A Commentary on Irish Comedy,

Martínez Cruz Donovan R.
FFyL, UNAM
English Literature - Seventh Semester
Professor Jorge Alcazar
Enfoques teóricos essay
January 2015
William of Baskerville: And there's nothing in the Scriptures to say that he did not. Why, even the saints have been known to employ comedy, to ridicule the enemies of the Faith. For example, when the pagans plunged St. Maurice into the boiling water, he complained that his bath was too cold. The Sultan put his hand in... Scalded himself.

A humoristic approach to "The troubles"
The Abbey Theatre was the intended hub for a movement that tried to rescue the old Celt traditions, its founders believed that the Irish revolution should have been founded on the re-enforcement of the intellectual power of the Irish; Yeats, Gregory and Moore along with a number of playwrights presented a great number of plays that one way or another portrayed the different faces of the Irish tradition, the struggle of the Irish to emancipate from the British rule, and the effects this struggle brought upon them.
Christopher Murray in his foreword to The Plough and the Stars tells of two impulses coming from the Abbey, one was to create a theatre of art; a fray within this impulse was soon viewed, it was between Naturalism or Realism and Poetic or Symbolic Drama. Apparently the realistic vein somewhat won over the symbolic one, however, the plays presented in the Abbey always retained an otherworldly flavor, mainly some of the plays by Synge. Yeats, who wanted a more symbolic theatre withdrew from the scene for a while as Sean O'Casey's realism brought back the theatre's past glories. The other impulse, Murray continues, was that of Nationalism, the Home Rule dream motivated the founders to promote the development of a renaissance through consciousness-raising of the theatre goers. So even though Synge presented plays that made fun of, or ridiculed the Irish ways, Yeats still stood for the artistic freedom of the venue. Yeats defended Synge from his detractors saying "…is the work of writers who are moulded by influences that are moulding their country, and who write out of so deep a life that they are accepted there in the end", Somewhat validating the way in which the Irish manner and idiosyncrasy are depicted in their comedies.
The three playwrights mentioned created comedies that although different, had some very important similarities; The pot of broth by Yeats; The playboy of the western world by Synge and Juno and the Paycock by O'Casey are comedies that remained as some of the most representative plays of the Irish contemporary drama. The reason they are brought together here is that they were represented in times of an acute social unrest in Ireland, the radicals were struggling against the British rule, and the intellectuals were striving for a revival of the ancient Celt tradition, which in turn would become the moral and intellectual model for the regeneration of the Irish national identity. The Irish contemporary comedy depicted a caricature of the Irish, the response of the audience was immediate for many felt offended by that image; both O'Casey and Synge were confronted by an angry audience and strong demonstrations took place at the Abbey. Synge defended his play (The Playboy…) saying that it was realism, and that it showed the way reality was.
The playboy of the western world is obviously a comedy, the situations that spawn from the coming of young Mahon are uncanny and ridiculous, they depict the simplemindedness of the rural Irish, these people appear impressionable and superstitious, traits that nobody would feel proud to accept, still there are important aspects that are noticeable, braveness is highly valued as well as deception condemned. Knighthood is also praised, while every man close to Pegeen deserts her when she is all afraid of being alone, it is Mahon who stands by her, a rascal as he is. This straightforward way in which the author deals with the Irish manner could be taken as a cynical view of the Irish reality, still, the feel of the play is not such, the use of the vernacular forms of the language tell of the author´s interest to revive the cultural identity of his people, seen from a different perspective, the play awoke emotions and reactions of different kinds, which would mean extracting people from indifference; argument origins from thinking, and a thinking nation was what the intellectuals dreamed of, not only the tragedy can provoke awakening, comedy is also a generator of ideas, questioning and rebellion. There is no apparent political hinting in this play, however there is an almost anecdotic chivalry demeanor in the depth of the plot, young Mahon respects Pegeen, and keeps a level of fidelity to her, this attitude towards women is characteristic of Celt tradition. So it is not only the use of the language but also the highlights of the preservation of certain values, and the liberating effect of laughter that provide the play with a weight on the Irish contemporary drama.
Juno and the Paycock by Sean O'Casey is similar to Synge's in several aspects, it belongs too, to the revival of the Irish tradition, and therefore the language used is vernacular Irish. The portrait of the characters is similar to that of The Playboy of… no wonder it was received with the same controversy and uproar. There is an incidence of alcohol abusing characters, in the Playboy of… Michael James and his pack are permanently drunk, just as Captain Jack Boyle and Joxer Daly in Juno and the Paycock, Both Pegeen and Juno, are in charge of the practical issues pertaining to the household while the men spend the time "socializing". The villainous behavior of the Widow Quinn and Captain Boyle is comparable, except for the fact that Boyle's intelligence is somewhat dull, while the widow's is sharp. Both drama's core theme is deception, in both cases the deceived subjects fall pray of a lie that at the end is unveiled, the situations that emerge from the original deception are comic and dialogues are not intricate, which allow a dynamic interaction between dialogues and situations. There is a very significant difference between the two plays, Juno and the Paycock is imbued with a strong socio-political innuendo, there is an open protest against Die Hards and the extremism they profess; as it was mentioned before, the intellectuals frowned upon the violent ways of those looking forward to force the Home Ruling through the use of arms. Another important difference between the two dramas is the tragic end of Juno and the Paycock; Johnny Boyle dies and his sister falls in disgrace, suffering is ever present in the play, Johnny was left crippled and bitter after fighting for the revolutionary army, Mrs. Tancreed lost a son in the skirmishes between the royalists and the rebels, O'Casey exposes from a different angle the loss of a battle, beyond politics, beliefs, religion or allegiances the suffering of a mother that sees her offspring's life extinguished. The playboy of the western world and Juno and the Paycock appeal to nationalism in different ways through the same means, a comic approach to the reality the Irish lived, the laughter being the means.
