drama ii modern drama

DRAMA IIMODERN DRAMA

Lecture 30

3

Sean O’Casey was born in 1818 and died in 1964. The play has been written on the background of Irish Civil War, which has been going for centuries.

Irish Civil War4

Juno and the Paycock: Jingois

Jingoism

5

flag waving

“an appeal

intended to

arouse

patriotic

emotions”

Jingoism (Denotation)6

7

Jingoism is extreme patriotism in the form of aggressive foreign policy. In practice, it is a country's advocacy of the use of threats or actual force against other countries in order to safeguard what it perceives as its national interests. Colloquially, it refers to excessive bias in judging one's own country as superior to others—an extreme type of nationalism.

The term originated in Britain, expressing a pugnacious attitude toward Russia in the 1870s, and appeared in the American press by 1893

WWI – Irish War9

Main Ireland got independence after the First World War

Ireland is divided into Southern and Northern Ireland.

Northern Ireland is now called Ulster. The people of main Ireland are Roman Catholic. The majority of Ulster is Anglican. So there is political and religious problem.

(i)Either to unite with main IrelandOR(ii)To unite with EnglandOR(iii)To be total independent was the main problem or enigma.

The Play and it’s Social Significance

Society

Juno and the Paycock

• The paycock, or peacock represents the chaos that Juno endures during the play.

• In mythology, the name Juno is the Roman name for Hera, the goddess of marriage, and the peacock is her symbol.

• The Boyle family: - a working class family in their attempt to escape their dilemmas- alienated from each other

Women in Juno and the Paycock

Juno Boyle- Breadwinner- Realist in the family - Showing her strength in adversity

Mary Boyle - On strike for her principle- Blinded by appearances

Men in Juno and the Paycock

Jack Boyle - Idleness, a real cripple in life“Mary is always readin’ lately –

nothing but trash, too..” (440)“I’m hardly able to crawl with the

pains in me legs!” (440)


Jack Boyle- Self-deception, talking with a

commanding and complacent gesture

e.g. “Chselurs don’t care a damn now about their parents, they’re bringin’ their fathers’ gray hairs down with sorra to the grave, an’ laughin’ at it, laughin’ at it.” (440)

e.g. “Captain’s able to take care of himself…” (441)


Johnny Boyle- Suffering from his

betrayal to his comrade

- Showing no sympathy to his sister

Joxer Daly- Parasite- Crawler

Jerry Devine - Judging love from

material things- Turing his back on

Mary when knowing she’s having Bentham’s baby

Charlie Bentham- Bring fantasy and

disillusion to the Boyle family

Mothers in Juno and the Paycock

while facing the death of their sons: Mrs. Tancred - despairing and

anticipates her own death “O Blessed Virgin where were you when

me darlin’ son was riddled with bullets,…” (449)

Juno Boyle - hardy and resolute“Ah, what can God do agen the stupidity o’

men!” (457)

1. Plot overview Boyle’s Family…

Boyle is a useless and irresponsible drunkard who shuns the reality of work at every stage in the play, and spends his time in the pub drinking with his friend Joxer Daly.

The Boyles have two children Johnny and Mary.

Johnny is a sickly individual who has been involved in the Republican movement but he ended up betraying a comrade by the name of Tancred. Johnny spends his days locked up in the house fearful of his life.

His mother Juno is a selfless character who is concerned all the time about other people.

1. Plot overview

Juno’s daughter Mary is deeply concerned about appearances.

She is a shallow character who seems to judge people and things from the outside.

When we meet her at the beginning of the play, we learn she is on strike because of the dismissal of a young girl called Jenny Claffey. Yet we are told from Juno how Mary never had a good word to say about Jenny Claffey in her whole life.

1. Plot overview

The family is told that they will inherit money from a distant relative who has died.

Bentham is the solicitor who informs them of this fact.

He begins to have a relationship with Mary and she becomes pregnant.

Bentham shortly after this abandons her. The Boyles begin to borrow money and

accumulate a great deal of debts.

1. Plot overview

The legacy never materializes, and the Boyles are forced to return the borrowed goods.

Johnny is dragged off to be shot for the betrayal of Tancred.

