‘Juno and the Paycock’
Sean O’ Casey
POVERTY
The Boyle family live in a ‘two-room tenancy.’ This means that four
adults have to share this cramped space in an already over crowded
building.
Furnishings
Before the will
Act I
After the will
Act II
‘cretonne hangings on a twine’
concealing a small bed
‘a glaringly upholstered
armchair and lounge’
‘A galvanised bath’- used as an
all purpose sink/bath
‘cheap pictures and photos’
‘huge vases of artificial flowers’
‘a table and some chairs’
a dresser
‘crossed festoons of coloured
paper chains’
a fireplace- used for cooking
Purely functional- no soft
chairs and no setee
Cheap, garish fittings and
furniture
This pathetic attempt to transform their humble two rooms into some
kind of tastefully decorated parlour only serves to highlight just how
deeply rooted poverty can be.
We are given a grim picture of poverty and its power to devastate
people and families alike. However, we also see a positive image
within this framework: people with strength, endurance and a
strong determination to survive at all costs.
Juno
Mary
Juno’s face ‘has now assumed that
look which ultimately settles down
upon the faces of women of the
working-class; a look of listless
monotony and harassed anxiety,
blending with an expression of
mechanical resistance.’ These features
are the results of poverty. ‘Were the
circumstances favourable she would
probably be a handsome, active and
clever woman.’ O’Casey draws our
attention to one of the misfortunes of
poverty: that of wasted potential.
Mary’s environment pulls her back,
degrading her speech and manners,
and Mary must fight back against this
if she is to escape the same fate as her
mother: “Two forces are working in
her mind-one, through the
circumstances of her life, pulling her
back; the other, through the influence
of books she has read, pushing her
forward. The opposing forces are
apparent in her speech and her
manners, both of which have been
degraded by her environment, and
improved by her acquaintance- light
though it may be-with literature.”
Johnny
Boyle
The effect of poverty has made him
react and turn to on the nearest and
most easily recognisable form of
authority- the Government. Johnny
has wasted his youth fighting for a
cause that obviously has no regard for
individual human life. He was maimed
by poverty long before he lost his arm
and injured his hip.
The effect of poverty has made him
succumb to a system, which does
nothing for him, by doing nothing for
it in return. He accepts his lot. If
society says he is to be poor then so be
it. He expects nothing from society,
and in return will not offer to do
anything for society. Even if Boyle
were hard-working he would have no
rewards- he would still barely scrape a
living. To earn respect Boyle creates a
romantic image of himself, for
example Captain Boyle, and so on.