THE SHADOW OF A GUNMAN - Sean O'Casey
The Shadow of a Gunman is the first play in Sean O'Casey's Dublin trilogy, first performed at the Abbey Theatre in 1923 - James Joyce's Ulysses had been published the year before. It is set in 1920, as the War of Independence rages. The other two Dublin plays are Juno and the Paycock [Peacock], and The Plough and the Stars, the latter of which caused a riot when first performed at the Abbey because nationalists in the audience resented O'Casey's hostile portrayal of the revolutionaries of the 1916 Easter Rising.
Dominic Dromgoole's revival of The Shadow of a Gunman is at the Tricycle Theatre in London's Kilburn, long an Irish ghetto, where during the 70s and 80s the local public houses were full of IRA fund-raisers. Clearly Dromgoole wants the play to resonate with Kilburn's own history. The key event in the play is a Black and Tan raid in the middle of the night on a tenement house: the sense of what it is like to be caught up in a war between guerrilla fighters and an occupying army is evoked with extraordinary economy. How many wars of national liberation have there been in the last eighty years, how many raids, how many innocents killed? The mind shies away from these questions.
O'Casey said that the play:
is built on the frame of Shelley's phrase [from 'Prometheus Unbound']
"Ah me! Alas, pain, pain ever, for ever!"
Indeed the line is quoted in the opening moments of the play. This suggests the play is a tragedy, and indeed it is. It ends with the death of a brave and innocent girl, Minnie Powell (wonderfully performed by Jane Murphy, making her first appearance on the professional stage). All the characters seem hopelessly trapped in circumstances from which they cannot escape. Every character (even Minnie's perhaps) is fatally flawed. No good, it seems, can come of anything they do, and the violence that surrounds them invades their lives whether they want it to or not.
At the same time the play is a comedy. Indeed something like ninety per cent of it consists of a seemingly unending series of comic sketches. As in Beckett and Joyce, one can sense the constant influence of the music hall. The comedy is all at the expense of the foibles of the Irish their inability to be tidy, clean, or punctual;
The community, although it is very tight and strongly bound by tradition and family, is also troubled and varied. The potato crop is failing, the maps are being changed for the convenience of the English, people want to move out of Ireland, (for example when Maire tells Hugh she wants to learn English for when she moves to America). Things appear to be at peace when we are put into this environment and everything seems well at first, but as we look further into it we can see things are much more deep seeded and dark than at first glance. For example, Doalty steals a piece of equipment from some English soldiers; this cheeky mischief seems harmless until we hear about some of the English horses being lead off a cliff to their deaths. Nothing is what it seems in this play, there are many more issues that lurk beneath the rather innocent surface of this seemingly simple, rural community; feelings of hatred and betrayal course through the bodies of many of the populous. What the English are doing is not right, nor is it fair. They have no right to change the identity of a people for their own convenience.
are meant to present a show at the fete. The play uses comedy as its
Another unique aspect to this book is the constant change in point of view. This change in point of view emphasizes the disorder associated with war. At some points during the book, it is a first person point of view, and at other times it changes to an outside third person point of view. In the first chapter of the book, “The Things They Carried,” O’Brien writes, “The things they carried were largely determined by necessity (2).
(1350)A Comparison and Contrast Analysis of the Depiction of the ”War on Terror” in Zero Dark Thirty (2012) and The Siege (1998)
As a socialistic society we live in we find ourselves in positions were conflicts arise between friends or family. 'The Sniper'; was written by Liam O ' Flaherty to express a subtle yet powerful opinion on such a conflict. With references this essay will analyse the short story bringing to light the structure used to contribute to the theme.
The Elusiveness of War and the Tenuousness of Morality in Tim O’Brien’s “The Things They Carried,” “How to Tell a True War Story,” and “Style”
...es serious issues to be comical, the ability for Francis to fool and deceive both his guvnors up till the end of play seems almost humorous, arousing the comedic nature of the play. However, it is the mistreatment of Alfie that limits the comedy in the play from conflict, the more mature audience would feel outraged by the treatment of the 80 year old war veteran who is smacked over the head with an 'autographed cricket bat'. This is insensitive as it shows an elder being treated like an object to whack, and thus many may find some aspects of conflict in a severity light instead of in comedic nature.
Shadow of a Doubt is an Alfred Hitchcock film that was shot on location in the 1940's town of Santa Rosa, California. The town itself is representative of the ideal of American society. However, hidden within this picturesque community dark corruption threatens to engulf a family. The tale revolves around Uncle Charlie, a psychotic killer whose namesake niece, a teenager girl named Charlie, is emotionally thrilled by her Uncles arrival. However her opinion slowly changes as she probes into her mysterious uncle. In the film, director/producer Alfred Hitchcock blends conventions of film noir with those of a small town domestic comedy as a means of commenting on the contradictions in American values.
The difficult association between the occurrence of war and storytelling is told through the eyes of Tim O’Brien; he explains that a true war story has a supreme adherence to offensiveness that provides a sense of pride and courage commonly found in storytelling. “The thing about a story is that you dream it as you tell it, hoping that others might then dream along with you, and in this way memory and im...
Salem to work as his servant. She was known to practice Obeah, an African cult
In Shadow of a Doubt, Hitchcock utilizes and stretches the ambiguous line between comedy and suspense by utilizing smaller characters in the film to keep the story line moving, and to help break sequence or rhythm of what the audience had been perceiving at the time. Many of the minor characters were used as “fillers”, such as the waitress in the bar when Uncle Charlie and Charlie are sitting in the bar, and makes the comment “I would die for a ring like this”; or the quiet, gentle neighbor Herb who is fascinated with the process of homicide and murder. It brings to the audience an immediate comic relief, but similar to all of Hitchcock, leaves an unsettling feeling of fear and suspense with the viewer. Shadow of a Doubt is a film that hits very close to home for me, primarily because of the small town feel very similar to Orono that I have grown to know so well. There is a brutal irony that lurks through the film, especially during the time period that the film was made. The picturesque stereotype of small town life in the 40’s is brutally torn apart by Hitchcock wit and creative ingénue, putting the viewer in an uncomfortable mind stretch of reality.
James Joyce has pointed out many thoughts throughout writing Dubliners. The theme of journeys and escape are present in everyday life living in Dublin, and show how people are unhappy in their current lives and strive to escape through other activities. Reading Joyce he includes many themes that tie into the daily routine of Dubliners. Many references to fire vividly illustrate the point that they live life in a hell. Dubliners is a creative portrayal of individual people living in Dublin, all the while not giving too many facts surrounding a character or story.
It is evident that the occurrence of war throughout history has made a lasting impression on soldiers and civilians alike. This has been expressed over the years through different works of literature. The cost of war to the individual is illustrated in “The Red Convertible” by Louise Erdrich, “The Things They Carried” by Tim O’Brien, and “The Shawl” by Cynthia Ozick because each story shows some element of mental, emotional, and physical toll.
The theme of the play has to do with the way that life is an endless cycle. You're born, you have some happy times, you have some bad times, and then you die. As the years pass by, everything seems to change. But all in all there is little change. The sun always rises in the early morning, and sets in the evening. The seasons always rotate like they always have. The birds are always chirping. And there is always somebody that has life a little bit worse than your own.
... we see that life is a façade; the characters disguise their sorrow in modesty. Joyce’s portrayal of Ireland undoubtedly creates a desire to evade a gloomy life.