Masaryk University

Home , The Lonesome West

Masaryk university

Faculty of Education

Department of English language and literature

Bachelor Thesis

2019 Janika Brázdová Masaryk university

Faculty of Education

Department of English language and literature

Janika Brázdová

The theme of violence in The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Lonesome West by Martin McDonagh

Bachelor Thesis

Supervisor: Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D.

2019

I hereby declare that I wrote this bachelor thesis on my own and I used only the sources listed in the bibliography.

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I would like to express my gratitude towards my supervisor Mgr. Lucie Podroužková, Ph.D., for her kind help, support and advice throughout writing this thesis. Abstract

The bachelor thesis explores the theme of violence in plays by Irish playwright Martin McDonagh. It focuses on two selected plays The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Lonesome West both of which together with A Skull in Connemara create The Leenane Trilogy. The thesis focuses on two forms of violence that is physical and psychological abuse within a family. More specifically, violence between mother and daughter and between two brothers.

In the introduction Martin McDonagh and his work are presented and also where in the Czech Republic we could have and can encounter his plays. In the second chapter the terms physical, psychological and domestic violence are defined. Furthermore, the basic characteristics of in- yer-face theatre, which McDonagh uses, are described.

After that follows the essential part of the thesis which deals with the analysis of the two plays. It starts with The Beauty Queen of Leenane. Firstly, a short plot review is introduced followed by a comment on the characters and the setting. The next part focuses on the specific examples of both physical and psychological violence. Each example is provided with a commentary. After that follows an analysis of The Lonesome West using the same structure as with the previous play.

Anotace

Tato bakalářská práce se zaměřuje na téma násilí ve dvou vybraných hrách irského dramatika Martina McDonagha. Jedná se o Krásku z Leenane a Osiřelý západ, které spolu s Lebkou z Connemary tvoří trilogii. Práce se zabývá dvěma formami domácího násilí a to fyzickým a psychologickým. Konkrétně násilím mezi matkou a dcerou a mezi dvěma bratry.

V úvodu je představena osoba Martina McDonagha, jeho dílo a také kde v České republice jsme mohli a v současnosti můžeme vidět jeho hry. Ve druhé kapitole jsou definovány pojmy násilí, domácí násilí, fyzické a psychologické zneužívání. Dále jsou představeny základní principy divadla in-yer-face, které McDonagh využívá. Následuje hlavní část práce a tou je analýza vybraných her. První je analyzována Kráska z Leenane. Nejdříve je uveden stručný obsah a komentář charakteru jednotlivých postav a prostředí, ve kterém se hra odehrává. Další část se zabývá konkrétními ukázkami fyzického a psychologického násilí, z nichž každá je opatřena komentářem. Následuje analýza Osiřelého západu, která postupuje podle stejné struktury jako analýza první hry.

Contents

1. Introduction ...... 7 2. Violence ...... 9 2.1. In-yer-face-theatre ...... 11 3. The Beauty Queen of Leenane ...... 13 3.1. Psychological violence ...... 16 3.2. Physical violence ...... 21 4. The Lonesome West ...... 26 4.1. Psychological violence ...... 28 4.2 Physical violence ...... 32

5. Conclusion ...... 43 1. Introduction

Martin McDonagh is an Irish playwright, screenwriter and director who was born to Irish parents in southeast London in 1970. He is considered one of the most acclaimed contemporary playwrights of the Irish theatre stage. Most of his plays are set in the West of Ireland where he spent a lot of time as a child, specifically in the County Gallway. His first six plays are divided into two trilogies. The Leenane Trilogy which consists of The Beauty Queen of Leenane (1996), The Skull in Connemara (1997) and The Lonesome West (1997). The second trilogy is called The Aran Islands Trilogy which includes The Cripple of Inishmaan (1996), The Lieutenant of Inishmore (2001) and The Banshees of Inisheer. His non - Irish plays which are worth mentioning are The Pilloman (2003) and Hangmen (2015) which were both awarded the Laurence Olivier Award for Best New Play, the former in 2004 and the latter in 2016. His most recent play is called A Very Very Very Dark Matter (2018) which premiered in London in October 2018.

In the Czech Republic some of McDonagh's plays were performed for example in The Drama Club in Prague The Lonesome West and currently there is Hangmen on the programme. Both plays are directed by Ondřej Sokol. The Pilloman in Buranteatr in Brno and The Lieutenant of Inishmore in Petr Bezruč Theatre in Olomouc.

