This presentation is a study and revision aid for the play The Plough and the Stars, by Sean O'Casey. It contains spoken quotations.

1. The Plough and the Stars

2. Characters, Key
Quotes & Analysis

3. The Text
• The version of the play referred
to in this presentation is the
Faber & Faber educational
edition.
• The audio clips are from a
recording of an, as yet,
unidentified production of the
play.
• Photographs are taken from
various productions of the play.

4. The Abbey Theatre
• The first production of the play was in
the Abbey Theatre in 1926.
• The Abbey was a theatre associated
with the Irish Literary Revival.
• It is also known as the National Theatre
of Ireland.
• W.B Yeats, Lady Gregory, J.M. Synge
and Sean O’Casey were writers who
had close connections with it.
• The Abbey was the first state-
subsidized theatre in the English-
speaking world and has received an
Irish government subsidy from 1925
onwards.

5. Reception of the Play
• The first run of The Plough and the
Stars in 1926 was met with riots on
the fourth night.
• Irish nationalists thought that it
disrespected the fallen heroes of
1916.
• Riots had also occurred for similar
reasons in 1907 during the first
production of J.M. Synge's Playboy
of the Western World.
• The play, however, was widely
acclaimed and brought fame to
O’Casey.
Photograph from the 1926 production

6. Glossary
Bodenstown: The Kildare village where the Irish patriot Theobald
Wolfe Tone is buried; a republican pilgrimage site.
Charwoman: a woman employed as a cleaner in a house or office
Communist: someone who believes there should be no private
property and that the workers should own the ‘means of production’.
Consumption: a wasting disease, especially pulmonary
tuberculosis
Derogatory: insulting (adj.)
Foresters Uniform: Uncle Peter belongs to The Irish National
Foresters (founded 1877) who wear an old style 19th C uniform.
They were in favour of Irish nationalism but had never been
involved in any military action.
Ivy leaf: a emblem of the Irish nationalist Charles Stuart Parnell
Proletariat: the urban workers
Republican: someone who believes in fighting for an Irish Republic
Tenement: a run-down and often overcrowded apartment house,
especially in a poor section of a large city
Wolfe Tone
Parnell

7. The Title
• The Plough and the Stars (‘the
starry plough’) was the flag of
the Irish Citizen Army (ICA).
• They were socialists and
believed in equality and justice
for the workers.
• James Connolly said that a free
Ireland would be in control of its
own destiny “from the plough to
the stars”.
• It symbolised the labourers
toiling to reach the stars.

8. Irish Citizen Army
• The Irish Citizen Army or ICA, was a
small group of trained trade union
volunteers from the Irish Transport and
General Workers' Union (ITGWU)
established in Dublin for the defence
of worker's demonstrations from the
police.
• It was formed by James Larkin, James
Connolly and Jack White in 1913.
• Other prominent members included
Seán O'Casey, Constance Markievicz
and Francis Sheehy-Skeffington,
• In 1916, it took part in the Easter
Rising – an armed insurrection aimed
at ending British rule in Ireland.
James Connolly

9. Dramatis
Personae
chart

10. No single character dominates the play; the focus of the play is the
group: the tenement community…

11. Early 20th century Dublin had some of the
worst slums in Europe

12. The worst
tenement
slums were on
the Coombe,
Francis Street,
Cork Street,
Chamber
Street and
Kevin Street.

13. Nora Clitheroe
• Nora is the heroine of the play.
• Though living in a tenement, she
wishes to better herself.
• “Such notions of upperosity she's
getting” (Mrs Gogan - Act I - p.6)
• “She's always grumblin' about havin'
to live in a tenement house. "I
wouldn't like to spend me last hour in
one, let alone live me life in a
tenement," says she.” (Mrs Gogan -
Act I - p.6)
• “Are yous always goin' to be tearin'
down th' little bit of respectability that
a body's thryin' to build up?” (Act I -
p.17)

14. Jack Clitheroe
• Jack is Nora’s husband, but is a weaker
character than her – wanting power but
not being strong in character.
• Stage direction: “His face has none of
the strength of Nora’s. It is a face in
which is the desire for authority, without
the power to attain it.” (Act I - p.20)
• “Just because he wasn't made a
Captain of. He wasn't goin' to be in any
thing where he couldn't be
conspishuous.” (Mrs Gogan - Act I - p.8)
• Initially there marriage is happy:
• “The pair o' them used to be like two
turtle doves always billin' an' cooin‘”.
(Mrs Gogan – Act I - p.6)