Juno finally realizes that Boyle will never take on his responsibilities as father and breadwinner and so she leaves him and sets up home with Mary.

3. General Vision or Viewpoint The general vision is grim and sombre. There is a subtle sense throughout the

play that war is futile and only contributes to the harsh quality of life.

Many of the characters represented in the play are tragic victims of war and poverty.

The overall general vision seems to highlight the heroic quality of the woman and their enormous capacity to suffer.

4. Cultural Context The particular cultural context of this play is war

torn Dublin in the years 1922/3 during the Civil war.

The play is set in the slums or tenement part of the city. It is deeply rooted in poverty and the degradation consequent on war.

Illegitimacy is seen to be something, which brings with it disgrace and the woman, is left humiliated.

The play also deals with working class Dublin and how certain people avoid work and spend their time drinking in pubs.

5. The play as reflection of social and personal influences

5. The play as reflection of social and personal influences Social: War

In 1916, there was a great uprising and many people were killed.

O’Casey felt sorry for them. O’Casey was basically a pacifist (peaceful). He looks for independence but not at the cost of peace and life.

This approach is also like that of W. B. Yeats. Both feel sorry for human causalities.

To both, war is an evil, fought under any pretext, (excuse).

Reality is more important than ideology. Man is more important than patriotism and religious fanaticism. O’Casey is down to earth a realist.

He is similar to Shaw and is strongly anti-war writer. He is an anti-war, anti-class, anti-patriotism, anti-

fanaticism, anti-trade unionism, anti-dogmatism, anti-ideology and anti-false aristocracy.

5. The play as reflection of social and personal influences Personal: Feminism

He is a feministic writer.

The play predominantly conveys Women’s struggle, hard work, suffering,

endurance and courage

5. The play as reflection of social and personal influences Cultural: Greek Mythology

O’Casey has taken the characters of “Juno and the Paycock” from Greek mythology.

One very important aspect of European literature is their interest in classical mythology.

O’Neill wrote “Electra”, Shaw wrote “Pygmalion”, Yeats wrote about “Byzantium”, Ibsen has created his own myth “Wild Duck” influenced by Greek mythology.

5. The play as reflection of social and personal influences Contemporary dimensions

The European writers want to write on contemporary themes.

They want to write on mundane level, but now modern themes are trivial.

As in this play, though the domestic problems do not have heroic dimensions.

Therefore, modern writers refer to classical myths to give a colour of sublimity to their subject.

5. The play as reflection of social and personal influences A fine blend of Greek Mythology and contemporary Life

The other reason is that due to contemporary chaos communications have become difficult because there is no share of feelings.

Therefore, modern writers seek for some focal point which would be equally meaningful to various people.

So, when we talk with reference to the myths of Oedipus, Hamlet, Pygmalion, Byzantium, Electra, the communication becomes easy.

5. The play as reflection of social and personal influences

In a disintegrated society, myths provide a focus and a centrifugal face.

Some writers create their own myths as in the Later Romantic period and in Early Modern period. As Shelley creates the myth of “West Wind”, Keats creates the myth of “Hyperion and Psyche”.

Ibsen makes the myth of “Wild Duck” and then O’Casey also uses Greek mythology inthe play “Juno and the Paycock”.

7. Themes/Issues

7. Themes/IssuesPovertyThis theme dominates the play at every level. The whole play highlights the cruel irony that

while many people were fighting for ideals and principles there were others who were suffering from the debilitating effects of the poverty.

Because of the negative effects generated by poverty escapism assumes a major and dramatic element in the lives of characters.

Mary’s tragic situation occurs because of poverty.

When it becomes clear that the Boyles will not inherit any legacy, Bentham disappears forever abandoning Mary alone to have her baby.

7. Themes/IssuesPoverty Jerry Devine standards of what are essential

features in a husband are set out in terms of money. At one stage he tells Mary how the job is worth

Juno who is the only character rooted in the harsh practical everyday world of necessity realizes that money, hard work, and responsible social commitment are stronger and more realistic values in this world than principles and ideals.

Her pragmatic stance on how principles won’t pay butchers is in striking contrast to the incessant evasion from reality inherent in all of the other characters.