McDonagh is also engaged in the film industry as a screenwriter and a director. In 2006 he won an Oscar for his short film Six Shooter the success of which allowed him to make his first all- night film In Bruges (2008). His last film Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) was nominated for an Oscar in seven categories and won in Best Actress and Best Supporting Actor categories.

The thesis aims to examine the theme of violence in two selected plays from The Leenane Trilogy. It deals with violence between mother and daughter in The Beauty Queen of Leenane and violence between two brothers in The Lonesome West. For the analysis I have chosen the first and the third play of this trilogy because they are most adequate for a demonstration of violence between family members. Moreover, when put next to each other they create an interesting analogy. 7

The second chapter of the thesis is theoretical and defines the term violence. Furthermore, it introduces in-yer-face theatre which is an artistic style that McDonagh uses. The third chapter deals with the analysis of the first play The Beauty Queen of Leenane. It starts with a plot review, followed by a description of the characters and the setting. The following two subchapters focus on examples of violence present in the play, specifically on its psychological and physical form. The fourth chapter analyses the second play The Lonesome West using the same structure as with the previous play.

2. Violence

For the purpose of the thesis it is necessary to first define the term violence. Oxford Dictionaries define violence as: "Behaviour involving physical force intended to hurt, damage, or kill someone or something." (Violence, n.d.). However, it is not only a physical form which violence can take. Another form of violence is psychological abuse (PA) which is defined in Medical dictionary as: "A form of mistreatment in which there is intent to cause mental or emotional pain or injury; PA includes verbal aggression, statements intended to humiliate or infantilize, insults, threats of abandonment or institutionalization; PA results in stress, social withdrawal, long-term or recalcitrant depression, anxiety." (McGraw-Hill Concise Dictionary of Modern Medicine, 2002).

Violence can occur anywhere and unfortunately it does not exclude a family. Regarding family as a place of safety, harmony and love it is all the more shocking and horrifying when violence generates among family members. The National Academy of Sciences defines domestic violence as follows:

Violence in the family includes violence against children and violence among adults, which arises between family members or adults living in intimate partnership. In the case of adults such violence includes acts of physical or mental harm or those that threaten to cause physical harm. (as cited in Buriánek, J., Pikálková, S., & Podaná, Z. 2015, 15).

Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence (known as Istanbul Convention) uses the following definition:

Domestic violence shall mean all acts physical, sexual, psychological or economic violence that occur within the family or domestic unit or between former or current spouses or partners,

whether or not the perpetrator shares or has shared the same residence with the victim. (as cited in Buriánek, J., Pikálková, S., & Podaná, Z. 2015, 15-16).

Domestic violence is according to Florinda Golu a dramatic phenomenon which causes pain, trauma and physical and psychological scars. In a book Domestic Violence: Prevalence, Risk Factors and Perspectives there are introduced several factors that can stimulate intra-family violence. For the purpose of the thesis the most relevant are dysfunctional communication, economic situation or intergenerational transmission. (Golu, 2016, 33). Golu also claims that the term domestic violence usually refers to violence against women and girls which occurs in domestic sphere. Violence is most often committed by men - husbands, boyfriends, fathers, step fathers, brothers, uncles or other relatives. However, women can also be violent but their actions represent a small percentage of the total shares of domestic violence. (Golu, 2016, 34).

What is important about domestic violence according to Buriánek and Pikálková is its frequency, more precisely its repetitiveness. Very often the victims are not able to break free and therefore, they find themselves in a vicious circle. (Buriánek & Pikálková, 2015, 16).

The justification of family violence and why it even occurs in a family is explained by several theories. For the purpose of the thesis the theory of social learning (Bandura, 1997), the stress coping theory and the exchange theory are most relevant. The former theory is based on the fact that family being a primary group is the first place where an individual can come across and therefore learn aggression and violence by for example experiencing physical punishment or witnessing other people's violent behaviour. The latter one works with an assumption that individuals learn to use violence as a means of coping with stressful situations. The third theory deals with maintaining social control and power as a potential profit from violent behaviour. (Buriánek & Pikálková, 2015, 18-20).

Concerning psychological violence there are several risk factors mentioned by Zuzana Podaná: education, unemployment, low subjective household income, alcohol abuse, low self - control, violence in family of origin. (Podaná, 2015, 99). All of these can be detected in larger or smaller amount in both The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Lonesome West.

