The Irish literary revival was about promoting a national consciousness, abandoning recurring English stereotypes about Ireland, and striving for a fresh start with an Irish state free. Ireland has often been subjected to two tropes. The first was the loathsome "Stage-Irishman", portrayed as a cowardly drunkard, and the second was the passive gentle woman. Ireland, historically attributed to this feminine image, was prevalent due to its Celtic mythology, occult past, and goddess symbolism. Revivalists took these images and reinvented them to fit a nascent nation that needed to rediscover its identity after centuries of colonialism. These figures transformed the cowardly Irishman into a young soldier or artist, ready to fight for his country, and the weak woman into a powerful mother figure reminiscent of old Irish traditions, personifying Ireland as a homeland. Cathleen Ni Houlihan, the best-known play on the patriotic themes of the Literary Revival, was written by WB Yeats and Lady Gregory. They promoted an incarnation of Ireland, that of a fragile woman after having her “four green fields” usurped and having incited a young man to sacrifice his life to recover them for her. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay This was later an important inspiration for the Easter Risings of 1916, during which there were huge losses. Years later, writers such as Dorothy MacArdle would not only assign fault to this theme of representing Ireland as a woman, but also allow her voice to be performed by men. In her 1924 short story "The Portait of Rosin Dhu", she writes a gothic article about this tradition and its implications in gender roles, conflating nationalist identity and being perhaps pointedly accusatory of Yeats's character. It is therefore interesting to examine how this powerful emblem managed to somehow contradict its initial ambition, which had empirical repercussions for the women participating in this cultural revival. It goes back to this notion of idealistic men elevating these ideals beyond the point of understanding, thereby killing their meaning, their beauty, and leaving real women cast aside in a revolution in which they have earned their part. A recurring theme in Irish nationalist culture: the Case of Cathleen Ni Houlihan. The Historical Narratives and ThemesSet during the Rebellion of 1798, Cathleen Ni Houlihan is a play about a young man Michael, just days before his marriage to Delia, who is enchanted by an old woman, who is later revealed to be the legendary Cathleen Ni Houlihan. , a personification of Ireland. The short act takes place in Michael's family home, where he has just brought the dowry to his parents. This veritable bag of coins is centered on the stage, which is soon physically replaced by the Old Woman, symbolizing her transcendent presence over materialism. This manifestation of Ireland as a woman has long been a tradition in Irish literature, and this particular incarnation seems to encompass a few recurring myths. The Goddess of Sovereignty, representing the power of the Realm, would present herself as a witch to the rightful king, and seduce him into mating, eventually transforming into a beautiful young woman. It is never said whether the Old Woman transforms into a "beautiful" woman, but he mentions that the girl had "the gait of a queen", further referencing the Myth of Sovereignty. There is also astrong influence on the Aisling poetic tradition, in which a poet encounters a young woman through a dream or vision. It declares itself as Ireland, under many names such as Cathleen Ni Houlihan or Roisin Dhu, awaiting the imminent return of the rightful king. The final tradition influencing this play would be that of Morrigan, the goddess of war, a transformative entity capable of psychologically affecting armies, much like the Crone seems to do. There is something indefinable in Michael, leading him to follow her to the door, ready to lose his life in her name. Cathleen Ni Houlihan as the Archetypal Mother Ireland Unlike most traditional myths, the Old Woman, although she refers to her long list of lovers, she is entirely desexualized. This version of Ireland is not described by his physical appearance, but his aura and speech reveal an ethereal quality to his character. Once the sexual aspect of the woman is suppressed, she becomes a mother, because female chastity ensures the purity of the blood of the offspring. This role of mother is worth protecting and for which healthy and capable men have a duty to fight. This Ireland is paralyzed by colonialism and yearns for its freedom, which transmits this message of revolt to the public. The woman alludes to this when she says: "If someone wants to give me help, he must give it to me himself, he must give me everything." In her analysis of the play's aesthetic and its implications for Irish nationalist culture, Marion Quirci writes: "The characters are seen through the fog of a hundred years of Irish history." One could see how the characters are all the product of generations of decline in what nationalists see as true Irishness, further forcing the public to build up resentment and, perhaps most dangerously, to associate the Revival movement with a story of violence in the name of Mother. Ireland. The figure of Mother Ireland not only legitimizes the patriarchy which marginalizes the other female characters on stage, Bridget and Delia, but promotes this cult of the Virgin Mary, thus politicizing motherhood. This trapped the women of this revival into a single role. this casting has a lot of weight in the hearts of an ever-growing patriotic audience. Gonne, an Irish woman known for her outspoken opposition to British imperialism, herself becomes a strong embodiment of a free state for Ireland. Renowned for her speech and stage presence, she accepted the role, provided she could make a creative contribution, and her most poignant contribution to the plot is the decision to let Michael make his decision on stage and the follow to the door. Yeats and Gregory had intended him to be torn between choosing to stay with his family or follow Cathleen to probable death. This decision is all-powerful, as the audience also finds themselves leaving the theater right after this pivotal scene, mirroring the same action as Michael, thus planting the seeds of revolution in their minds. Additionally, the fact that Maud Gonne is dressed as a witch on stage, but transformed into a queen-like young woman off stage, is also a striking image to walk away with the audience, as she was known for her beauty. . However, she embodies this desexualized figure, having the effect of giving women the potential for female activism through the core identity of an Irish woman, largely attributed to motherhood. This denial of female desire, or this committed female activism, may have inflicted the legacy of many women taking an active part in the revival. Gonne blurs the lines between symbolic ideals and reality. Lady Gregory Overclouded by WB Yeats Cathleen Ni Houlihan was