7. Themes/Issues ReligionThe theme of Religion is also a dominant

feature in the play. o The play is set against a strong Catholic

background. O Casey makes frequent use of images of Our Lady and the votive light to project an air of realism and authenticity in the play.

o There are also a variety of different religions, and attitudes expressed throughout the play.

o One of O Casey’s chief mottos in the play seems to show the co-existence of strong religious convictions, together with a sincere and humane commitment to one’s fellowman.

7. Themes/Issues Religion Juno’s faith is sincere, authentic, and

traditional. She believes on Johnny’s death that God can do nothing against the stupidity of men, that her husband should be praying novenas for a job, and that what Ireland needs is more piety.

On the other hand, Bentham espouses a religion by the name of Theosophy. This is projected as vague and abstract and certainly seems to be compatible with his own shallow commitment to people.

7. Themes/Issues Reality And Fantasyo The play dramatizes the conflict between the

dream world and the world of reality and shows what happens when a character is stripped of his illusions and forced to face reality.

o Boyle the ‘poseur’ or Paycock struts throughout the world of the play on a false and imaginary sense of his own self- importance.

o His whole life and career consist in fabricating dreams of his gallant years as a captain fighting heroic feats and sailing the oceans of the world.

o The news of the legacy provides another outlet to Boyle’s habitual evasion of reality, he sees himself as a potential investor on the Stock Exchange.

7. Themes/Issues Reality And Fantasy His whole life is a lie. His pains, which are invented for

the sake of shirking and avoiding work, become real to him.

His refuses to face up to the truth and reality about Bentham and the deception surrounding the news of the will.

When reality invades at the conclusion of the play in the form of Mary’s pregnancy and the actual removal of his material possessions, Boyle is unable to cope.

His final entrance dramatized in a drunken fragmentary soliloquy is tragic. His habitual escape into fantasy is pathetically expressed through his drunken pose - ‘ Commandant Kelly died....in them arms.....Tell me Volunteer Bullies says he that I died for Ireland’.

7. Themes/Issues Reality And Fantasy Mary who represents the younger generation

also falls victim to illusion. On her first appearance in the play, she is shown to be on strike for a principle.

The oppressive and stifling atmosphere generated by the tenement life forces her to seek escape through Bentham.

For her he represents another way of life and values outside the restricting and debilitating atmosphere within the two-roomed tenement.

7. Themes/Issues Reality And Fantasy She falls victim to the subtle deception

of Bentham’ middle-class gentility. She is blinded by external appearances

and ends up a tragic victim of Bentham’s hypocrisy and selfishness At the conclusion of the play, she is forced to return to the reality of the slum life with Juno in spite of all her attempts to escape through learning and books.

Juno and the PaycockTragi-comedy

Tragi-comedy

Tragi-comedy is a kind of writing in which comedy is hovering on the brinks of tragedy.

Why Tragi-comedy?

O’Casey’s “Juno and the Paycock” is a tragi-comedy although, on the whole, it is a serious and somber play having much destruction and violence.

But there are a number of comic elements in the play which would not fit into the pattern of a tragedy.

On the other hand, as the comic elements do not outweigh the tragic ones, it would be inappropriate to label the play as a comedy.

Co-existence of Tragedy and Comedy

It means there is a co-existence in the play of tragic and comic elements and so, the best course is to treat it as a tragi-comedy.

Mood ~ Beginning/Somber

The play starts with a graphic description of Boyle’s household.

Mood Transition

Mr. Boyle: grotesques

Actually, on the whole, farce in the play, is verbal – the repartee, the comic catchphrases, the cumulative comedy of repetition. There is the comedy of dialect and

mispronunciation; of pompous phrases misused; of ludicrous images. Inflation and deflation both are comic. Captain Boyle’s inflation of his fantasies

with invention, exaggeration, rhetoric and bombastic and Juno’ facility in knocking him down etc all are comic.

Tragic theme…

Despite, so much laughter and comedy, the play is predominantly tragic in theme.

For example, the ignorance that prompts Joxer’s and Captain Boyle’s mistake makes us laugh at first but is fundamentally tragic; their idleness, drunkenness and deviousness give numerous opportunities for comedy, but are in themselves wasteful and destructive.