As for the physical violence there are some types of motivation listed by Pikálková. Physical violence can be either intentional, that means it is led to hurt or punish or it can be spontaneous, unwanted. Alternatively, it can be defensive or it can represent an inadequate response provoked by stress. (Pikálková, 2015, 55). In the analysed plays the intentional or defensive physical violence can be observed.

When comparing physical and psychological abuse Golu points out that people who have suffered both physical and emotional abuse find the second one much harder to bear. A strong correlation between psychological abuse and suicide attempts has been found in studies conducted in the United States. According to them, a woman who is psychologically abused shows 12 times higher probability to commit suicide than a woman who is not subjected to such an abuse. (Golu, 2016, 40).

2.1. In-yer-face-theatre

In McDonagh's plays we are confronted with both physical and psychological form of violence. What the audience may consider as most shocking is the explicitness of the physical one. At this point, it is appropriate to explain the in-yer-face theatre, which is a type of theatre McDonagh's plays rank among to.

It originated in the 90s in Great Britain. In 1995 a play called Blasted by Sarah Kane premiered in London and caused a huge stir in media. At the same time it became a manifest of in-yer-face theatre. The play includes themes as misogyny, racism, oral sex, raping, masturbation or suicide. It was criticized for its controversy and intention to shock the audience.

Aleks Sierz, who came up with the term "in-yer-face", defines this type of theatre as: "Any drama that takes the audience by the scruff of the neck and shakes it until it gets the message." (Hoffmannová, 2015, 14). The Czech translation is very apt. "Do ksichtu". It means that we are thrown something directly in our face which we are not able to avoid. Usually it is something unpleasant that we do not like to be confronted with. However, in this moment we are forced to react somehow, either positively or negatively. The goal is to violate one's personal space and to get to him as close as possible in both physical and psychological way, to cause an extreme reaction and to leave a strong experience. (Hoffmannová, 2015, 13).

Among its typical features belong vulgar language, rape, child abuse, torture, sexual intercourse, application of drugs, vomiting or blapshemy. All this is done in order to not only shock but also to break taboos and to investigate the boundaries of today’s audience. (Hoffmannová, 2015, 14).

Sierz also distinguishes two types of in-yer-face theatre - hot and cool. The former is more extreme, more vulgar. The size of the space in which the play is performed is also important. Hot in-yer-face uses small rooms so as to intensify the atmosphere. Often there is no line between the stage and the auditorium. This method is very popular with alternative theatres. Its representatives are for example the above mentioned Sarah Kane or Mark Ravenhill. On the other hand cool in-yer-face is more conventional and not as much to the core. Typical genre is comedy and parody. It is performed in larger auditoriums and the audience have at least some distance from the action. (Hoffmannová, 2015, 14). Martin McDonagh is a representative of cool in-yer-face.

In order to make a short insight into the acceptance of McDonagh's plays, it is interesting to mention a comparison which has been made by Paul Murphy regarding above mentioned Kane's Blasted and McDonagh's The Lonesome West in terms of justification of the brutal violence used in the plays. Murphy says that it is a political commitment of bringing up to the light the horror of a civil war and the notion that the seeds of full-scale war can always be found in peace-time civilization, that ultimately justifies all the brutality that is used in Blasted. Whereas in The Lonesome West there is no such justification. Murphy claims that the only thing that we are left with is the use of brutality for no reason other than audience excitement. This leads him to important ethical questions about not only the production but also the reception of McDonagh's plays. He refers to the success and critical acclaim of McDonagh's plays whether in Britain or in the USA coming to a conclusion that the problem is not only the ethical dimension of the plays but also the ethical dimension of the audience response. He says: “The Leenane Trilogy, particularly The Lonesome West, is in final analysis based on the manipulation of the dark side of emotional arousal and the farcial representation of fundamentally traumatic events.” (Murphy, 2006, 75).

3. The Beauty Queen of Leenane

Maureen Folan is a 40-year old spinster who lives in a small village called Leenane in the west coast of Ireland in the early 1990s. She cares for her 70-year old mother Mag. One day a young man Ray Dooley comes to the house to invite Mag and Maureen to a farewell party for his uncle, who is returning to America. He leaves the invitation with Mag but she burns it and does not tell Maureen about it. When Maureen discovers it, she becomes furious and complaints about the fact, that she has been taking care of her every day for the past twenty years so she is intitled to have one free evening without her, Mag, interfering with her life.

