Download Lecture 13

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DRAMA II
MODERN DRAMA
LECTURE 13
SYNOPSIS
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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?
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 Work
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

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 Work
Juno
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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.
Women in O’Casy’s Work
Juno
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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.
Women in O’Casy’s Work
Juno
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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.
Women in O’Casy’s Work
Juno
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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.”
Women in O’Casy’s Work
Juno
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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.
Women in O’Casy’s Work
Juno
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
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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’.
Women in O’Casy’s Work
Juno
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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 youdon’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.
Women in O’Casy’s Work
Juno
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
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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.
Women in O’Casy’s Work
Juno
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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.
Women in O’Casy’s Work
Juno
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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.
Women in O’Casy’s Work
Juno
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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.”
Women in O’Casy’s Work
Juno
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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 Work
Mary
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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.
Women in O’Casy’s Work
Mary
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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.
Women in O’Casy’s Work
Mary
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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.
Women in O’Casy’s Work
Mary
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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.
Women in O’Casy’s Work
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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.
Women in O’Casy’s Work
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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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2. Exploration of language in Juno and the
Paycock
Exploration of language in Juno and the
Paycock
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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…
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*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
Language
Articulation
• the wordplay,
• the comic catchphrases,
• the cumulative comedy
of repetition
• dialect and
mispronunciation
Rhetorical devices…
of
pompous
phrases
exaggeration
rhetoric
Singing
of ludicrous
descriptions:
Inflation and
deflation both
are comic
is verbal
There 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 Workshop
1. How to analyze, design and compose a character
sketch?
Drawing a Character Sketch
 Finding characteristics
 Finding and quoting references
 Critical analysis
 Drawing Conclusion
2. How to compose a critical reflection based on any
idea/theme of Juno and the Paycock?
3. Exploration of language in 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 Boyle
Mary Boyle
Mary is first introduced reading from a
newspaper about the gruesome deaths of the
victims of an ambush.
She has two forces in her mind “one through the
circumstances of her life, pulling her back; the
other through the influence of the books she has
read, pushing her forward.”
Finding/determining Characteristics
Beginning of play
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•
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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 Characteristics
End of the Play
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•
let down by cowardice Bentham
let down by Jerry – rejects her when he discovers
she is pregnant
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passive
•
dependant
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sentimental
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looses spirit
•
accepts Juno’s plans for the future
Using these findings as your ‘character
map’ find quotations (dialogues) that can be
used as evidence in an essay for as many of
the aforementioned as possible
Finding/determining Characteristics
Beginning 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
Categorizing technique
(characteristics)
Finding/determining Characteristics
Beginning 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
Mary Boyle
Adjectives
Quality
Independent
hard 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
Judgmental
sharp-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
Independent
environment. This hard
is worker
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.
Now plan out your composition…
(Step by step, paragraph by paragraph)
Composition Structure
1) Topic sentence – introduce the topic you will be
discussing in this paragraph.
2) Analysis – analyse (examine & explain) what
the writer/dramatist has achieved
3) Quotation – back up the above with a
quotation
4) Summary – summarise the above quotation
and what it shows
REVIEW Lecture 13
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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?
AGENDA Lecture 14
1. A conclusive talk on Juno and the Paycock (9-14)
2. Waiting for Godot By Samuel Beckett
3. Samuel Beckett’s Biography
 An Overview of Waiting for Godot
4. Characters in the Play
 Setting of the Play
 Beckett’s Theatrical Concept and Style