Yeats (together with Lady Gregory) proposed the pot of broth, a more astounding comedy that blends the different aspects of the two dramas discussed previously; an appeal to nationalism, a quick passed comedy, and criticism to royalism. The attraction of the author to the Irish folklore is evidenced through the use of the language (similar to the other two authors). Several attitudes tell of the idiosyncrasy attributed to the Irish, but it is done in a more subtle way; a couple of the stereotypes are not present, therefore there was a lesser chance that the audience felt attacked or offended, other aspects of the stereotyped Irish are there: superstition, gullibility and heart tenderness. These aspects appear in the three characters of the play, which moves in this atmosphere, no harshness threatens the flow of the comic situation and the comedy comes forth good-naturedly. And this is the reason the true intention of the play reveals itself in the midst of adornments of finesse.
The authors expose a sharp criticism to the tendencies of the modern and tradition-oblivious generations, John and Sibby Coneely and The Tramp embody the generation gap between the elderly traditionalists and the youth, John and the Tramp appear to be much older than Sibby, Yeats believed that the conditions of the Irish were the result of the influence of alien cultures, or the influence those had on the new Irish generations, he believed that rescuing the old values could mean a positive change that would generate a more conscious society, the two male characters of The Pot of Broth represent a generation more attached to the traditional Irish, John does not flinch at the sight of the Tramp, which means that he is not wary of his own countrymen, he is rather trusting toward unknown Irishmen, furthermore, he even tries to find something for the poor fellow to eat, that tells of the generosity of the older generation. On the other hand Sibbi, who belongs to a different generation, appears to have several flaws in her character, firstly she regards herself with superiority by putting herself and other high ranking people like the clergy at the same social stature, she also acts greedily, for she by no means intends to help the man in need, that is the reason The Tramp decides to resort to deception to fool her. The deception at the end will tell of the way new generations are easily fooled by the glitter of the British and their Irish allies. This is evidenced by the way in which The Tramp entrances Sibby; he resorts to the woman's greed, when she enters into the scene she is unaware of The Tramp's presence and lets out the shallowness of her character, he gathers this information to scheme the fraud. It is not the woman's naivety which makes her an easy prey, it is her covetousness, she longs to get a hold of the magic stone, and her avarice blinds her to the simplest truth. The reading can be, thus, that the new generations can be easily deceived by their lack of respect for the traditional system of Irish values, the rapacity of the British has been transmitted to the royalists. In a different reading it could be concluded too that this same situation is transposed to a different dimension; the tense relationship between the British and the Irish, the rapacious desire of the British to keep control of Ireland (along with its resources) may be used to the rebels benefit, through the use of intelligence the Irish could get rid of the British control.
These three plays, different from one another, are similar in some very important aspects, at an immediate reading the "spirit" of the plays could be misinterpreted, the stereotyped Irishmen appear at the forefront of the plots showing the worst of the peoples in Ireland, yet, there are important highlights of the values being exposed, in The playboy of the western world the people look up at the Playboy's courage, after all they believe that he was only defending himself from any abuse, and that taking a man's life is justifiable if it is with the purpose of delivering from abuse, the playwright might be telling that the use of force is justifiable if it the Irish uses it to deliver their country from the British oppression. In Juno and the Paycock, the issue is the cupidity of those Irishmen who have sold their souls to the British and abuse of the gullibility of the Irish to make a profit, in spite of the tragedy that befell them, Juno rises from the debris of her family to start all over, living up to the pride of honest labor and love for her daughter, and the new life growing inside her.
Most importantly, besides the consciousness-raising nature of the dramas discussed here, there is the use of humor, each play was received with strong controversy, and each was stoutly defended, controversy stimulates thinking, thinking leads to questioning, the writers of the Abbey theatre intended to generate an artistic movement, a motion that would foster the consciousness required to help the Irish society realize the need to retrieve their most essential features, the Celt honorability, valor and respect for truth; laughter may have played a highly relevant role in this mental emancipation. Laughter has been considered a form of liberation, Umberto Eco sends forth what could be laughter's role in literary work, Jorge de Burgos (a Franciscan Monk) in his novel The Name of the rose, defines it thus: "Laughter kills fear, and without fear there can be no faith because without fear of the Devil, there is no more need of God", The God Britain would cease to exist if the Irish stopped fearing.









Umberto Eco. (1985). The Name of the Rose. U.S.: Everyman's Library.
Sean O'Casey. (2001). The Plough and the Stars. London: Faber and Faber. Notes by Christopher Murray
W. B. Yeats quoted by Christopher Murray in his notes to The Plough and the Stars.
Umberto Eco. (1985). The Name of the Rose. U.S.: Everyman's Library.