/Sectarianism (Prejudice) features strongly also. Ian and Billy are staunch Rangers supporters and hate Catholics because they support Celtic. They are uneducated and are unwilling to change their views. (‘He’s a pape. ’) Davie and Alec see it for what it is, that it is simply just two football teams. There is also prejudice against gay people and those of wealth as Ian suggests that when Alec goes to private school he will have to ‘watch his bum. ’

Characters There 4 main characters in Sailmaker: • • Billy, Ian, Davie, Alec.

Davie • Davie is an example of someone who cannot move past the death of his wife (poverty, depression and addiction. ) He is addicted to gambling and falls into deep depressions because he cannot stand being alone. • Good scenes for Davie include: • When he asks Billy for money and when he gets beaten up (Poverty) • When he blows all the money on drink and gambling (Addiction) • When he confesses to Billy that he feels lonely without his wife (Depression)

Alec • Alec is Davie’s son. He is forward thinking and thinks for himself. He • • doesn’t want a trade and seeks to better himself. (independence, intelligence, fair). Davie gets himself out of the gutter and into university through education, giving a strong message that education can solve problems. Good scenes for Alec are: When he gets top marks in the exams or goes to private school (intelligence) When he leaves Davie at the end of the play to go to university (independence) When he discusses with Ian that he can’t see a difference between Catholics and Protestants (fair)

Billy • Billy is a painter by trade and the father of Ian. He is a firm Rangers • • supporter and sees himself as a proud member of the ‘Church of Scotland’. He can’t tell the difference between football and religion. He is however, dependable and a good friend to Davie. (Sectarianism, Education, Poverty. ) Good scenes for Billy are: When he loans Davie money (poverty). When he curses Catholics after the football game. (Sectarianism) When he doesn’t let Ian follow his dreams or stay at school and tells him to get a trade. (Education)

Ian • Ian is Billy’s son. He is simple minded and dependable but wants to be • • more than he is. He is tied down by his father and is unable to think for himself. He ends up not joining the army and is trapped in a trade he doesn’t particularly want to be in. He also mimics his father’s sectarian views but doesn’t understand them in the same way. (Education, Prejudice, Trapped) Good scenes for Ian are: When he tells Alec that he wants to join the army (trapped) When he makes insults against intelligent/wealthy/gay people (prejudice) When he tells Alec that he has to get a trade (education)

Literary Techniques to be Aware of. • Word Choice, (‘pape’) • Tone, (Ian and Davie) • Theme, (Prejudice, Poverty, Nostalgia, Education, Religion, Depression). • • Characterisation, Stage Directions, (Transitions between scenes. ) Symbolism, (Sail making tools and Christian Endeavour badges) Imagery. (metaphor, simile, alliteration, personification, onomatopoeia)

Contexts to be aware of. • The fact that the play is set in the 1960 s after WW 2 during a period of depression and unemployment. Set in Govan Glasgow a ‘rough’ area and heavily protestant. Shipyards have shut down and many people are struggling to find work. • The play was written in the 1980 s during the Margaret Thatcher years, another period of great unemployment as she had shut down a large portion of the manufacturing and coal industry. She had also smashed the trade unions. Many people were out of work and were struggling to make ends meet.

The 8 Mark Question 1. You get 2 marks for stating a common link between the extract you are given and from a scene elsewhere in the play. 1 mark is for identification of a similar scene from within the play and 1 mark is for explaining how it is relevant/fits in. • E. g. From the extract about money problems and the scene where Davie gets beaten up by the money lender. 2. You get 2 marks for explaining how this theme is explored from the extract. You get 1 mark for quoting from the extract, and 1 mark for explaining it.

Part 2 3. You get 4 marks for quoting and explaining from other parts of the texts. You must quote/provide evidence and explain twice for full marks. e. g. <Quote/reference to text> (explain explain) <quote/reference to text> (explain explain)

Sample Answer Q. The theme of social class is explored in this extract. Show the theme of social class is developed here and elsewhere in the play. 8

Answer The theme of social class is explored by: • In the extract by the fact that Alec lives in Govan, Glasgow which is a well known working class area. • This is shown elsewhere in the text when we see Billy telling Ian that he should ‘get a trade’ and that it’s the best option for him indication that Billy has strong working class roots and wants to pass this on. • Alec uses the word ‘midden’ in the extract. A ‘midden’ is a bin or bin area and is a word frequently used in tenement buildings in working class areas of Glasgow. This shows he is working class as had he been of a higher class he would not have referred to it in this way.

Answer • Ian becomes very working class due to his father Billy and does not want to get an education to better himself. This is shown by the fact he moves to Aberdeen when his job as a painter dries up in Glasgow and he moves to find work elsewhere. • Davie encourages Alec to get an education and better himself. This is shown by Davie sending Alec to private school and encouraging to get a job that does not require him to ‘take his jacket off’. Taking the jacket off is a reference to not having to do physical manual labour, which was associated with the working classes and not the middle classes which Davie inspires Alec to join.