The Plough and the Stars by Sean O'Casey
"The Plough and the Stars" is a play by Irish playwright Sean O'Casey, first performed in 1926. Set against the backdrop of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin, the play explores the lives of working-class residents in a tenement, highlighting their struggles with poverty, nationalism, and personal aspirations. The central character, Nora Clitheroe, navigates her relationships with her husband Jack, who seeks leadership in the revolutionary movement, and other tenement dwellers facing the harsh realities of war and societal change.
O'Casey’s work delves into themes of class conflict, national identity, and the impact of political turmoil on everyday lives, offering a poignant critique of romanticized notions of heroism. The interactions among the characters reveal the tension between personal desires and collective struggles, as well as the disillusionment that accompanies civil conflict. The play’s tragic elements are underscored by the pervasive sense of loss, particularly as characters confront death and despair.
Through its vivid portrayal of the tenement's inhabitants, "The Plough and the Stars" presents a complex and often brutal depiction of life during a pivotal moment in Irish history, inviting audiences to reflect on the interplay of individual fate and national destiny. With its rich characterizations and exploration of social issues, the play remains a significant work in the canon of Irish drama and literature.
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The Plough and the Stars by Sean O'Casey
First produced: 1926; first published, 1926
Type of work: Drama
Type of plot: Social realism
Time of plot: 1916
Locale: Dublin, Ireland
Principal characters
Fluther Good , ,Peter Flynn , ,Mrs. Gogan , ,Mollser Gogan , ,Bessie Burgess , ,The Covey , ,Nora Clitheroe , andJack Clitheroe , neighbors in a Dublin tenement houseCaptain Brennan , of the Irish Citizen ArmyCorporal Stoddart andSergeant Tinley , of the Wiltshires
The Story:
Fluther Good has put a new lock on the door of the Clitheroes, and Mrs. Gogan brings in a hatbox, just delivered for Nora Clitheroe. Mrs. Gogan is convinced that Nora is putting on airs and buying too many new clothes to hold on to her husband. Nora’s uncle, Peter Flynn, drifts in and out, readying his uniform of the Irish National Foresters. Peter has a chip on his shoulder that all the tenement dwellers take turns knocking off. He is an ineffectual man and he knows it.
When the Covey, Nora’s cousin, comes in, telling them that he has been laid off from work because the boys have mobilized for a demonstration for independence, he arouses both Peter and Fluther. The Covey is less inclined to follow the flag of the Plough and the Stars than to go ahead with his work. Peter and the Covey are arguing away when Nora comes home and quiets them, declaring that there is small hope of ever making them respectable. She is pleased with the way Fluther had put on the lock, but Bessie Burgess, a vigorous but rather coarse woman, scornfully berates Nora for treating her neighbors shamefully, not trusting them. As Fluther breaks up the women’s wrangling, Jack Clitheroe comes home and sends Bessie away. He tells Nora that he will speak to Bessie when she is sober again.
Jack is despondent because the Citizen Army is to meet tonight. He had lost the rank of captain to Ned Brennan and, sulking, refuses to attend meetings. Wanting to be a leader, he does not have strength of leadership. Nora tries to get his mind off the meeting by making love to him. They are interrupted by Captain Brennan with a dispatch from the general telling Jack where to report. Jack does not understand why he is to report until Brennan tells him that the boys have given him the title of commandant, word of which is in a letter Nora had never delivered. Disturbed because Nora had withheld the letter, Jack goes to the meeting with Brennan.
Mollser Gogan, a child in the last stages of tuberculosis, asks Nora if she might stay with her, since everyone else has gone to the demonstration. Fluther and Peter, overwhelmed by the oratory of the speakers at the demonstration, go to a bar to pour in more courage. Even in the public house, the voice of the speaker follows them, urging bloodshed and war. Bessie and Mrs. Gogan are engaged in a verbal battle when they enter. Bessie, drunk, is ready for a hair-pulling, but the barman sends both women away. Peter is left holding Mrs. Gogan’s baby, as Mrs. Gogan forgets the child as she is piloted out of the bar. He hurries out to find her.
Fluther, though he had intended to give up drinking before the meeting, decides the time has come for all the liquor he can hold, and he is generous enough to stand treat, even to the Covey and Rosie, a prostitute. Fluther and the Covey get into an argument on the labor movement, and the barman has to separate them. Rosie and Fluther leave when Jack, Brennan, and other officers, their eyes shining with excitement, come in for a drink before moving off with the Citizen Army.
The next day, Mollser is so weak that Mrs. Gogan puts her out in the sun in front of the house; they can hear shooting in the distance. Looking for Jack, Nora and Fluther had spent the night going to all the barricades without finding him. When they come back to the house, Nora is leaning heavily on Fluther. Bessie shouts down curses from her window. The Covey sighs that the fight will do the poor people no good.