Tenement life gives rise to farcical situations but is in reality grim.

Thus the superficialities of certain circumstances of Dublin life make an audience laugh, whereas, these are tragic if examined in full e.g. heroes become cowards, nationalism becomes jingoism, labour, humanitarianism becomes inhumanity.

“Juno and the Paycock” a Tragi-comedy

The pith and marrow of all this discussion is that, comedy is here, in fact, hovering on the brink of tragedy and so we are apt and just when we call “Juno and the Paycock” a tragi-comedy.

Juno and the Paycock A Feministic Play

Like Ibsen and Shaw, Sean O’Casey is also a feminist playwright.

His play “End of the Beginning”, “The Shadow of the Gunman” and “Juno and the Paycock” are the three extreme examples of feminism.

Background of feministic approach The reason of his feministic approach is

O’Casey’s great admiration for his mother. He led a very miserable life with is mother in

slums. His mother nursed him in very poor

circumstances. In return he loved her mother very much.

Many of his heroines have glimpses of his mother and they are based on the personality of his mother while facing the adversity.

O’Casey feministic advocacy

O’Casey advocates that we have to give an equal status to women to progress in the modern world.

ThemeMan flatters Woman Like other plays of O’Casey “Juno and the

Paycock” also projects the theme of feminism that traditionally man flatters woman.

In this play Mary and Juno are flattered and dragged down by their circumstances caused by the men.

Both worked hard to make both ends meet. While men are irresponsible, careless,

coward and drunkard, they are not at all ready to pick up any responsibility or to do any betterment for the sake of home rather they are becoming the case of degeneracy for the home and are adding fuel to the fire.

Masculine representation

Men in O’Casey world

are …

Men in O’Casey’s Works

Johnny and Mr. Boyle think that one day Ireland must be free and the days of prosperity will come but women characters, now in the worst circumstance caused by war, suffers most of all in the time of calamity. They have to see … their husband … and sons killed and slaughtered and their lovers burned down. When Robbie Tancred is murdered, it is Mrs. Tancred who suffers behind him. The words of Mrs. Tancred’s lamentation on the death of her son always hurts Juno and she already prays for the life of Johnny.

“Blessed Virgin, … … Sacred Heart o’ Jesus, take away our hearts o’ stone, an’ give us hearts of flesh!”

Men in O’Casey’s WorksCaptain Boyle Captain Boyle, the husband of Juno, is a drunkard,

careless, irresponsible and a man of straw, having no conscience at all.

He has never worked in his life and his only business is to peacock about the clubs and pubs with his friend Joxer Daly.

They together boast of nationalism but they never bother about their homes.

Captain Boyle is a typical aristocratic figure who does not care about his wife and children. Whenever Juno instigates him and laments him to do work at least for his own sake, he always makes lame excuses and complaints about pain in his legs – the legs with which he can wander round the day.

Men in O’Casey’s WorksCaptain Boyle

“Won’t it be a climbin’ job? How d’ye expect me to be able to go up a ladder with these legs? An’, if I get up a self, how am I goin’ to get down agen?”

Women’s grief…

Juno has to suffer on different grounds. She has a husband who keeps on strutting about from

morning till night whereas she has to carry the burden to her whole family.

Her son Johnny has lost an arm and has a hip shattered in the war.

The daughter, who has turned rebel and is on strike, ultimately gives birth to a child by a schoolteacher, her fiancée.

Amid the hell of circumstances Juno has to bear the sufferings of existence, but unlike Captain Boyle, she does not romanticize her son’s exploitation when Johnny drags on his sacrifice for Ireland by saying that he would sacrifice his other arm too because “a principle’s a principle”. Juno speaks bitterly:

“Ah, you lost your best principle, my boy, when you lost your arm:”

Feminine representation

women are …

Feminine representation

O’Casey very beautifully portrays the high status of woman that woman are more realist in their approach to life in general and to war in particular.

Feminine representationJuno Here we see, though Juno is an uneducated

woman, yet she holds her dignity and shatters the web of idealism attached to war and trade unionism. When Mary emphasizes that “a principle’s a principle” and tries to justify her call on strike, Juno remarks very realistically:

“When the employers sacrifice wan victim, the Trades Unions go wan betther be sacrificin’ a hundred.”

