The document summarizes the main characters in the play "The Rising of the Moon":
Policeman B is the least intelligent of the three police officers but has a simple soul with hints of poetry. Policeman X only has a few lines but suggests ambivalence about his duty as a police officer. The ragged man is eloquent and persuasive, able to covertly lead the sergeant by suggestion. The sergeant initially seems rigidly dedicated to his role but lets his guard down while talking to the ragged man, showing doubts about oppressing a people opposed to his efforts.
3. Policeman B is the most comic of the four characters,
characterized by thoughtlessness and foolish questions. He
is the first to speak, consulting both Policeman X and the
sergeant over the trivial matter of whether to paste a
notice on the barrel. His clumsiness and ineptitude
infuriate the sergeant at the end of the play, when he
comes close to discovering the fugitive by accident. He is
the least intelligent and reflective of the three police
officers, though his final comments about the lantern
giving comfort to the sergeant because it is like a fire at
home with “the bits of bogwood blazing up now and again”
suggest that there is some poetry in his simple soul.
4. Policeman X
Policeman X only has four short lines, making him the most
minor of the four characters. The most significant remark
he makes is that if they capture the fugitive they will
receive “nothing but abuse on our heads for it” from the
people and perhaps even from those closest to them. This
suggests that he is ambivalent about his duty, and shares
the sergeant’s latent sympathies, or at least feels the
pressure of being unpopular in the community. The fact
that he is called Policeman X, rather than Policeman A,
may be an indication that he stands for popular opinion in
Ireland (as Mr. X or Citizen X), and that he is ill-matched
with the other officer, since they are X and B, rather than X
and Y or A and B.
5. The ragged man is eloquent, intelligent, and persuasive,
countering the sergeant’s physical strength and legal
authority with the power of song and sentiment. He is
careful not to argue with the sergeant openly but leads
him covertly, by suggestion. When, at the beginning of
the play, the sergeant keeps telling him to stay away
from the steps, he agrees humbly, then goes toward
them anyway.
The ragged man builds up the legend of the fugitive,
telling the sergeant that he knows the man well and
commiserating with him for having to face such a
formidable and ruthless adversary.
6.
7. Sergeant
The sergeant is older than the other two officers and
initially seems to be more deeply attached to his role in
the police force. However, as the play progresses, it
becomes clear that he has been stifling his doubts about
his role as the oppressive force of law and order in a
society where the majority of the people are opposed to
his efforts. He attempts to act with the rigid adherence
to duty which he believes is appropriate for his position
but soon lets his guard down and finds himself sitting on
the barrel, smoking companionably with the ragged man
and being led into a nostalgic train of thought.
