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DRAMA II Modern Drama. Lecture 11. SYNOPSIS. Juno and the Paycock Tragi -comedy A Feministic Play. Juno and the Paycock Tragi-comedy. Tragi-comedy. Tragi-comedy is a kind of writing in which comedy is hovering on the brinks of tragedy. Why Tragi-comedy?.
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DRAMA IIModern Drama Lecture 11
SYNOPSIS Juno and the Paycock • Tragi-comedy • A Feministic Play
Juno and the Paycock Tragi-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.
Times of amusement… • “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?” • We are also much amused when Captain Boyle is interrupted while singing first by sewing machine man’s entry and then by the thundering knocks at the door. And when Boyle invites Joxer to a cup of tea Joxer says: • “I’m afraid the missus ud pop in on us agen before we’d know where we are, somethin’stellin’ me to go at wanst.” • And to this Boyle replies: • “Don’t be superstitious, man; we’re Dublin men, ……”
We are also greatly amused when we find Joxer Daly and Mr. Boyle discussing about books andhistory. But their mock-intellectual discussion is interrupted by the voice of a coal vender. Again we burst into laughter when Joxer flies out of the window at learning the voice of Juno. • In fact, this whole episode is very humorous and funny. But in this fun and ludicrous description there is a tinge of pathos as well. For example, at one place, Juno says to Boyle: • “Here, sit down an’ take your breakfast – it may be the last you’ll get, for I don’t know where the next is going to come from.”
Then when there is knocking at the door and Boyle asks Joxer to tuck this head out of the window and see who is there, Joxer replies: • “An, mebbe get a bullet in the kisser?” • Apparently, this remark may be funny but underneath there is a grim tragedy in it … the tragedy of Ireland destroyed and wasted by civil war. Boyle’s remark that: • “… the clergy always had too much power over the people in this unfortunate country.”
A Switch of mood… This again shows the grim situation of Ireland. Thus here we have an intermingling of light and serious elements of a mixture of comedy and pathos.
Although this whole episode is a merry comedy, on the background we can also perceive the tensions of the funeral.
ACT III: Traces of moods… • In act III, where there are much sufferings and destruction even then we find some comic situation there. • Joxer’sbehaviour at the downfall of Mr. Boyleis very funny. • He instigates Nugent, the tailor, to get his suit away from Mr. Boyle. • He also stoles away a bottle of brandy from the table and Boyle’s indignation at the moment creates laughter.
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 becomesjingoism, labour, humanitarianism becomes inhumanity.
These are the tragedies of the play, which are mingled with comedy.
“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 oftragedy 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 hismother 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 PaycockA 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.
Review Lecture 11 Juno and the Paycock • Tragi-comedy • A Feministic Play
Agenda Lecture 12 • O’Caesy ‘s Works are a representation of contemporary influences: Nothingness, Hollowness and Purposelessness • Irish Civil War: Jingoism • How it affects the society andthe individuals, • How it crushes the economy and the system, • How it disintegrates the family structure, • how it demolishes the psychology of the people and how it creates generation gap How this influence results in Nothingness, Hollowness and Purposelessness
