Themes
Poverty
It is obvious from the opening stage directions that the Boyle family is not well off.
As the play progresses, it becomes clear that they have barely enough money to survive.
They live in a A rundown apartment in a poor area. building, part of the Dublin slums. There is little room for four adults.
The audience sees "a small bed partly concealed by A heavy cotton material used in drapery and upholstery, often covered by patterns. hangings strung on a Strong thread or string." in the same room as the dining table and the bath.
These cramped claustrophobic surroundings become a symbol for the conditions many people in Dublin lived in at this time.
In 1961, the Irish Someone who believes that society should be classless and that all property and wealth should be owned by the whole community and not by individuals. and trade union leader James Connolly (1868-1916) was a revolutionary socialist, a trade union leader and a political theorist. His execution by firing squad after the Easter Rising significantly contributed to the mood of bitterness in Ireland under British rule. noted that Dublin鈥檚 slums were:
...notorious the world over for their disease-breeding unhealthy character. All the world over it is known that the poor of Dublin are housed under conditions worse than those of any civilised people on God鈥檚 earth
It seems that O鈥機asey鈥檚 main intention was to show the reality of these conditions. He questions whether the Irish People who believe their country should be independent from other nations. For example, Irish nationalists who want Ireland to be fully independent of Britain. cause and all its promises really made anything better for Dublin鈥檚 poor and needy.
Juno is the only one in the household working. Mary is on strike, Johnny is not well and Captain Boyle is too lazy to do any work at all.
He spends most of his time drinking any money he gets his hands on. There are repeated references to unemployment throughout the play.
Therefore it is clear that the family do not have much income.
Juno is even unwilling to share tea with Joxer as they have so little themselves.
But the promise of money changes everything as they immediately begin to see the possibility of a life free of poverty.
When this turns out to have been a lie, their poverty seems even worse as the dreams and hopes they had disappear.
The family members try to escape their situation. Boyle retreats into alcohol and self-delusion while Mary strikes and reads Ibsen. She also embraces a feminine world of ribbons and love with a more Having a lot of money or owning a lot of things. man.
Johnny turns to the Irish A supporter of a united Ireland. cause, an escape taken by many working-class men who thought they could change things for the better.
Perhaps because it will have Juno who actually works, and Mary who reads and tries to improve herself, the baby will have some hope of escaping these conditions in the future.