Structural Imagery in Yeats’s The Dreaming of the Bones

Abstract

Yeats establishes a symbolic poetic image of a wine-cup at the outset of The Dreaming of the Bones and diffuses it throughout. The image is the concoction of Irish influences and of mystical beliefs sustained by Yeats, for the play does not lose its Irish identity despite its incorporation of formal techniques of the Japanese Noh theatre. As the image encompasses the whole play, its analysis in this paper shows that every given detail refers back to it, whether in matters of setting, of actual physical movement on the stage, or of themes, as a result of which the image acquires a binding quality. There is a parallelism between this binding image, and the reflected altitudinal physical and thematic experience of the play in its virtual setting, reaching up to its climax. The paper thus finds that the image articulates everything it evokes and gives it visual presentation. Literally carrying the whole weight, the conclusion is that the image forms the structural basis without which the play cannot stand, and that, being the core of the play, it constitutes a thematic objective correlative. The divisions in the paper are arranged to steer the analysis towards a full appreciation of the structural role of this image in holding the play together.