15. Jack & Nora 1
• Jack claims to have high republican ideals but his wife Nora doesn’t
want him having anything to do with the ICA and questions his
motivations.
• “You were thinkin’ of th’... meetin’… Jack. When we were courtin' an’ I
wanted you to go, you'd say, "Oh, to hell with meetings an’ that you
felt lonely in cheerin’ crowds when I was absent. An' we weren't a
month married when you began that you couldn't keep away from
them.” (Act I - p.25 - 19 min)
• “You gave it up, because you got the sulks when they didn’t make a
captain of you. It wasn’t for my sake, Jack” (Act I - p.25 - 19 min)
• Jack: Why didn't you give me th' letter?
• Nora: I burned it, I burned it! That's what I did with it! Is General
Connolly an' th' Citizen Army goin' to be your only care? Is your home
goin' to be only a place to rest in? Am I goin' to be only somethin' to
provide merrymakin' at night for you? Your vanity’ll be th' ruin of you
an' me yet… That's what's movin' you: because they've made an
officer of you, you'll make a glorious cause of what you're doin', (Act I
- p.30 / 24min)

16. Nora & Jack 2
• “They told me I shamed my husband and th' women
of Ireland be carryin' on as I was… They said th’
women must learn to be brave and cease to be
cowardly… Me who risked more for love than they
would risk for hate…” (Act III - p.59 - 57 min)
• “An’ there's no woman gives a son or a husband to
be killed if they say it, they're lyin', lyin', against God,
Nature, an' against themselves!” (Act III - p.60 - 58
min)
• An' he stands wherever he is because he's brave?
No, but because he's a coward, a coward, a coward!
• Mrs. Gogan: Oh, they're not cowards anyway.
• Nora: I tell you they're afraid to say they're afraid!
(Act III - p.61 - 59 min)

17. Nora & Jack 3
• “My Nora; my little, beautiful Nora, I wish to
God I'd never left you.” (Act III - p.72 -
1.08min)
• “Let me go, can't you, Nora? D'ye want me
to be unthrue to me comrades?” (Act III -
p.72 - 1.09 min)
• “He took it like a man. His last whisper was
to "Tell Nora to be brave; that I'm ready to
meet my God, an’ that I'm proud to die for
Ireland.” (Act IV - p.83 - 1.19 min)
• “Something ails me, something ails me…
You're goin' away, an' I can't follow you ! I
can't follow you. Jack, Jack, Jack!” (Act IV -
p.83 - 1.19 min)

18. Fluther Good
• One critic described Fluther as Falstaffian character
• Falstaff was a character in three of Shakespeare’s plays who was a
‘lovable rogue’.
• Fluther is a carpenter who, like Falstaff, is fond of the drink.
• “It’s three days now since I touched a dhrop, an’ I feel like a new man
already” (Act I - p.8)
• He sometimes has insightful things to say:
• “I think we ought to have as great a regard for religion as we can, so
as to keep it out of as many things as possible.” (Act I - p.11-12)
• He also has a tendency to use the word ‘derogatory’ and the phrase
‘vice versa’ in a variety of situations, regardless of their meaning.
• However, Fluther is also a republican:
• “Jammed as I was in th' crowd, I listened to th’ speeches pattherin' on
th’ people's head, like rain fallin' on th' corn; every derogatory thought
went out o' me mind, an' I said to meself, "You can die now, Fluther,
for you've seen th' shadow-dhreams of th' past leppin' to life in th'
bodies of livin' men that show, if we were without a titther o' courage
for centuries, we're vice versa now!" Looka here. The blood was
boilin’ in me veins!” (Act II - p.36 - 30min)

19. Peter Flynn (Uncle Peter)
• Peter Flynn is a member of the Irish National
Foresters, who, though they believed in
independence, never actually fought for it.
• Their attire was flamboyant, as if they were
attending a pageant.
• The Young Covey (a communist) is always
winding him up:
• “Now, I'm tellin' you, me young Covey, once for
all, that I'll not stick any longer these tittherin’
taunts of yours, rovin’ around to sing your slights
an' slandhers, reddenin’ th’ mind of a man to th’
thinkin’ an’ sayin’ of things that sicken his soul
with sin!” (Act 1 - p.23)
• “When I think of all th’ problems in front o’ th’
workers, it makes me sick to be lookin’ at oul’
codgers goin’ about dhressed up like green
accoutred figures gone asthray out of a
toyshop!” (Act II - p.42 - 39 min)
* The language used by most of the
characters is usually far more alliterative
and elaborate than it needs to be - often for
comic effect

