DRAMA II Modern Drama

DRAMA IIMODERN DRAMA

LECTURE 13

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SYNOPSIS

1. Feministic Work of O’Casy: Juno and Mary

2. Exploration of language in Juno and the Paycock

3. How to analyze, design and compose a character sketch?

Drawing a Character Sketch Finding characteristics Finding and quoting references Critical analysis Drawing Conclusion

4. How to compose a critical reflection based on any idea/theme of Juno and the Paycock?

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1. Feministic Work of O’Casy

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“O’Casy’s women in Juno and the Paycock are strong and admirable characters”.

“Juno is the character that we admire most in Juno and the Paycock”. Would you agree with this view? Support your Answer by brief reference to the play.

Women in O’Casy’s Work4

Juno and Mary Boyle’s lives aren’t very pleasant in this 1920’s play

which is separated into three acts which contain a mixture of both tragic and humorous elements.

Women in O’Casy’s WorkJuno

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Juno, the wife of Captain Boyle, is the mother of two children who are in constant need of attention from him.

As the play continues this need of attention grows with the facts of financial difficulties, the pregnancy of Mary (daughter) and also her son’s, Johnny, death in the end.


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O’Casey clearly shows that Juno certainly has her work cut out for her, as

she is not only the one person in the family who has a job, but also

she is the house-wife and must render her family by making all the meals, going to buy the groceries, doing any form of house work and looking after the family in general.

Women in O’Casy’s Work

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For example, she says, “I killin’ meself workin’,” and also she

says, “Your poor wife slavin’ to keep the bit in your mouth…” these references show just how hard Juno works to keep her family happy and alive.


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This is not made any easier when Mr. Boyle spends any money Juno has saved, in hope for any decent future for the family, on alcohol in the local pub.

Therefore Juno cannot afford any type of luxuries for herself as she definitely does deserve it.


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The poverty is evident in Juno’s comment to Mr. Boyle,

“eat your breakfast… it may be the last you’ll get for I don’t know

where the next one is goin to come from.”


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But even this will not cause concern for Juno’s principles when we learn that Juno is against Trade Unions, “When the employers sacrifice wan victim, the Trade Unions go wan betther be sacrificin’ a hundred.”

Then Mary tells her that, “a principle’s a principle”, but Juno stays realistic and thinks

well it’s all good and well having principles – if you can afford them.


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She is the one who seems to keep the family as a unit and this is evidently shown when Juno says, ‘I don’t know what any o’ yous ud do without your ma’.

Juno is a well respected member of the family and might even be superior to Mr. Boyle and Joxer, a family friend, because when the pair is talking on page nine, Mrs. Boyle enters and both are said to be ‘stupefied’.


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When she offers him an egg, and he makes the excuse that he’s in a desperate hurry – this may be because he does not want to spend much time there with Juno.

Also the fact that Mr. Boyle lies about the fact he was drinking may indicate he was scared of Juno’s reaction if he had have told the truth, but later on in the same page we see that Juno will take no nonsense from her husband when he says he doesn’t want any food and she just says, ’Nobody’s goin’ to coax you-don’t think that.’ This suggests she’s a strong person, and if she doesn’t take nonsense from her husband, she won’t take any nonsense from anyone else.


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Johnny is a man who relies on a woman to bring him all that needs, displaying men to be controversially the weaker gender.

He uses his ‘sickness’ to demand Juno to bring him glasses of water, when he could have easily fetched one himself.


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Even worse though, is that he is generally very bad-tempered towards his mother, constantly asking her to do things for him,

which wears Juno down and makes her irritable, and ensures that she is nearly always in a bad frame of mind

However, she is never in this state unless annoyed by a family member, so she has her causes for being in bad moods whereas Mr. Boyle has none whatsoever.


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Then, when she specks out to Johnny’s complaining, it is with fervent remonstrance, she ‘cries’, “ who has kept th’ home together for the past few years – only me?

An who’ll have to bear th’ biggest part o’ this trouble, but me?-but whinin’ an whingin’ isn’t goin’ to do any good.” –

this point is typical of the way Juno reacts to and deals with life.


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Juno knows what is important in life and when Johnny talks about his principles, “I’d do it agen ma; for a principle’s a principle.”

To which Juno replies “Ah, you lost your best principle, me boy, when you lost your arm; them’s the only sort o’ principles that’s any good to a workin man.”


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This shows she thinks that fighting for your country and getting injured or dying isn’t going to solve anything, but bring grief, and more work.

Juno’s outlook on life is ultimately more important than the others.

She has not lost in principles, like her children, but she acknowledges what’s going on in the world around her – which may be the fact of the poverty they live in and the restrictions because of this and also her family which she cares for so much.

Women in O’Casy’s WorkMary

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Mary seems like a confident girl who knows what she is doing all the time, but when Bentham decides to leave her, she loses this spirit.

Before this, Mary was trying to better herself and lift herself out of her surrounding environment.

This is shown when she talks about her principles and wants to belong in the upper class, but feels where she lives may be degrading her.


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She was always willing to be challenged for example trying to better herself and becoming fully independent towards the end.

Mary also becomes very much like her mother as the play proceeds and we see Mary’s other side, the side who works and it is shown that her mother and she have been brought closer together throughout the story.

She now confides in her mother and this is shown at the end when she talks to Juno about Jerry.


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it is significant that Mary is reading Ibsen plays as they are realistic and unromantic which is similar to this play, but contrasts with her life general.

Mary is shown as an admirable person because of these points, but she is not totally sensible because she buys all sorts of luxuries with the money.


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Religion in Ireland was a very important thing and Mary and her family were catholic.

Having illegitimate relation before marriage was a sin in the eyes of a catholic so Mary was seen as a fallen woman in her culture, and Jerry Devine is one of the people who criticizes her for this.