Feminine representationJuno In the country like Ireland which is poverty stricken

and war ridden one cannot afford any idealism. Rather the poor have to have the practical

approach and must work hard in order to survive and break down the barriers of slavery.

We see only Juno is conscious of this fact, when she ask Mary, what will the shopkeeper say when she says to him “a principle’s a principle”.

Juno is very conscious of the fact that the miseries of the Irish people are not because of their stars but they are because of their carelessness, misdeeds, romanticism and idealism. That’s why she asks Mary:

“Ah, what can God do agen the’ stupidity o’ men!”

Feminine representationMary In the play we see that Mary’s suffering are

also caused by men. She rejects Jerry Devin because she realizes the fact that Jerry is not a type of man who will stand by her through thick and thin. She realizes Charley Banthem but he deceives her and leaves her desolate and pregnant. Boyle’s so called questions of honour awaken only on this movement and he frightens Juno of dangerous consequences if Mary does not leave the house. But in all these circumstances it is only Juno who stands besides her. This shows O’Casey feminine independence.

Juno and the Paycock A Feministic Play

All these leads us to conclude that women in “Juno and the Pacycock” are realist and wiser than men. They have the awareness of life which men lack. This assumption of O’Casey is not based on lie or any idealism. In fact O’Casey wants to stress and evoke women to follow their instinctive feminine good sense and to play their part in the domain of modern life.

“Juno and the Paycock” War at its background (like O’Casy’s other plays)

66

O’Casey is very much against the war fought under any pretext. He closely observed

how war affects the society and the individuals,

how war crushes the economy and the system,

how war disintegrates the family structure,

how it demolishes the psychology of the people and how it creates generation gap.

O’Casy’s Position67

Thus O’Casey condemns…

Social Unjust, Inequality Violence

68

The play begins with Mary’s reading a newspaper. The very first information we get form the play is of a gruesome murder.

“On a little bye-road, out beyant Finglas, he was found.”


69

O’Casey evidently has sympathies for the poverty stricken and war ridden Irish society. There is nothing predicable in Ireland. Everyone is in extreme danger. They are hanging between life and death.

Social Unjust, Inequality Violence Brutality: Foreign to Irishmen

70

There are lots of references in the play regarding Ireland‘s religious and political history.

Irish makes many attempts to shake off the foreign yoke. Foreigners are very inhuman to them. In 1916, hundred of casualties and the execution of the leaders are faultless examples of that.

Social Unjust, Inequality Violence Inhumanity: Irishman to Irishman

71

But this inhumanity is not just caused by foreigners. The real problem arises with the killing of Irishman by Irishman.

War, or to be more exact, a civil war has no solution to man’s problem; rather it aggravates the miseries of victims. The civil war is not confined to two fractions rather it expands to the whole Ireland. The death of Robbie Tancred and Johnny Boyle are perfect examples of that.


72

Johnny, who has lost an arm and has a hip shattered in a fight, is at the end dragged away and shot by his former republican commanders because he betrayed comrade Tancred.

All this shows that Ireland is preying on herself. Earlier Johnny had undoubtedly behaved heroically but the hellish civil war compelled him to betray his comrade.

This means the stupid civil war is turning into traitors because of its nothingness and hollowness purposelessness.

Social Unjust, Inequality Violence Mirrorism: Inhumanity vs. Humanity

73

Juno emerges as a great humanist and realist. She is a true pacifist and is against man’s

inhumanity against man. She has an acute observation and knows about

the truth of things. She is very realist and anti-idealist. When Mary

emphasizes that one ought to stand by one’s principle being “a principle’s a principle” and tries to justify her call of strike, Juno very realistically remarks:

and “When the employers sacrifice wan victim,

the Trades Unions go wan betther be sacrificin’ a hundred.”


74

Being a realist, she has a firm belief in the idea that the fault does not lie with the stars but with the people themselves. She says:

“Ah, what can God do agen the’ stupidity o’ men!”


75

The domestic tragedy, which mainly springs out form pregnancy, is due to the inhumanity of the male.

