When All Is Said

When All Is Said is set in 20th-century Ireland, and this socio-economic and physical environment is a defining part of Maurice’s character and story. Griffin taps into Irish literary tradition to show how Maurice’s circumstances and his relationship with the Dollards are defined by socio-economic structures with historic roots in Ireland. The "Big House” novel is a specific genre within Irish literature, at its peak in the 18th and 19th centuries (“‘Big House’ fiction.” The Oxford Companion to English Literature. ed. Birch, Dinah: Oxford University Press, 2009. Oxford Reference). This movement continued into the 20th century and beyond, with novels of this later period often charting the decline of the Big House phenomenon, as the Dollards’ narrative arc does in When All Is Said.

The “big house” was part of a socio-economic structure common in Ireland from the 16th century onwards, which saw a wealthy landowner living in a large building at the center of their estates. This landowner was often English or Anglo-Irish, with their power in the area stemming from the English colonization of Ireland. These upper-class families often had little social connection to the surrounding community but exerted economic control over them, as community members worked their land and paid them rent. In the mid-1700s, Irish nationalists encouraged the view, often accurate, that the big house families were culturally and physically separate from the general populace but economically exploitative. In the 20th century, political shifts and civil hostilities in Ireland destroyed some big houses or their families. Elsewhere, they remained, but changes in the law gradually modified power: Maurice’s father comments that though the Dollards are still hugely wealthy, treating local people like Maurice exploitatively, they resent the fact that families like Maurice’s now own their small patch of land.

Despite this, Maurice’s life at the beginning of the novel is still shaped by the lingering existence of the big house structure and the socio-economic power imbalance it perpetuates. Griffin suggests that thanks to the 20th century’s changes, Maurice is able to change his fortunes, becoming wealthy as the Dollards gradually lose their power. She shows how the big house structure morphs and shifts over time: The Dollards’ descendants cling to the house itself, turning it into a hotel. Despite Thomas’s ruinous financial behavior, the novel ends with one of his descendants, Emily, still owning and running the building. However, unlike him, she is not separate from the community: She works in the hotel herself, hosts local community events, and knows the regulars.

Though Maurice achieves economic success, Griffin also shows the economic struggles Ireland faced during this period and the fickle nature of capitalism. Maurice acknowledges he has luck as well as tenacity, and some of the land he purchases is available because people are emigrating for better economic opportunities. Economic hardship and lack of work drove wide-scale emigration from Ireland throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, and several characters leave for America or England, separating Maurice from his family, including his sisters, and his son.