The Invisible Twins

Yesterday in class we talked about the ending of Translations. One of the most important subjects we talked about, relating to the book was the story of the Donnelly twins. They were twins with no lines, with no visible part in the play, but their presence was a major part of the book. The question that we contemplated in class was, "What was the importance of the twins?" After the class there was more that I thought about that could give meaning to the twins. It is known that these twins were invisible in the sense that no one really knew what they were up to. Many English soliders treated the Irish as if they did not matter. I think the Donnelly twins used this to their advantage. Many of the soliders barely thought of the Irish as citizens, much less retaliators. The twins exploited this feeling of invisibility to their advantage, by using it to attack the soliders. If they were going to treated as if they were nothing, they were going to use that as their alibi when they wanted to retaliate. Also, it was important to include the twins because it shows that not everyone in Ireland stood around while the English changed everything. Many of the main characters were flabbergasted by the soliders and often helped them, but the twins acted differently. While, they think that they were doing a good thing, they attacked the wrong solider. Yolland was a solider who was changing the names, but in the end he realized how wrong that was of him. Maybe the author put this aspect in the book to show the readers that violence will not get a person very far. They took a solider that was willing to help them, but when he went missing the other soliders, who did not like the Irish, were going to burn down the town. While the Donnelly twins are invisible and use that to retaliate, they retaliated against the wrong man. If they went a different course instead of violence, their town might have been saved.