Ian Hutton THE 390 Synopsis Essay

My research paper focused on the social world and the social concerns of the Irish people in BBOC. After re-reading this play and doing research, I was able to identify what I felt were the main social concerns of the characters in the play. These were: land ownership, livestock ownership, community structure, the role of outsiders to the farm community, the role of women, marriage, family, religion, folklore and superstition. While some of these areas will no doubt be covered in more depth in other presentations, it was still important to this paper to include them. While doing my research, the theme that I repeatedly discovered was that critics felt that the social concerns of the characters had to be understood within the context of what was occurring in Ireland at the time that the play was written. There seems to be agreement amongst these critics that this play was set in the late 1990s (which verifies Carrs direction of the setting as The Present). This is the period in Irish history known as the Celtic Tiger Era. The Celtic Tiger is a term that refers to a period of incredible economic growth in Ireland during the 1980s and 90s. This time period saw Ireland evolve from its poor agrarian past to a first-tier world economic power. During this period, Ireland had the highest growth of per capita income of any nation in the European Union. Eric-Michael MacCionnaith writes in his dissertation: As Ireland addresses its Celtic Tiger transformation, theatre is a key player, as a catalyst as well as reflection of this change (MacCionnaith, 8).

Ian Hutton THE 390 Synopsis Essay

Many of the critics assert that Carr was using BBOC as a reflection of this change. In her article Staging Histories in Marina Carrs Plays, Paula Murphy suggests that Hester represents the transformed Irish nation, adrift in modernity and desperately grasping to the symbolic fragments of its former identity. The struggle between the old Ireland and the new Ireland is an important theme as played out in the social world of the characters in the Bog of Cats. In all honesty, I did not see the significance of the old versus the new Ireland in any of my readings of the play so far, but only came upon it as I began my research. All of the critics I read who discussed the social concerns of this play agreed that in order to truly appreciate this play, the reader had to understand what was going on in Ireland at the time. As we talk as a class about staging this play, I feel strongly that it needs to be done in a way that is representative of the contemporary period in which it was written. We need to, therefore, emphasize the tension between the old and new Ireland as we convey it to an American audiencean audience that may not understand or know about what was happening in Ireland at this time. As I discuss each of the social concerns that I think are important to this play, I will try to expand on how we might emphasize them while taking into consideration this theme of old and new.