Transcript Juno and the Paycock

Juno and the Paycock
Sean O’Casey
Sean O’Casey (1880-1964)
 1880 — 30 March: Born John Casey in
Dublin, the youngest child of a
respectable Protestant clerk.
 1886 — His father died, he
became deeply devoted to his
mother.
 1894 — Sent to work at fourteen
Sean O’Casey (1880-1964)
 1906— Involved himself with Nationalist
movements, as Secretary of the Irishspeaking Gaelic League and a member of
the Irish Republican brotherhood.
 1920—At forty, left home for the first time,
disgusted by his brother's drinking.
 1919—His mother died. The Abbey rejected
his first play
 1924— Juno and the Paycock was an
unprecedented success at the Abbey. O'Casey
was still a labourer, mixing concrete.
Sean O’Casey
 1927 –Married actress Eileen
Carey Reynolds (who played
Nora in The Plough and the
Stars in London).
 1930 –Film of Juno and the
Paycock, directed by Alfred
Hitchcock, released. Copy of
the film burned in the street
by Irish nationalists in
Limerick.
source
Sean O’Casey (1880-1964)
 1964
 Lifted ban on Irish productions so that
The Abbey could present Juno and the
Paycock in the World Theatre Season in
London.
 18 September: died in Torbay. His ashes
were dispersed in the Garden of
Remembrance at Golders Green
Crematorium, between the Shelley and
Tennyson rose beds.
Sean O’Casey (1880-1964)
 In his later years,
O'Casey ceased writing
for the stage and put
all his creative energy
into his highly
entertaining and
interesting six-volume
Autobiography.
 13th child in a Protestant
family
 Grim childhood, poor eye
sight, and ill health
 positive thoughts
 “Isn’t everybody hurrahing
for life? What are we going
to do without it?” (433)
Sean O’Casey
 Father—a clerk
Mother—raised her children alone
after O’Casey’s father died
 Two of his most appealing characters
are created by his mother’s image.
 The first Irish playwright to write
about the Dublin working classes.
Sean O’Casey
 Early in his adult life — Gaelic League
and the amateur theatre movement
 Early forties — quick succession of
three realistic plays about the slums
of Dublin: The Shadow of a Gunman,
Juno and the Paycock, and The
Plough and the Stars.
"All the world's a stage and most of us are desperately
unrehearsed." --Sean O’Casey
Sean O’Casey’s Plays
 These three plays provoked public
outcry mainly because of O'Casey's
consistent refusal to glorify the
violence of the nationalist movement,
instead mocking the heroics of war
and presenting the theme that dead
heroes were far outnumbered by
dead innocent people. (source)
Sean O’Casey’s Works
 Juno and the Paycock (1924) and The
Plough and the Stars (1926), probably
O'Casey's two finest plays. Both deal with
the impact of the Irish Civil War on the
working class poor of the city.
 Juno and the Paycock was successfully
filmed by Alfred Hitchcock.
 In 1959 O'Casey gave his blessing to a
musical adaptation of the play by American
composer Marc Blitzstein. The musical,
retitled Juno.
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)
Men in Juno and the Paycock
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)
Men in Juno and the Paycock
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
Moms 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)
A principle is a principle?
Mary - on strike
Mary:
“What’s the use of belongin’ to a Trades Union
if you won’t stand up for your principles?...”
“He stuck to his principles, an’, no matter how
you may argue, Ma, a principle’s a principle.”
(436)
Juno
“I am goin’ to borry more, what’ll he say
when I tell him a principle’s a principle?
What’ll we do if he refuses to give us any
more on tick?” (436)
A principle is a principle?
Johnny – seriously injured while
fighting for Irish
When Johnny asserts that he would fight
again despite the loss of his arm,
Juno
“Ah, you lost your best principle, me
boy, when you lost your arm; them's
the only sort of principles that's any
good to a workin' man”. (442)
A principle is a principle?
After knowing the news about legacy, Juno..
“Every available spot is ornamented with huge
vases filled with artificial flower…” (444)
Juno said to Jack: “You won’t have to trouble
about a job for a while, Jack.” (443)
During the funeral of Mrs.Tancred’s son, the
Boyle family plays the gramophone for fun:
“It’s nearly time we had a little less respect for
the dead, an’ a little more regard for the
livin’.”said Juno. (450)
Irish Civil War
 The Irish Civil War (June 1922–April 1923) was
a conflict between supporters and opponents of
the Anglo-Irish Treaty of December 6, 1921,
which established the Irish Free State, precursor
of today's Republic of Ireland. Opponents of the
Treaty objected to the fact that it retained
constitutional links between the United Kingdom
and Ireland, and that the six counties of Northern
Ireland would not be included in the Free State.
