TOPIC: Compare the depiction of female characters in one play from our syllabus

(e.g. Synge or O’Casey) with another from the syllabus, or with those from a play
by Teresa Deevy.

I chose Synge’s “The Playboy of the Western World” and O’Casey’s “Juno
and the Paycock”.

Ireland as a country has a long tradition of portraying strong feminine figures.

Even in ancient times, it is argued that both sexes contributed to societal public life,
which was not common across Europe then. It should not necessarily be called the
matriarchal system, but women were allowed to be druids, warriors, and rulers, hence
they enjoyed vast equality. Irish tradition often refers to powerful female characters,
such as Deidre of the Sorrows, Cathleen ni Houlihan, and Maeve of Connacht. Given
the circumstances, it is no wonder Irish playwrights of the 20 th century continued the
literary tradition of incorporating strong feminine figures into their works.
The first, maybe the most important, area of comparison is the environment
the female characters are placed in. Synge offers the depiction of a rural community
that is in fact ruled by women. No male figure in the village is able to maintain control
over the society, and it is Pegeen who seems to have actual power there. She is
convincing and firm, and her male relatives and acquaintances usually conform to her
ideas and orders. In contrast, O’Casey focuses on urban Dublin, where characters live
in tenement houses and face the Irish Civil War. Also here, women are the strongest
characters: Juno is the head of the family who works for a living and supports everyone,
and Mary Boyle has the internal power to go on a strike in her company. Also, side
characters in both plays – Widow Quin and other women in the village in “The Playboy
of the Western World”, and Mrs. Madigan and Mrs. Tancred in “Juno and the Paycock”
– present endurance and willingness to take responsibility for the fate of their
community into their hands.
The main feature females in both plays have in common is mental and physical
endurance. Both plays are set in unfavorable times: poor Western Irish village at the
outset of the 20th century, and tenement houses in Dublin during the Irish Civil War,
respectively. Women in the play find the mental strength to deal with the reality: Pegeen
is the only character in the play who takes action and embraces responsibility for

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the community (when she ties Christy to banish him), and Juno with other war mothers
struggle to support the community, mourning the death of their children.
It is symptomatic, especially in comparison to masculine characters, who seem to be
wandering around without any particular aim: village men such as Shawn are unable
to decide about anything, and Boyle is always drinking with his colleague, Joxer. Given
the circumstances, both groups of women need mental endurance to cope with uncertain
times.
Comparing two Irish dramas written at the beginning of the 20th century, Synge’s
“The Playboy of the Western World” (1907) and O’Casey’s “Juno and the Paycock”
(1924), it can be spotted that the latter might be the continuation of the former in terms
of the evolution process of feminine figures, who adjust to the contemporary reality.
While women in “The Playboy of the Western World” only lament about the lack
of strong males in their village, females in “Juno and the Paycock” are able to take
action and separate themselves from the passive men. Pegeen is a strong female who
longs a male to act as her protector, and that is why she is enchanted by Christy Mahon.
Her dreams are sharpened by her current situation – she is engaged to the inert Shawn
Keogh, who does not have the courage to do virtually anything interesting. However,
neither Pegeen nor other women are able to break the impasse and change their situation
for good. On the other hand, the impasse is broken in “Juno and the Paycock”. Here,
women are faced with the Irish Civil War, and that may be why strong masculine
figures are absent from society (they might have gone to the battles). Juno and other
females are stuck in the reality in which they are forced to take action: provide for their
families, support others both mentally and physically, and strive to survive the harsh
times. Nevertheless, they finally decide to group together and leave the passive
masculine part of the community on their own: Juno and Mary flee to Juno’s sister to
raise Mary’s child and finally find some peace. It is worth spotting that Jack Boyle, the
father of the family, is only concerned with the “shame” Mary’s plight has brought to
him, and he never even notices his son is dead. Both plays seem to acknowledge the
masculinity crisis happening in Irish society (at least in Synge’s and O’Casey’s views) –
male characters are extremely passive and irresponsible, and female ones need to cover
their shares of societal roles.
The last area of comparison is the mutual relations between women
in the community. In “The Playboy of the Western World”, the reader encounters a few

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jealousy scenes between the characters. Most of them concern Christy Mahon –
the moment he enters the village, many women become attracted to him and fight
for his attention. Pegeen, for instance, is annoyed when she sees Christy chatting
with the village girls, and Widow Quin plots with Shawn to arrange her marriage
with Christy so that Pegeen would not do that. The situation is totally different in “Juno
and the Paycock”: female characters do not display any noticeable level of jealousy.
Instead, they form support groups and eventually leave passive males to lead new lives
apart from them. The prominent evidence is the ending when Juno and Mary abandon
Jack Boyle and decide to raise the child at Juno’s sister’s.
The depiction of female characters in early 20th-century Irish drama focuses
on their physical and mental endurance, as well as dissatisfaction with the decay
of masculinity they encounter in their communities. Females are forced
by the circumstances not only to fulfill their societal roles but also to take over
masculine responsibilities because men are unable or unwilling to contribute. While
in “The Playboy of the Western World” women are yet to change their situation, female
characters in “Juno and the Paycock” have broken the impasse and separated from inert
males. The final remark, which might be of interest in terms of the biographical context,
is that both Sean O’Casey and John Millington Synge lost their fathers in childhood
and were raised by women, which might be the reason why their mental images of
women were so strong and powerful.