This thesis, "Sean O'Casey's Last Plays: A Celebration
of Life, " is a study of O'Casey's five last full-length
plays: Cock-A-Doodle Dandy, The Bishop's Bonfire, The Drums
of Father Ned, Behind the Green Curtains, and Figuro in the
Night. The focus of the thesis is on O'Casey's dramatization
of man's spiritual environment and conflicts. My point
of view is that O'Casey is presenting a very humanized religion
of love. The plays are, in fact, morality plays depicting
the struggle of the forces of good and evil for the
soul of man. The first chapter of the thesis will analyse
the religious nature of the themes in O'Casey's morality
plays. Chapter two will discuss the relationship between
the structure of the plays and the themes. Chapter three
will attempt to show that O'Casey uses theatrical effects as
persuasive techniques to convince an audience of the validity
of his themes.
Each of the five plays dramatizes the struggle between
the true religion of life-worship and the false faith of the
organized Church. The struggle is made concrete through the
presentation of various conflicts. There is the conflict
between youth and age, between sexual expression and repression,
between love of life and love of money, between celebration
and gloom, between freedom and restraint. At the
centre of the conflict are two opposing priest figures. In
Cock-A-Doodle Dandy, it is Father Domineer who fights against the joy and beauty offered by the Cock. Father Domineer
wins when the Cock and his followers flee in search of a
better land. In The Bishop's Bonfire, there is no escape
to another life. Father Canon prevails over Father Boheroe,
The Codger is banished, Keelin and Manus must live a loveless existence, and Foorawn is shot. In The Drums of Father
Ned, on the other hand, it is the forces of good that are
completely victorious. The mythical Father Ned and his followers
completely defeat Father Fillifogue. In Behind the
Green Curtains, we are once again in the real world in which
the love, kindness, and joy that Beoraan struggles for are
defeated by the cruelty and repression that Komavaun, the
Church's lieutenant, advocates. O'Casey's conviction, however,
that man can find salvation is presented in Figuro in
the Night where the Figuro is triumphant over all the repressive elements of traditional beliefs.
To explain his religion of life and love, O'Casey developed
a structure of interlocking levels of farce, satire,
fantasy, and symbolism to replace the traditional plot structure of the drama. O'Casey’s last plays have only the most
tenuous of plot lines. Instead, the conflict is heightened
by playing off one level of development against another in a
dramatic counterpoint. Each mode of development uses its
own techniques, develops its particular type of character,
and clarifies its individual aspect of the theme. Although
the levels are largely independent of one a other, each, adds contrasts and parallels to the comment made by the other
levels to give density to the thematic statement of the
plays. The second chapter of this thesis will attempt to
show how each of the structural levels of farce, satire,
fantasy, and symbolism work independently and how they are
brought together into a thematic and theatrical climax.
Finally, the thesis will examine the theatrical effects of the last plays. In these plays, O'Casey uses all the possible visual and sound effects of the theatre to
make his themes convincing. Essentially, the visual effects
of lighting, costumes, and sets distance the audience from
the events of the plays. Whereas, the sound effects tend
to involve the audience in an emotional response to the
ideas of the plays, not the events. Thus the theatrical
effects cause the audience to make an objective assessment
of the theme of the plays and, at the same time, to take
part in the celebration of life that is presented in the
plays. / Arts, Faculty of / English, Department of / Graduate
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UBC/oai:circle.library.ubc.ca:2429/41831 |
| Date | January 1968 |
| Creators | Poggemiller, Marion |
| Publisher | University of British Columbia |
| Source Sets | University of British Columbia |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Text, Thesis/Dissertation |
| Rights | For non-commercial purposes only, such as research, private study and education. Additional conditions apply, see Terms of Use https://open.library.ubc.ca/terms_of_use. |
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