Eventually, Maureen attends the party and spends a night with Pato, Ray's older brother who works in England and comes home for a visit occasionally. As Rebecca Wilson puts it he is “an ordinary man who, unwittingly, is the catalyst that will ignite the catastrophe.” (Wilson, 2006, 29). In the morning she parades in front of her mother making explicit what happened at night. They start to fight and Mag reveals to Pato that in the past Maureen had suffered a nervous breakdown and spent some time in an asylum. However, it does not change his view about Maureen and he promises to write to her from England.

He does that and sends the letter by his brother Ray who leaves it with Mag, who destroys it again. Later, Maureen finds out about the letter and forces Mag to tell her what was in it by torturing her with hot oil. When she learns that Pato offered her to go with him to America she runs to the train station to meet him but he is already gone. When she comes home she murders her mother with a poker.

After Mag's funeral Ray comes to visit Maureen and tells her that Pato got married in America. The play ends with Maureen sitting in Mag's rocking chair exactly in the same manner as her mother used to sit there.

Before analysing the specific forms of violence, it is necessary to first focus on the character of the protagonists in order to understand their behaviour and the reasons behind it. Furthermore, the setting is also a significant aspect which will be discussed in greater detail later in the chapter.

Mag and Maureen's relationship is described by Wilson as not the idealized and sentimentalized mother-and-child relationship. On the contrary, she refers to them as two malignant harpies who are tearing and empoisoning each other. (Wilson, 2006, 29). Mag is most of the time sitting in her rocking chair giving Maureen orders to do this and that. Maureen is constantly irritated and calls her mother names and sometimes even contemplates out loud about how happy she would be if Mag was dead. They both intentionally do things to irritate each other.

Eamon Jordan comments on the fact that the communication between Mag and Maureen happens in a form of shorthand. However, it might seem that they are set in their ways but there is a very strong feeling that there is something additional going on based on how they communicate between each other. He claims that it is the unsaid what binds them but also keeps them apart. There is a strange blend of interdependence, loyalty, dutifulness, excessive expectation, deceitfulness, harassment and guilt present which creates the frustration on both parts. (Jordan, 2013, 77).

In his book Healing the Family Tree Kenneth McAll discusses a possession syndrome in connection with relationship between a mother and an adult child. McAll says that the relationship can come to the point where either the mother or the child can become passive and totally dependant on the other one without even noticing it. On top of that, the dependant person is not able to break free from the influence of the other and at the same time it makes an independent psychological development impossible. (McAll, 2007, 16-17). It is the possession syndrome that can be considered as the unsaid which Jordan refers to in the previous paragraph. In the case of Mag and Maureen, it is arguable who is the dependent one. It is possible to say that in a way they are both dependent on each other. Mag is dependent on Maureen because she is the only daughter who stayed with her in order to care for her. Maureen did not have the opportunity to marry and to start her own life like her two sisters which makes her dependent on her mother. Nevertheless, Mag is doing everything she can to thwart every opportunity for Maureen to leave her so therefore it is possible to say that it is Mag who has the upper hand in the matter and Maureen is the passive party.

What is melancholia and how it affects a person's well - being is a subject of an article by Jane Kenway and Johannah Fahey. They define melancholia as a continuous mourning, the enduring attachment of the ego to a lost object. It also signals the persistence of something repressed deep in the subject's unconscious. (Kenway & Fahey, 2008, 643). Maureen constantly mourns over her

14 unfulfilled life but at the same time she is trying to suppress it in order not to show it to her mother. A significant part of Maureen's suppressed feelings is her undeveloped sexuality. The fact that she is still a virgin at the age of forty and also her history of mental problems are deeply rooted in her subconscious. Therefore, when she involves with Pato, she exaggerates everything in order to make an impression on her mother. However, in fact it might be herself she is trying to convince.

The setting is a very important factor as well. The play is set at the beginning of 1990s just before the outbreak of the economic growth in the Republic of Ireland which is referred to as The Celtic Tiger period. Leenane is located on the west coast of the poorest part of Ireland, Connaught. This part of the country was affected the most during the Great Famine in the mid - 19th century. Nearly one- eighth of overall Irish population died of starvation and many emigrated to England or North America. As Susan Silton emphasizes in her Audience Guide this was a turning point in Ireland's cultural history: "As the population diminished, the traditional communities were dislocated, the identities of the residents were fragmented, and the Gaelic cultural and linguistic heritage began to dissolve." (Silton, 2018, 13).

