The Informer: Analysis of Setting
"The Informer: Analysis of Setting" explores the intricate relationship between the novel’s characters and the various locations in Dublin, which play a significant role in shaping the narrative. Set against the backdrop of Dublin's slums, the story unfolds in places such as the Dunboy lodging house, where characters like Gypo Nolan and Frankie McPhillip intersect amid squalor and desperation. This lodging house exemplifies the grim reality of Dublin's criminal underbelly and houses weary residents. In contrast, the McPhillip home offers a brief respite, showcasing an environment of cleanliness and order, symbolizing the best aspects of Nolan's world. Other noteworthy locations include a seedy fish and chips shop, reflecting a sense of fleeting camaraderie among Dublin's marginalized, and Aunt Betty's bordello, which serves as a stark contrast to lower-class establishments. The Bogey Hole, an abandoned wine cellar, symbolizes the depths of Nolan's despair, while Tipperary evokes nostalgia for his simpler past. The church serves as a poignant space of solace and redemption, highlighting themes of morality and forgiveness within the chaotic urban landscape. Through these settings, the novel paints a complex portrait of life in Dublin, marked by contrasts between hope and despair, freedom and entrapment.
The Informer: Analysis of Setting
First published: 1925
Type of work: Novel
Type of plot: Psychological realism
Time of work: 1920’s
Asterisk denotes entries on real places.
Places Discussed
*Dublin
*Dublin. Capital of Ireland, in which the entire novel is set. Dublin’s slums offer a squalid backdrop to the criminal activities of the novel’s characters.
Dunboy lodging house
Dunboy lodging house. Dismal excuse for a flophouse where fugitive Frankie McPhillip meets his old comrade Gypo Nolan. Frankie, a member of a paramilitary organization, is wanted for the murder of a union organizer. The lodging house looms as an ugly monstrosity popular among Dublin’s criminal underground. The accommodations are spartan, and the residents emerge as a haggard collection of the unwashed and forlorn. Over a paltry meal, Nolan impulsively decides to inform on his friend and collect the ransom money.
McPhillip home
McPhillip home. Frankie’s family residence. To protect himself from the suspicion of having informed on his friend and to offer condolences, Nolan wanders over to the McPhillip home, and the walk becomes an expressionistic odyssey. A street which was once familiar becomes threatening, as if inhabited by monsters. Thus begins a pattern repeated throughout the novel: Landscape and setting alternate between predatory threat and calming retreat.
The house itself is a refreshing haven from the storm on the lanes and in Nolan’s head. It is the most respectable house on the street, with a parlor window, fresh curtains, spotless stairway, and polished brass railings. Photographs and ornaments decorate the rooms, the kitchen is spacious, and everything is immaculate except Nolan, who stands in motley high relief. In fact, except for the novel’s final setting, another associated with the McPhillips, this house represents the best that Nolan’s world can offer.
Fish and chips shop
Fish and chips shop. Seedy restaurant on the slum streets where Nolan stops for nourishment. Overwhelmed by the sorrow of the McPhillip family, Nolan retreats to the neighborhood he knows best, and in an expansive mood, he buys meals for an assembled crowd. The group represents more of Dublin’s losers, yet Nolan regards them as his loyal subjects as he plays king for the moment. Ironically, though, his generosity brings unwanted attention and the assurance that he is Frankie’s informant and therefore responsible for his friend’s death.
Aunt Betty’s bordello
Aunt Betty’s bordello. High-class brothel. Aunt Betty’s stands as another contrasting portrait in a night of antitheses. Nolan usually visits Biddy Burke’s place, where the prostitutes are slovenly drunks and the stout is watered down. Aunt Betty’s, however, caters to a more fashionable crowd: a group of university students, an artist, and a doctor. Where Biddy’s is an unkempt hovel, Aunt Betty’s has a broad hearth, clean walls covered with titillating photographs, and delftware on a dresser. Once again Nolan is conspicuous in his working-class attire but wins the favor of the madam and the prostitutes when he impulsively throws his ransom money around.
Bogey Hole
Bogey Hole. Abandoned basement wine cellar used as a makeshift prison. Nolan is spirited off to this cavern for interrogation, which both literally and figuratively represents the nadir of his experience. Located in the bowels of a once-grand manor, the Bogey Hole sits under a crumbling structure in which water continuously drips, rubbish is strewn around, and rats scurry about.
*Tipperary
*Tipperary. Village in south-central Ireland that is the location of Nolan’s youth. Periodically the narrative is punctuated by Nolan’s memory of his youth and the fact that he is ill suited for city life. After escaping from the Bogey Hole, he travels once more across north Dublin in the hope of crossing the Liffey River and heading south to the mountains. In another of the novel’s dramatic antitheses, the mountains represent freedom, expansiveness, and a return to simplicity.
Church
Church. Chapel in which Frankie’s mother retreats to pray for her son. His body riddled with bullets, Nolan instinctively gropes his way toward church and begs Mrs. McPhillips’s forgiveness before dying before the altar. Damp, threatening streets that hem Nolan in give way to the warm quiet of a sacred place in which his large body can finally rest. Ultimately those labyrinthine avenues act as metaphors for a conscience that has lost its moral compass, eventually restored in the melodramatic final scene.
Bibliography
Donoghue, Denis. Preface to The Informer, by Liam O’Flaherty. New York: Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1980. In this scholarly introduction to The Informer, the leading Irish literary critic of his generation discusses the historical and cultural conditions from which the novel emerged, as well as its place in the O’Flaherty canon. Also refers to O’Flaherty’s sense of language and to the novel’s genre.
Doyle, Paul A. Liam O’Flaherty. New York: Twayne, 1971. An introductory survey of the wide range of O’Flaherty’s writings. In the chapter devoted to The Informer, Doyle notes the novel’s methods of representing the atmosphere of a newly independent Ireland. Critical discussion focuses mainly on the novel’s characterization. Contains a bibliography of primary and secondary sources.
O’Brien, James H. Liam O’Flaherty. Lewisburg, Pa.: Bucknell University Press, 1973. A brief introductory survey that concentrates on O’Flaherty’s fiction, particularly his novels. Provides a biographical sketch, as well as a chronology and bibliography. Discussion of The Informer is included in a chapter devoted to O’Flaherty’s war novels and focuses on the work’s preoccupation with its protagonist.
Sheeran, Patrick F. The Novels of Liam O’Flaherty: A Study in Romantic Realism. Dublin: Wolfhound Press, 1976. Contains valuable information about O’Flaherty’s cultural and personal background and its relevance to his major works. Also includes a detailed account of the genesis of The Informer and an analysis of its cinematic dimension.
Zneimer, John. The Literary Vision of Liam O’Flaherty. Syracuse, N.Y.: Syracuse University Press, 1970. Remains the most systematic overview of O’Flaherty’s work. Focuses throughout on the darker side of O’Flaherty’s imagination and provides information on the complicated genesis of The Informer and on the author’s attitude to the novel. Critical analysis is largely devoted to the work’s psychological and spiritual dimensions.