Bessie gives Mollser a mug of milk when she comes downstairs. The men begin to gamble to keep their minds off the shooting, but they stop when Bessie reappears, laden down with booty, to say that looting had begun in the shops. Fluther and the Covey leave immediately. The guns scare Mollser so much that Bessie takes her into the house. Even timid Peter starts to follow Bessie and Mrs. Gogan when they set out with a baby carriage to hold their loot, but the sound of the big guns again stops him. He is envious, however, when he sees the Covey, then Bessie and Mrs. Gogan, return with piles of loot.
Brennan and Jack stop at the steps to let a wounded comrade rest. It is with difficulty that Jack gets away from Nora, who had run down to him when she heard his voice. When the two officers finally take their man away, Nora is ready to faint.
Fluther comes back with a jug of whiskey. Roaring drunk, he is too fuddled to go out for a doctor for Mollser, who is suddenly very sick. Bessie, praying when she hears the guns, goes off toward the shooting to find a doctor.
A few days later the rebellion is still going on. Mollser has died, and Nora had a stillborn baby. Both bodies are in the same coffin in Bessie’s room, the only room in the tenement that seems safe from the shooting. Fluther, the Covey, and Peter, having taken refuge there, play cards to while away the time.
Nora is on the verge of insanity. Bessie has stayed up with her for three nights and is herself almost dead for sleep. Each time Bessie sits in the chair in front of the fireplace for a nap, Nora wakes up. Once, when Nora gets up, Brennan, in civilian clothes, is in the room telling the men how Jack had died. Nora does not recognize him. Brennan wants to stay with the others; he says there is nowhere to go any more. Corporal Stoddart, an English soldier, comes in to escort the coffin out of the house. Mrs. Gogan is the only one allowed to go with the coffin. As she is thanking Fluther for making the funeral arrangements, the soldier hears a sniper shoot another English soldier. The English, trying to find the sniper, are rounding up all the men in the district, and so Fluther, the Covey, Peter, and Brennan are forced to go with the corporal to spend the night in the Protestant church.
Bessie has again fallen asleep. Nora gets up to prepare tea for Jack. As she stands at the window looking for him, the soldiers below shout for her to go away. Bessie, awakened, tries to pull her back, but Nora struggles so hard that Bessie falls back against the window frame as she pushes Nora. Two shots, fired quickly, strike Bessie. She is dead before Mrs. Gogan comes home. Two English soldiers, investigating the room for snipers, find the mistake they had made in killing Bessie. They calmly pour themselves cups of tea while Mrs. Gogan takes Nora downstairs to put her into Mollser’s bed.
Bibliography
Ayling, Ronald. Sean O’Casey: Modern Judgments. Nashville, Tenn.: Aurora Press, 1970. Includes valuable comments on The Plough and the Stars. Considers O’Casey’s poetic gifts, his use of symbols, his socialism, and his place in Irish drama and literature.
Hogan, Robert. The Experiments of Sean O’Casey. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1960. A synthesis of dramatic theory and theatrical practice. Argues that in his Dublin trilogy, O’Casey is expanding his technical capacities, and that The Plough and the Stars is a stage in his continuing experimentation.
Kilroy, Thomas, ed. Sean O’Casey: A Collection of Essays. Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1975. An excellent selection from leading Irish, British, and American critics who discuss O’Casey’s politics, dramatic technique, and development. The critics offer differing assessments of his achievement as a political dramatist.
Krause, David. Sean O’Casey: The Man and His Work. New York: Macmillan, 1975. One of the best studies of O’Casey’s dramatic work. Describes the economic, political, and religious tensions in the Dublin of his time.
McDonald, Ronan. Tragedy and Irish Literature: Synge, O’Casey, Beckett. New York: Palgrave, 2002. Compares the work of three Irish playwrights, including O’Casey, analyzing how the themes of suffering, loss, and guilt are reflected in their respective dramas.
Murray, Christopher. Sean O’Casey: “The Shadow of a Gunman,” “Juno and the Paycock,” “The Plough and the Stars.” London: Faber, 2000. An analysis of the plays in O’Casey’s Dublin trilogy, placing these works within the context of Irish society and theater in the 1920’s.
‗‗‗‗‗‗‗. Sean O’Casey: Writer at Work—A Biography. Dublin: Gill & Macmillan, 2004. A biography focusing on O’Casey’s literary career, tracing the development of his writing from his early nationalist work to his later socialist writings.
Sean O’Casey Review 3 (Spring, 1976). Special issue on The Plough and the Stars. Contains valuable essays on the first production, O’Casey’s realism and pacifism and socialism, the historical background to the drama, and Bessie Burgess as Cathleen Ni Houlihan.
Stewart, Victoria. About O’Casey: The Playwright and the Work. London: Faber & Faber, 2003. Describes the political and social conditions in Ireland that led to O’Casey’s association with the Abbey Theatre in Dublin, as well as his subsequent literary career. Includes interviews with O’Casey and those who worked with him.