Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1989. 19/3. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 19)

Bertha, Csilla: Distortions of Character in John B. Keane's Peasant Plays

SP - 49In Siv

e singing and music enrich the emotional impact; in Sharon's Grav

e fantasy, legend and the "many touches of heightened imagination" (HOGAN, 1967: 213) add a higher-than-reality dimension; whereas in T

he Field (1965), in Keane's best known, and perhaps best, peasant play, there is no such invocation of pure values. This play is altogether darker, more savage and brutal than the ones before. It bears a strong resemblance to the cruel, austere beauty of Móricz's short story. B

arbárok

, ('Barbarians'). The world of the Hungarian plain some 30 years earlier, which this miniature masterpiece brings to life, is very similar to Keane's Irish village in that both have their own laws, which are far from man-made laws of urban civilization. Both stories centre on murder committed out of greed - one for a few acres of land, the other for 300 sheep -, both treat the killing as some remnant of a past, primitive, violent world, which is, nevertheless, still very powerful. What Mihály Czine says about Barbáro

k

, is also true of [he Field

: it is a cry of pain, accusation and despair, all at the same time, also self-mockery as well as the mockery of the mockers. (1979:157) One of the main differences between them lies, again, in the tone: while the Hungarian short story is heavily tragic in its atmosphere all the way through, the Irish play has comic, grimly tumorous elements, which give, however, little relief from the loomig fear and horror. As greed for money in Sive

, so hunger for land in Hit] field originates from the poverty and misery of generations. ?he peasant ownership of the land had been the target of long, desperate figiits in Ireland much before the time of the play. But even after the Land Purchase Act of 1903, which made it possible for tenants to buy the land they cultivated, the average farms were still too small to support a large family. "The history of the relation of the Irish farmer to his soil has been one of contradiction and violence" (SI

ADLER, 1978:45), and a constant struggle. Not that such or any circumstances justify the murder in The Field

, but they provide a background which makes it understandable why violence is in the centre. It is made explicit whithin ttie play, too: "in this parish you, arid your fathers before you, know only too well what it is to starve because you did not own your own land - and that has increased: this unappeasable hunger for land." (59)