'My God, Mary, have you fallen as low as that?' he says when finding out she has conceived a child, as would any man in 1922 if they met a woman with an illegitimate child.


Throughout “Juno and the Paycock”, Juno is linked to the Virgin Mary.

The Virgin Mary is an archetypal mother figure.

O’Casey likens Juno to the Virgin Mary especially with reference to her relationship with Johnny; the link is strengthened when, at the end of the play, Johnny is murdered, just like the Virgin Mary’s son.

Additionally, O’Casey gives Juno the same name as the Roman goddess, wife of Jupiter, King of the gods.


Throughout the entire play, she battles against poverty, ignorance, laziness and deceit all to keep her family from disintegrating.

The dictionary definition of the word ‘heroine’ is “a woman with the attributes of a hero”.

We expect our heroines to understand more than those around her and with this in mind one can find Juno a reflection of the same idea, a heroine.


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Exploration of language in Juno and the Paycock

Most of Juno and the paycocks realism comes from its accuracy of speech.

Its Dublin intentions unerringly gain a reality of setting and of character.

Even features that have an expressly dramatic purpose, like repetition, rhetoric, lyrical or biblical passages, fall easily on the ear in natural spoken rhythms.

Language plays a big part in this play in the quick changes of pace mood characterization of the play and strengthens both its comedy and its tragedy.

References…

*Simple funny mispronunciations by Captain Jack Boyle bring comedy to the play.

*Maisie Madigan uses casual lyricism's. *Mrs Tancred's bitter balanced elegy for her

son, all against a general background of quick-witted, idiomatic repartee, full of imagery and fantasy.

*The characters manipulate their own speech for effect; Captain Boyle 's call for his drink, 'a wet-a jar-a boul!'

Comedy of Language and Articulation

Rhetorical devices…

is verbalThere is the comedy of; of pompous phrases of ludicrous descriptions: Inflation

and deflation both are comic. exaggeration rhetoric

True representation…

Boyle himself explains that he knows the correct form, but the wrong one sounds better in his story. -'It blowed an it blowed-blew is the right word 'Joxer but blowed is what the sailors use.

3.Critical Analysis Writing Workshop

Critical Analysis: Writing Workshop1. How to analyze, design and compose a

character sketch?Drawing a Character Sketch

Finding characteristics Finding and quoting references Critical analysis Drawing Conclusion2. How to compose a critical reflection based

on any idea/theme of Juno and the Paycock?


How to analyze, design and compose a character sketch?Drawing a Character Sketch

Finding characteristics Finding and quoting references Critical analysis Drawing Conclusion

Mary BoyleMary Boyle

Mary BoyleMary Boyle

Mary is first introduced reading from Mary is first introduced reading from a newspaper about the gruesome a newspaper about the gruesome

deaths of the victims of an ambush. deaths of the victims of an ambush. She has two forces in her mind “one She has two forces in her mind “one

through the circumstances of her through the circumstances of her life, pulling her back; the other life, pulling her back; the other

through the influence of the books through the influence of the books she has read, pushing her forward.”she has read, pushing her forward.”

Finding/determining CharacteristicsBeginning of play• independent• believes in solidarity - strike• tries to lift herself through reading realist

plays where characters escape convention• hard worker• sharp-tongued• enjoys dressing up & buying luxuries (link to

Juno)• strong maternal instincts (link to Juno)• protective towards mother• shares Jerry’s ideals about Trade Unions

Finding/determining CharacteristicsEnd of the Play• let down by cowardice Bentham • let down by Jerry – rejects her when he

discovers she is pregnant• passive• dependant• sentimental• looses spirit• accepts Juno’s plans for the future

Using these findings as your ‘character Using these findings as your ‘character map’ find quotations (dialogues) that can map’ find quotations (dialogues) that can be used as evidence in an essay for as many be used as evidence in an essay for as many of the aforementioned as possibleof the aforementioned as possible




Categorizing technique (characteristics)




Mary Boyle

Adjectives Quality

Independenthard worker

Persona identification

•believes in solidarity - strike• tries to lift herself through reading realist plays where characters escape convention•shares Jerry’s ideals about Trade Unions

Idealism

•enjoys dressing up & buying luxuries (link to Juno)• strong maternal instincts (link to Juno)• protective towards mother

Motherly Instincts/ Mother’s reflection

Judgmentalsharp-tongued

Mary presents role of confident, hardworking, and Independent girl who knows what she is doing all the time. In the beginning, Mary tries to better herself and lift herself out of her surrounding environment. This is shown when she talks about her principles and wants to belong in the upper class, but feels where she lives may be degrading her. She was always willing to be challenged for example trying to better herself and becoming fully independent towards the end.

Independenthard worker

Now plan out your composition…

(Step by step, paragraph by paragraph)

1) Topic sentence – introduce the topic you will be discussing in this paragraph.2) Analysis – analyse (examine & explain) what the writer/dramatist has achieved3) Quotation – back up the above with a quotation

4) Summary – summarise the above quotation and what it shows

Composition StructureComposition Structure

REVIEW Lecture 13

1. Feministic Work of O’Casy: Juno and Mary


3. How to analyze, design and compose a character sketch?

Drawing a Character Sketch Finding characteristics Finding and quoting references Critical analysis Drawing Conclusion

4. How to compose a critical reflection based on any idea/theme of Juno and the Paycock?

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AGENDA Lecture 14

1. A conclusive talk on Juno and the Paycock (9-14)

2. Waiting for Godot By Samuel Beckett3. Samuel Beckett’s Biography An Overview of Waiting for Godot4. Characters in the Play Setting of the Play Beckett’s Theatrical Concept and Style

Documents

DRAMA II Modern Drama