The Civil War cost the lives of more than had died
in the War of Independence that preceded it. It
left Irish society deeply divided and its influence
in Irish politics can still be seen to this day.
The Treaty (1)
First Dáil: Michael Collins (second from left,
front row), Arthur Griffith (fourth from left,
front row) Eamon de Valera (centre, front
row), W.T. Cosgrave (second from right, front
row).
 The Anglo-Irish Treaty arose from the AngloIrish War (or "Irish War of Independence"),
fought between Irish separatists (organized
as the extra-legal Irish Republic) and the
British government, from 1919-1921. The
treaty provided for a fully self-governing Irish
state, controlling most of Ireland's population
and area, and having its own army and police.
The Treaty (2)
 However, rather than creating the independent
republic favoured by many nationalists, it
provided that the state would be a dominion of
the British Empire with the British monarch as
head of state. The treaty also stipulated that
members of the new Irish Oireachtas
(parliament) would have to take an "Oath of
Allegiance" to the Free State constitution and
an oath of fidelity to the British king. Under the
treaty the state was not to be called a republic
but a "free state" and it was only to include
twenty-six southern and western counties of
Ireland.
The Treaty (3)
 Also, several strategic ports were to remain
occupied by the Royal Navy. Nonetheless
Michael Collins argued that the treaty gave
"not the ultimate freedom that all nations
aspire and develop, but the freedom to
achieve it". Events were eventually to prove
him right, as the Free State later evolved
into an independent republic. However,
Anti-Treaty militants in 1922 believed that
the Treaty would never deliver full Irish
independence.
Summary
the years of the Iris Civil
War 1922 and 1923
in the slums or tenement
part of the city
centers on the Boyle
family
Summary
 The family is told that they will inherit
money from a distant relative who has died.
 The Boyles begin to borrow money and
accumulate a great deal of debts.
 Two months later both the Boyles and their
creditors learn that the legacy is
uncollectible due to Bentham's clumsiness
in drafting the will. Thenceforward Bentham
loses his interest in Mary, although she is
shortly to bear his child.
Summary
 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.
Analysis (1)
 the conflict between the dream world
and the world of reality
 Showing how a character is stripped
of his illusions and forced to face
reality.
Analysis (2)
 Boyle the ‘poseur’ or Paycock
struts throughout the play on a
false and imaginary sense of his
own self-importance.
 the conventional ‘naturalist’ family
drama of drunkenness and defeat.
Analysis (3)
 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
women and their enormous capacity
to suffer.
Four key specifications for a
traditional tragedy (1)
 The change in Status Quo comes at the end of
the first scene where the family thinks that
they are going to receive a large amount of
money through inheritance which will change
there lives and the way they live.
 Self-importance (or hubris [excessive pride]?),
which can be predominantly seen in the male
characters, Boyle and Johnny in particular,
brings their downfall. (Source)
Four key specifications for a
traditional tragedy (2)
 Self-recognition comes in the penultimate
scene where Juno realizes that she should
have realized her son’s problems before his
death. ‘Why didn’t I remember that then he
wasn’t a Diehard or a Stater, but only my
poor dead son’.
 Reconciliation: When Juno also loses her son,
she becomes to understand Mrs. Tancred’s
grief of loss.
Theme
 the cruel irony in the play:
while many people were fighting for
ideals and principles there were
others who were suffering from the
debilitating effects of the poverty.
Works Cited
 Irish Civil War. 28 Dec. 2005
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irish_Civil_War>.
 Irish Civil War, 1922-1923. 28 Dec. 2005
<http://libraryautomation.com/
nymas/irishcivilwar.html>.
 O’Casey, Sean. Juno and The Paycock: A Tragedy in
Three Acts. Masters of Modern Drama. Ed. Haskell M.
Block and Robert G. Shedd. New York: Random House,
1960. 435-57.
 Sean O’Casey. 28 Dec. 2005 <http://www.irishsociety.org/Hedgemaster%20Archives/sean_o'casey.h
tm>.