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

- 50Yet land is not only a practical source of life but alsn, just as importantly, a symbol of roots, of belonging and of continuity. In the same sense as the old Irish poet and seer would say about every chief he wanted to praise "that that man had been wedded to Ireland - wedded to Ireland always, because even if the man owned only a few acres of ground, you still thought of Ireland, the country... ." (RONSLEY, 1977:3) The plot focuses on the auction of a piece of land. A farmer, called "the Bull" by the villagers, wants it for himself for much less money than is reasonable. His rival is an unexpected bidder, an Irishman living in England. As he insists on a regular auction and is ready to pay more than the Bull, the latter, together with his son, beats the newcomer up, and kills him accidentally, although Ire wanted only to frighten him away. The rest of the story shows liow the Bull can manage to keep the villagers intimidated so that no evidence is given against him although everybody knows, including the police, who the murderer was. This attitude toward the law has been known at least since Sygne's The Playboy of the Western Worl

d and his notes in Iiis Aran Islands

, which point out that Irish communities were ready to hide criminals as a protest against the law which they associated with the hateful English jurisdiction. But what was a comic-grotesque story and behaviour in Synge's play, becomes fifty years later in this play a real bloody murder. The refusal to collaborate with the police is less motivated by national feelings than by the fear of the Bull's threats. The notion of the law being English still exists, and is offered as an excuse, although its reality is gone in the Republic of Ireland. The Catholic Church, however, has always been the national church of the Irish, so resistance to its influence must have another reason. In a scene reminiscent of the Interlude in T.S.Eliot's Murder in the Cathedral

, the bishop gives a moral teaching from the pulpit, pointing out everybody's responsibility and share in the crime if they keep silent about the murderer. The scenes which follow show the futility of his warning. Joyce's despair about his nation being "priest-ridden", does not seem to be true in the peasant environment: instead of the institution of the church, pagan or mythic beliefs or the laws of nature rule in the isolated country communities, as was apparent among Synge's country