Taking their Own Road: The Female Protagonists in Three Irish Plays by Women

Abstract

This chapter explores three plays by Abbey Theatre playwrights; Grania by Augusta Gregory (variously dated 1910 or 19121), The Woman by Margaret O’Leary (first staged in September 1929) and The King of Spain’s Daughter by Teresa Deevy (premiered in April 1935). These plays were written during those decades of the twentieth century when Ireland’s political status as an independent nation, and the gender relationships legislated by the new state, were still in flux. All three plays have central female protagonists who seek adventure and who spin new identities and wondrous worlds from their speech; ultimately, however, none of the three is fated to go ‘romancing through a romping lifetime’ like Christy Mahon, the playboy of the Western world.2 Inspired by Christopher Murray’s and Lionel Pilkington’s readings of the Irish theatre as a ‘mirror up to nation’, and as a public forum for the representation and exploration of key issues for the new administration, this chapter will explore whether these three plays similarly reflect the status of women in the decades following 1916.3KeywordsMale CharacterFemale CharacterIrish WomanLightning FlashFictional WorldThese keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.