With its mountainous and infertile land Connaught remained poor even during the economic boom and somehow isolated from the rest of the globalized Ireland. Silton also very aptly categorizes the characters within the historical framework. Some, like Pato, decide to emigrate, others, like Maureen, stay and give in to frustration, bitterness and hopelessness and those, like Mag or Ray, just survive day to day. (Silton, 2018, 13).

McDonagh's depiction of Ireland is referred to in her essay “Trapped in Ireland: Violence and Irishness in McDonagh's The Beauty Queen of Leenane” by Norma Alfonso as exaggerated and postmodern with a fragmented isolated society in a globalized world which leads people to violent reactions since they feel they can no longer control their lives. (Alfonso, 2009, 242). Alfonso also comments on the set of the play, a single room, as a replication of the world that is represented. This room is a limited space from which the protagonists may break free or they remain trapped. (Alfonso, 2009, 243).

3.1. Psychological violence

The first important form of violence present in The Beauty Queen of Leenane which will be examined is psychological one. As the first example can serve merely how Maureen addresses her mother. Throughout the play she uses different variations of the word bitch such as: “Look at this. The radio left on too, the daft oul bitch.” (McDonagh, 1999, 19). Or in scene four she calls her “the smelly oul bitch.” (McDonagh, 1999, 32). In scene eight when Mag expresses her joy over Pato's leaving Maureen simply says to her: “An interfering oul biddy is all you are...” (McDonagh, 1999, 45).

This being not a usual way how a child addresses his or her parent, Maureen uses these terms in order to relieve from some of her frustrations. As a matter of fact she is not getting any help from either of her sisters to care for her mother. She has to do everything by herself and the person at whom she projects her anger is the one closest to her – the mother who is not making the situation any easier with her endless orders and displays of dissatisfaction. Even though Mag does not react to Maureen's rude addressing, it affects her in a negative way. Alternatively, she is so used to it now that she simply does not care anymore. Either way this is definitely one of many indicators of the damaged relationship, presumably the least violent one.

As it was said in the previous paragraph Mag also actively participates in creating the negative energy. After Maureen brings Mag her porridge and tells her that she is old, stupid and she should shut up and eat, Mag just says:

Mag: Me mug of tea you forgot!

Maureen clutches the edges of the sink and lowers her head, exasperated, then quietly, with visible self-control, fills the kettle to make her mother's tea... (McDonagh, 1999, 6).

A visibly tense atmosphere can be detected in this example. So is for instance when Mag wants Maureen to switch on the radio and then complaints that it is too loud. These seemingly innocent episodes may not necessarily be very serious when considered as occasional but when they are accumulated one after another in a short period of time or they are ever-present in a longer 16 period of time, they can cause a very unpleasant atmosphere. Subsequently, little is needed to make someone burst with anger.

The following example could be considered as the most serious form of psychological violence. It is not rare that characters are reflecting about violence as if it was an absolutely common thing to do. Especially Maureen contemplates, right in front of her mother, about how happy she would be if Mag was dead. One example of such situation can be seen in this conversation:

Maureen: I have a dream sometimes there of you, dressed all nice and white, in your coffin there, and me all in black looking in on you, and a fella beside me there, comforting me, the smell of aftershave off him, his arms round me waist. And the fellas asks me then if I'll be going for a drink with him at his place after.

Mag: And what do you say?

Maureen: I say 'Aye, what's stopping me now?'

Mag: You don't!

Maureen: I do!

Mag: At me funeral?

Maureen: At your bloody wake, sure! Is even sooner!

Mag: Well that's not a nice thing to be dreaming!

Maureen: I know it's not, sure, and it isn't a dream-dream at all. It's more of a day-dream. Y'know, something happy to be thinking of when I'm scraping the skitter out of them hens.

....

Maureen: I suppose now you'll never be dying. You'll be hanging on forever, just to spite me. (McDonagh, 1999, 16).