That male chauvinist society cannot tolerate a mistake by a young girl. Whereas on the other hand the idiots like captain Boyle and Joxer Daly are left unaccountable.

Hope for a good time is only due to the courage of women. They are very humane and cooperative.

O’Casy’s criticism of life is conveyed through the repetition of significance of deep dialogues. The words of Mrs. Tancred lamentation are pungently recorded by Juno, when she too, is mourning over a slain son.


76

“Sacred Heart of the Crucified Jesus, take away our hearts o’ stone……..an’ give ushearts o’ flesh! ……..Take away this murdherin’ hate … an’ give us Thine own eternal love!”

Against the vanity and moral bankruptcy of masculine character, O’Casey elevates the mother figure when Juno plans to work for Mary and her unborn child. Juno suffers the pain of existence but she sustains life.

Social Unjust, Inequality Violence Appearances vs. Reality 77

The opportunist class represented by Nugent has also been condemned.

According to O’Casey this opportunist class is more harmful than even the combatants.

They themselves become the cause of civil war and play a double role.

Nugent wants other to respect “Irish people national regard for the dead” but stitches suits for the civil guards at night.


78

Thus, we see O’Casey very beautifully depicts man’s inhumanity towards women man’s inhumanity towards man

O’Casey is at heart a humanist and a pacifist. He considers life mere inevitable and all idealism is subservient to it. He condemns all principles and gives one and the only principle to live all the days of life peacefully.

Theme79

Deterioration of a Relationship: Poverty, Religion, Escapism

Juno and the Paycock Deterioration of a Relationship

80

“Juno and the Paycock” by Sean O’Casey is set in the background of the Irish Civil War.

Throughout the play, we can see the titular character’s, Juno Boyle and Jack Boyle, relationship deteriorate , and how dramatic events in their lives and the lives of their children, Johnny and Mary, cause the entire family to collapse.

Background and its Relevence

81

The play is set closely following the signing of the treaty dividing Ireland into sections

It features the resulting conflict between the diehards who want a united, free Ireland, and the free-staters, who support the treaty,

The conflict represents the clash of fanatical nationalism and practicality, of idealism and a recognition that what the people truly wanted was peace.

82

The play explores some of the relevant ideas of the time, including the poverty, religious attitudes and escapism of the working class in Dublin in the 1920‘s, and

how these characteristics affected the communities that lived within the tenements of Dublin at this time.

Deterioration of a Relationship: Poverty

83

In the first act we see a great deal of conflict between Juno and Boyle.

The root of this conflict lies in Boyles inability to accept responsibility for supporting his family, as he refuses to seek work and spends his days drinking with his manipulative, scrounging friend Joxer.


84

Juno is forced to act as wife, mother and sole source of income for the family,

the prime motivation for this character being to keep her ragged family unit together

“Who has kep th’ home together for the past few years - only me”


85

This introduces us very early on to the theme of poverty in the play. The tension in the relationship is directly linked to poverty throughout the play,

Boyle’s lack of responsibility causing conflict between him and Juno when their financial situation is bad.

“Your poor wife slavin to keep the bit in your mouth…”

We can see O’Casey present both the positive and negative aspects he perceives in poverty.

Contrasting effect86

We see Boyle contrast the strength and ability that destitution can invoke through the character of Juno

Deterioration of a Relationship:

Religion87

o There are also a variety of different religions, and attitudes expressed throughout the play.

o One of O Casey’s chief mottos in the play seems to show the co-existence of strong religious convictions, together with a sincere and humane commitment to one’s fellowman.

Religious Conflict88


Novena is a recitation of prayers and

devotions for a special purpose

during nine consecutive days


Apparently we find Marry as supporting Juno’s beliefs but her acts Convey it all the opposite- matching

Bentham’s


Idealism and Reality93

The writer dramatizes the conflict between the dream world and the world of reality and shows what happens with relationships when a character is stripped of his/her illusions and forced to face reality.



Juno is portrayed as a character of practicality

and realism

drama ii modern drama

Documents

juno boyle hardy

northern ireland

boyle family mothers

people of main ireland

world war ireland

adversitymary boyle

paycock jack boyle idleness

paycockthe paycock