20. The Young Covey
• The Young Covey, a communist, thinks that the
only revolution worth having is one where the
workers seize the means of production
• He is the hard-headed communist to Uncle
Peter’s sentimental nationalist although he does
go on pedantically about…
• “Jenersky’s Thesis on the Origin, Development,
an’ Consolidation of the Evolutionary Idea of the
Proletariat” (Act I - p.18 - 14 min)
• “There's only one freedom for th' workin’ man:
conthrol o' th' means o' production, rates of
exchange an' th' means of disthribution.” (Act II
- p.38 - 33min)
• “There’s only one war worth havin’: th’ war for
th’ economic emancipation of th’ proletariat” (Act
II - p.43 - 40 min)

21. Mrs Gogan
• Mrs Gogan is a talkative little woman who has a vivid
imagination, as exemplified in the scene in Act III
where she recounts a dream she has had:
• “…but last night I dreamt I seen getting’ carried into th'
house a sthretcher with a figure lyin’ on it, stiff an' still,
dhressed in th' habit of Saint Francis. An’ then, I heard
th’ murmurs of a crowd no one could see sayin' th'
litany for th' dead; an' then it got so dark that nothin’
was seen but th' white face of th’ corpse, gleamin' like a
white wather lily floatin' on th’ top of a dark lake. Then a
tiny whisper thrickled into me ear, sayin', "Isn't the face
very like th' face o' Fluther," an' then, with a thremblin’
flutther, th' dead lips opened, an', although I couldn't
hear, I knew they were sayin’, "Poor oul' Fluther, afther
havin' handin' in his gun at last, his shakin' soul moored
in th’ place where th' wicked are at rest an’ th' weary
cease from throublin'." (Act III - p.58 - 56min)
• She also has a consumptive daughter called Mollser.

22. Mrs Gogan
• She thinks Nora is too snooty and that
Bessie is unpatriotic as well as a
prurient busybody.
• Mrs Gogan on Bessie: “while she
knows some as are never content
unless they're standin' senthry over
other people's doin's!” (Act II - p.43 - 39
min)
• Mrs. Gogan on Bessie: “She's th' right
oul’ Orange bitch! She's been chantin'
"Rule, Britannia” all th’ mornin'.” (Act III
- p.58 - 56 min)

23. Bessie Burgess
• Bessie Burgess is a Protestant lady who lives in the building and
whose son is away at the Front fighting for the British army.
• She is loyal to the British Empire.
• “If me son was home from th’ threnches he’d see me righted.” (Act
I - p.20)
• “I can't for th' life o’ me undherstand how they can call themselves
Catholics, when they won't lift a finger to help poor little Catholic
Belgium.” (Act II - p.41 - 37min)
• “There's a storm of anger tossin' in me heart, thinkin' of all th' poor
Tommies, an' with them me own son, dhrenched in water an'
soaked in blood, gropin' their way to a shattherin' death, in a
shower o' shells!” (Act II - p.42 - 37min)
• “You an' your Leadhers, and their sham-battle soldiers has landed
a body in a nice way, havin' to go an' ferret out a bit o' bread, God
knows where… Why aren't yous in the G.P.O., if yous are men? It's
paler an paler yous are gettin'... A lot of vipers that's what the Irish
people is!” (Act III - p.62 - 1.01 min)
• Bessie, however, is not above setting off with a pram to go looting
with Mrs Gogan:
• “Poverty an' hardship has sent Bessie Burgess to abide with
sthrange company” (Act III - p.68 - 1.05min)

24. In spite of her drunkenness and outspoken unionism, Bessie helps her
neighbours when they need it… and even ends up paying for her
kindness with her life…

25. Rosie Redmond
• Rosie Redmond is a prostitute who has no
time for the high ideals of republicanism or
communism.
• “There isn't much notice taken of a pretty
petticoat of a night like this… They're all in
a holy mood. Th' solemn-lookin' dials on th'
whole o' them an' they marchin’ to th'
meetin'. You'd think they were th’ glorious
company of th' saints, an' th' noble army of
martyrs thrampin' through th' sthreets of
Paradise.” (Act II - p.34 - 28min)
• “If y'ass Rosie, it's heartbreakin' to see a
young fella thinkin' of anything, or admirin'
anything, but silk thransparent stockin's
showin' off the shape of a little lassie's
legs!” (Act II - p.38 - 34min)

26. The Voice of the Man in the Window
• Meanwhile there is the speech of a man outside
whose words are taken almost verbatim from
the speeches of Padraig Pearse:
• “Bloodshed is a cleansing and sanctifying thing,
and the nation that regards it as the final horror
has lost its manhood… There are many things
more horrible than bloodshed, and slavery is
one of them!” (Act II - p.34 - 29min)
• “Comrade soldiers of the Irish Volunteers and of
the Citizen Army, we rejoice in this terrible war.
The old heart of the earth needed to be warmed
with the red wine of the battlefields…” (Act II -
p.36 - 31min)
• “They think they have pacified Ireland; think
they have foreseen everything; think they have
provided against everything; but the fools, the
fools, the fools! they have left us our Fenian
dead, and, while Ireland holds these graves,
Ireland, unfree, shall never be at peace!” (Act II
- p.53 - 51 min)