In this scene it is obvious what is Maureen longing for. It is not her mother dead but having a life. The fact that she mentions a man standing beside her and comforting her suggests what she wishes for. Furthermore, the lack of free time in her life is reflected in her note: “What's stopping me now?”. Now she does not have a mother to care for so she can go and enjoy herself. Surely if she lived in her own house, had a husband and children or simply just had some help, she would not be fantasizing about her mother being dead. This is just another example of how her unfortunate situation is poisoning her relationships with her mother.

Ray also makes an allusion right in front of Mag about killing her after she instructs him with her orders.

Mag: Do me a mug of tea, Ray. (Pause.) Or a mug of Complan do me, even. (Pause.) And give it a good stir to get rid of the oul lumps.

Ray: If it was getting rid of oul lumps I was to be, it wouldn't be with Complan I'd be starting. It would be much closer to home, boy. Oh aye, much closer. A big lump sitting in an oul fecking rocking-chair it would be. I'll tell you that!

Mag: (pause) Or a Cup-a-Soup do me.

Ray grits his teeth and begins breathing in and out through them, almost crying. (McDonagh, 1999, 41).

In this scene Ray visits the Follan's cottage in order to deliver the letter from Pato directly into Maureen's hands but she is out shopping. Therefore, he waits for her to return meanwhile Mag is complaining as she usually does and it drives Ray crazy. After a while he proclaims that he would rather be at home watching TV and he entrusts the letter to Mag making her promise that she would give it to Maureen. He spends only a little while with Mag and soon he gets annoyed with her. That demonstrates how difficult it must be for Maureen to be with her all the time.

At the beginning of the same scene Ray also comments on his favourite TV series Sons and Daughters (Australian soap opera): “Everybody's always killing each other and a lot of the girls have swimsuits. That's the best kind of programme.” (McDonagh, 1999, 37).

In an essay by Shaun Richards it is discussed that young unemployed men of Leenane spent their days waiting for the screening of Australian TV soap operas because there is no prospect of a meaningful job as a result of the isolation of the west from the rest of the globalized Ireland. (Richards, 2006, 255). This could also be considered as a reason why Ray resorts to this violent allusion on getting rid of Mag in the previous example. He has nothing better to do during the day than to watch TV where he is exposed to different sorts of violence so it is always on his mind and therefore it influences his common perception of a reality of the day.

Another example of the negative influence of the superfluity of watching violence on TV can be Ray's utterance when he admires a poker and wants to buy it from Mag. Apart from that it bears a sinister allusion on what is going to happen in the end: “Good and heavy and long. A half dozen coppers you could take out with this poker and barely notice and have not a scratch on it and then clobber them again just for the fun of seeing the blood running out of them. (Pause.) Will you sell it to me?” (McDonagh, 1999, p.39). The fact that Ray refers to seeing the blood running as fun again suggests how limited his views are and how the TV badly shapes his judgement. On top of that, he manipulates with an object which in the end Maureen will use to kill her mother with. In this case it is ironical that Mag does not want to sell it to Ray because they, like she says, need it for the fire.

The utter lack of moral values is addressed by Alfonso. She points out that in Leenane no one is easily shocked. She illustrates it on the casual discussions of violence that are present throughout the play. She adds that characters are more upset by insignificant complaints than by news of manslaughter or murder. She observes that the characters live by their own individual moral codes and when those codes collide, violence usually erupts. (Alfonso, 2009, 247).

The scene four is crucial in terms of discovering that Maureen has spent some time in a mental institution at Difford Hall in England because she suffered a mental break down when she was 25 years old. At that time both her sisters were already married and she worked in England as a cleaning lady where she was laughed at and told to: “Get back to that backward fecking pigsty of

19 yours or whatever hole it was you drug yourself out of.” (McDonagh, 1999, 31). In this seen she is parading in front of her mother in her underwear in order to boast about her night spent with Pato when Mag deflates her with telling Pato of her stay in the asylum.

Mag: Put some clothes on you, going around the house half-naked! Would be more in your line!

Maureen: I do like going around the house half-naked. It does turn me on, it does.

Mag: I suppose it does, aye.

Maureen: It does.

Mag: And reminds you of Difford Hall in England, too, I'll bet it does...

Maureen: (angrily) Now you just shut your fecking...

Mag: None of your own clothes they let you wear in there either, did they?

Maureen: Shut your oul gob, I said...!

Mag: Only long gowns and buckle-down jackets...

