Juno and the PaycockThemes

Poverty •Cruel irony•Fighting for ideals and principles •Debilitating effects of poverty•Escapism

• Mary’s tragic situation occurs because of poverty. When it becomes clear that the Boyles will not inherit any legacy

• Bentham disappears forever abandoning Mary alone to have her baby

• Juno who is the only character rooted in the harsh practical everyday world of necessity realizes that money, hard work, and responsible social commitment are stronger and more realistic values in this world than principles and ideals

• "Never tired o' lookin' for a rest" – Juno Boyle, Act I

Religion

• Dominant feature• Against strong Catholic background• Different religions, and attitudes expressed• Show the co-existence of strong religious

convictions, together with a sincere and humane commitment

• Juno’s faith is sincere, authentic, and traditional

• Bentham espouses a religion by the name of Theosophy

• "Isn't all religions curious?-if they weren't you wouldn't get anyone to believe in them" – Captain Boyle, Act II

Reality and Fantasy

• Conflict between the dream world and the world of reality

Conflict between the dream world and the world of reality

Character is stripped of his illusions and forced to face reality

Boyle the ‘poseur’ or Paycock struts throughout the world of the play on a false and imaginary sense of his own self- importance

• His whole life is a lie. His pains, which are invented for the sake of shirking and avoiding work become real to him

• His refusal to face up to the truth and reality about Bentham

Mary is blinded by external appearances and ends up a tragic victim of Bentham’s

hypocrisy and selfishness

Tragi-comedy

• Tragi-comedy is a kind of writing in which comedy is hovering on the brinks of tragedy.

• The play starts with a graphic description of Boyle’s household. The setting reflects the poverty of the dwellers.

• Then the news of murder of Robbie Tancred is also very gloomy

• Johnny’s neurotic condition adds to the tension of the play

• The description of Mr. Boyle and Joxer’s physiognomy creates laughter

• Mr. Boyle’s neck is short and his head looks like a stone ball on top of a gatepost.

• He carries himself with the upper part of his body slightly thrust forward

• Mr. Boyle is not willing to accept the job opportunity brought by Jerry. His lame excuses produce nothing but laughter.

• “Won’t it be a climbin’ job? How d’ye expect me to be able to go up a ladder with these legs? An’, if I get up a self, how am I goin’ to get down agen?”

A Feminist Play

• O’Casey’s great admiration for his mother

• He led a very miserable life with is mother in slums

• Many of his heroines have glimpses of his mother

• Mary and Juno are flattered and dragged down by their circumstances caused by the men

• While men are irresponsible, careless, coward and drunkard

• He has never worked in his life and his only business is to peacock about the clubs and pubs with his friend Joxer Daly

• Juno’s statement that the baby

“will have what's far betther –it ‘ll have two mothers”

shows a faith in feminine independence, industry an sense

Confusion

"I ofen looked up at the sky an' assed meself the question – what is the moon, what is the stars?" – Captain Boyle, Act I

Irony

• "it's nearly time we had a little less respect for the dead, an' a little more regard for the living." – Juno Boyle, Act II

• All these leads us to conclude that women in “Juno and the Paycock” are realist and wiser than men. They have the awareness of life which men lack

• This assumption of O’Casey is not based on lie or any idealism

• ’Casey wants to stress and evoke women to follow their instinctive feminine good sense and to play their part in the domain of modern life

Today’s man leads his life to be only confined to this world. This error made by some people is revealed in Quran as :

“They say, there is nothing but our existence in this world.We die and we live and nothing destroys us except for time.They have no knowledge of that, they are only conjecturing.” Quran(45:24)