known sincelong to be Yeats's most successful work, a statement he never took the time to clarify. After the Easter Rising of 1916, during which many revolutionaries credited the play with its inspiration, Yeats wrote "Did my play send / Some men shot by the English?" ”, fully owning the impact of the piece, even though the very premise of the piece was based on a legend she had heard in her field. Lady Gregory refused to claim so as not to deny Yeats, her lifelong friend, his most popular success. However, recent historical findings have clearly shown that Gregory was responsible for writing most of the lines, particularly all of the family's dialogue, and some suggest that she also participated in the lines of the old female. Yeats, responsible for Cathleen's supernatural lines, attributed the play's success to the dynamic between high art (ethereal language) and low art (empirical action). Not only is this a condescending way of belittling Gregory's considerable contribution to the play, but it is also denying that the family's realistic dialogue is what the audience is most connected to. Lady Gregory's lack of reaction to this suggests the way in which her role in this Revival is complementary to this image enhancement. She more perceptibly embodies the role, ironically written by Yeats in homage to Maud Gonne, from Cathleen. She is already something of a surrogate mother figure for Yeats, but she also serves Ireland for reasons beyond individual practical benefits. She devoted her life to the abbey, a cultural center of the revivalist movement, fundraising, directing, writing, and more. Her political views could also be seen as quite patriarchal in nature, given that she did not speak out against Yeats for taking full credit for their collaborative play, perhaps highlighting her traditional views on gender roles. She had little in common with other prominent female Revival figures such as Gonne or the Gore-Booth sisters, and did not support women's suffrage. She was much older when she became involved in politics, thus attributing her public persona to a quiet, sexless matron of Irish culture, although her life was by no means chaste nor her beliefs weak-minded . Icarian warning story. A Response to the Status Quo Many writers criticized Yeats for his commitment to unattainable ideals, and many found Cathleen Ni Houlihan incredibly disturbing, particularly after the Easter Risings of 1916. Dorothy MacArdle, gothic novelist and Cumann mBan member, wrote "The Portrait of Roisin Dhu" in 1924. The short story speaks to the dangers of the Awakening practice of making women token and passive, while the man gives her a voice, MacArdle, a prolific writer of the Reveille was one of them. the many women writers who have been left behind for most of the century. The story follows Maeve, a young woman who helps her morose cousin Hugo Blake, a painter who is trying to find inspiration. He decides to paint a portrait of Roisin Dhu. , and goes looking for him. He returns with the delicate Nuala, a princess from the West Islands. As Hugo begins to paint her, Maeve notices that she gradually begins to suffer emotionally and physically, but Hugo maintains that he makes her even more sublime than she ever could have been in reality. Over the course of a few months, Nuala slowly decomposes, leaving only a shell of itself. Once the painting is finished, she collapses and dies. Thatplays with the premise of Edgar Allen Poe's "Oval Portrait" with the Irish tradition of representing Ireland as a woman. When Hugo realizes his actions, he is horrified. It is implied that he commits suicide by drowning himself in the lake. Hyper-masculine versus hyper-feminine. MacArdle cleverly writes a thinly veiled critique of this recurring theme of the representation of Ireland as a woman, particularly prevalent in male nationalist writing, and even more clearly towards Yeah. Hugo Blake, a Yeats-style artist, described as "passionate and solitary", strives to elevate human beings to exaggerated heights to the point of killing them. The obsession with focusing on unattainable dreams, expectations that are impossible to meet and ultimately destroys the very idea that is worth fighting for. Hugo thinks he is doing the world a service by capturing this otherworldly beauty, but his incessant dissatisfaction causes him to lose track of what made Nuala beautiful in the first place, echoing this idea that men become so fascinated by this ideal to the point of death. The story also focuses on the two women and juxtaposes them as both symbolic and real-life tropes. Nuala is the symbol of Ireland, the ideal free state for which nationalists are fighting. Its purpose is to strengthen national identity. Her passive, voiceless nature is problematic, as all she will ever be known for is one man's single-minded perception. Hugo finds the idea of ​​marrying Roisin Dhu “[…] and a scandalous question […]”, therefore desexualizing her, leaving her maternal aspect transparent. MacArdle contrasts the two women as two sides of the female nationalist coin. Maeve mentioned being aware of Nuala's deteriorating condition, but she doesn't try to intervene. It can therefore be implied that Maeve let Nuala die because of a misguided sense of political beliefs of femininity overcoming the strong need for female alliances. The two women, in spirit or in reality, are sacrificed to nourish a timeless symbol. The Black Rose: a confusing symbol Nuala is described as "so delicate and so distant", then Hugo says: "For these red lips, with all this mournful pride", evoking Yeats' poem "The Rose of the World", dedicated to Maud Gonne. It is significant that she chooses to mention this poem, because it highlights an inconsistency in Yeats's work. Roisin Dhu is a black rose, a flower existing only in the imagination. When Yeats wrote the poem, the rose did not represent just any woman, it was Maud Gonne, a nationalist activist who, over the years, embodied this role of Ireland, notably after playing Cathleen Ni Houlihan. Not only has he attributed this surreal quality to a real woman, but Gonne doesn't really fit a desexualized mother figure since he is in love with her. He regularly attributes this romantic connotation to the image of Ireland, which leads one to wonder whether his nationalist work is not a blind labor of love to conquer this indomitable spirit. As we can see, the image of the Virgin Mother is a strong component of the Irish image. identity, particularly during the Revival during which there was an active movement to define Irish. She is a powerful emblem of public ideology, but it is clear that this has caused empirical collateral damage. Dorothy MacArdle manages to highlight the issues promoted by Yeats and Gregory's Cathleen Ni Houlihan. The female presence dissolves into an idea of ​​virtual femininity, but has also had real, even violent, repercussions. The victims of the rebellion are often mentioned and demonstrate how a patriotic game could have led young men to be ready to,. 74-93)