27. Deaths
• Jack Clitheroe – dies in the
Rising
• Mollser – dies of TB
• The Clitheroe’s Baby –
stillborn
• Bessie Burgess – is
mistaken for a sniper and
shot dead at a window

28. Characters as types, as mouthpieces, as ciphers…
Though O’Casey took great pains to ensure that the
language in the play was as realistic as possible, there is
also a sense in which the characters are merely ciphers for
competing points of view…
• Jack – idealistic republican
• Nora – aspirational, pragmatic woman
• Uncle Peter – ineffectual nationalist
• The Young Covey – communist bore
• Bessie Burgess – loyalist woman
• Fluther Good – the alcoholic / comic relief

29. Contrast #1
•O’Casey contrasts the
high male ideals of
republicanism (Clitheroe)
and communism (the
Young Covey) with the
practical viewpoint of
women (Nora, Rosie)

30. Contrast #2
• He also contrasts
the high nationalist /
republican ideals of
men like Jack
Clitheroe, Uncle
Peter and Fluther
Good with the harsh
realities of the lives
of poor people:
• Alcoholism
• Prostitution
• Looting / theft

31. Public life / Private life
• Many of O’Casey’s plays examine
the friction between public life and
private life.
• In this play, nationalist idealism
battles with the domestic life of the
female characters.
• By the end of the play the outside
world of masculinity and war has
invaded the safe feminine space of
domesticity.
• The fact that the public-male world
wins is the tragedy of the play.
Public Private
Male Female
Political Domestic
External Internal
Militaristic –
taking life
Maternal –
giving life

32. Lieut. Langon: Th' time is rotten ripe for revolution.
Clitheroe: You have a mother, Langon.
Lieut. Langon: Ireland is greater than a mother.
Capt. Brennan: You have a wife, Clitheroe.
Clitheroe: Ireland is greater than a wife. (Act II - p.53 - 50 min)

33. Self-Deception
Each character is deluded (self-
deceived) in their own way:
• Jack Clitheroe claims to be a patriot but
his wife and others suspect that it is
vanity and ambition that motivates him.
• Uncle Peter thinks that dressing up in a
old costume will further the cause of
Irish independence.
• The Young Covey thinks that he can
bring people around to socialism by
droning on pedantically.
• Even Bessie Burgess manages to
convince herself later in the play that
she is not looting with Mrs Gogan.

34. O’Casey’s View
• Sean O’Casey was a socialist himself so it
reasonable to assume that the Young
Covey’s beliefs were similar to his own i.e.
that the only fight worth having was for a
worker’s republic.
• However, he believed that class
consciousness was something that needed
to develop organically within people.
• As a result, O’Casey ensures that the
Young Covey’s character is a pedantic
bore who fails to convince others and who
isn’t taken seriously.
• We can infer from this that though
O’Casey was a socialist, he didn’t agree
with the Young Covey’s methods.
• O'Casey's first biographer David Krause,
described him as 'a moral pacifist as well
as a militant socialist' (p. ix)

35. Main Theme 1
• The central idea of the play is 'the
betrayal of the cause of Labour by
the delusion of romantic patriotism'
(p. xxxi).
• O'Casey felt that the Irish Citizen
Army should not have joined the
1916 Rising unless they could
deliver a socialist republic.
• Instead, what Ireland got was a
hierarchical, bourgeois (middle-
class) republic where exploitation
of the workers continued as
before.

36. Main Theme 2
• However, it isn’t just the rebels who are
deluded by romantic patriotism and
nationalism.
• Like the rebels, Corporal Stoddart's
nationalism takes priority over his socialist
principles.
• Corporal Stoddart: Ow, I know. I'm a,
Socialist, myself, but I 'as to do my dooty.
• Covey: (ironically) Dooty! Th' only dooty of
a Socialist is th' emancipation of th'
workers.
• Corporal Stoddart: Ow, a man's a man, an'
'e 'as to fight for 'is country, 'asn't 'e?
• Fluther: (aggressively) You're not fightin'
for your counthry here, are you? (Act IV -
p.88 - 1hr, 24min)

37. Question
• Fluther Good reminds us of
which Shakespearean
character?
Falstaff

38. Question
• The tension between which
two characters resembles that
between a roundhead and a
cavalier?
The Young Covey and
Uncle Peter