Juno and the Paycock

Sean O’Casey

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 Irish-speaking 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 (1880-1964)

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

1964 Lifted ban on Irish productions so that The A

bbey 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)

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 clerkMother—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 an

d 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 PaycockThe 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

Juno Boyle- Breadwinner- Realist in the family - Showing her strength in adversityMary Boyle - On strike for her principle- Blinded by appearances

Women in Juno and the Paycock

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 commandin

g and complacent gesture e.g. “Chselurs don’t care a damn now abo

ut 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 ma

terial things- Turing his back on M

ary when knowing she’s having Bentham’s baby

Charlie Bentham- Bring fantasy and disill

usion to the Boyle family

Moms in Juno and the Paycock

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

er 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)

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 y

ou 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?

A principle is a principle?

After knowing the news about legacy, Juno..“Every available spot is ornamented with huge vas

es filled with artificial flower…” (444)Juno said to Jack: “You won’t have to trouble ab

out 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 d

ead, 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)

The Anglo-Irish Treaty arose from the Anglo-Irish 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.

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 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 fr

om a distant relative who has died. The Boyles begin to borrow money and accumu

late a great deal of debts. Two months later both the Boyles and their cre

ditors 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, sh

e 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/I

rish_Civil_War>. Irish Civil War, 1922-1923. 28 Dec. 2005 <http://libraryauto

mation.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.irish-society.org/Hedgemaster%20Archives/sean_o'casey.htm>.