Maureen approaches Mag, fists clenched. Pato catches her arm and steps between the two.

Pato: What's the matter with ye two at all, now...?

Mag: Difford Hall! Difford Hall! Difford Hall...!

Maureen: Difford Hall, uh-huh. And I suppose...

Mag: Difford Hall! Difford Hall...! (McDonagh, 1999, 29 – 30).

Mag then explains Pato what Difford Hall is and shows him the papers documenting Maureen's stay there. Without a doubt, this must have been a horrific experience for Maureen so when her

20 mother pulls that out in such a manner it hurts her very much. She now has a chance to have a relationship with a man and her mother is doing everything she can to destroy it so that she still has someone to take care of her. Mag is so much afraid of being left alone that she is willing to resort to such a practice as this or as getting rid of the letters addressed to her and as a result, she ruins any hope for her daughter's possible happiness. If she is conscious of this impact of her behaviour remains a question. One can only wonder whether she is so self - centered that she does not realize the effects of her actions or whether she is just a vicious person. At the end of this intense scene after Pato and Maureen leave she just states that her porridge has gone cold. When nobody reacts to it she just repeats it louder and a blackout follows. It is interesting to point out that McDonagh built this scene on the borders of a farce using Beckettian “dianoetic laugh” which means that the audience laughs at something that is not funny nor happy. (Wilson, 2006, 31). In fact, it gives them the shivers which is one of McDonagh's common devices.

At this point all major demonstrations of psychological violence present in the play have been analysed. Starting with Maureen's addressing of her mother and continuing with Mag's constant nagging and giving orders. Moreover, the influence of the TV soap operas on the character's reflecting about violence as a common thing has been discussed. Finally, presumably the most intense scene of the first half of the play, uncovering a crucial fact about Maureen's past, has been presented.

3.2. Physical violence

Before any physical violence occurs in the play, there are several allusions made that some has already been done in the past. In the emotional scene four before Mag tells Pato about Difford Hall she accuses Maureen of scalding her hand: “(pointing at Maureen. Loudly.) She's the one that scalded my hand! I'll tell you that, now! Let alone sitting on stray men! Held it down on the range she did! Poured chip-pan fat o'er it! Aye, and told the doctor it was me!” (McDonagh, 1999, 28).

Only after this statement audience are able to appreciate the allusion made at the very beginning of the play. Of course only if they believe what Mag is saying is truth. In the scene one Mag is not satisfied with her Complan. To the Maureen's note that next time she can do it herself Mag

21 responds that she would be scared of scalding her hand by the hot water and continues listing her health problems as a reason why she could not do it by herself. She also points out her shrivelled hand which irritates Maureen immensely. The audience cannot fully understand Maureen's irritation until now when they can see that something deeper might lie behind it.

Mag telling Pato about Difford Hall in such an insensitive way provokes Maureen and for the first time in the play she is really close to physical violence. She approaches Mag with her fists clenched but Pato stops her. It is obvious that Mag touched a very sensitive issue and as a result Maureen almost lost control of herself. Fortunately, this time there is someone who can stop her in hurting her mother.

The first act of physical violence occurs in the scene seven in the form of Maureen's torturing her mother with hot oil. The scene opens up with Maureen using a shortbread finger as a sexual allusion and she teases Mag about her inactive sexual life whereas she has Pato now and therefore a rich sexual life. However, Mag knows from the letter which she destroyed that nothing actually happened between Maureen and Pato that night because Pato was too drunk to perform the sexual act. Mag unintentionally gives away the fact that she knows this and that is the point where the situation becomes greatly aggravated. Maureen starts to boil the oil and asks repeatedly how Mag found this out.

The oil has started boiling. Maureen rises, turns the radio up, stares at Mag as she passes her, takes the pan off the boil and turns the gas off, and returns to Mag with it.

Mag: (Terrified) A letter he did send you I read!

Maureen slowly and deliberately takes her mother's shrivelled hand, holds it down on the burning range, and starts slowly pouring some of the hot oil over it, as Mag screams in pain and terror. (McDonagh, 1999, 47).

When Maureen learns that Mag burnt the letter, she demands to know what did it say. A bit after a bit Mag tells her whereas Maureen continues to dip Mag's hand into the hot oil. In the moment when Mag mentions Pato's invitation to America Maureen stops abruptly. 22

Maureen: What?

Mag: But how could you go with him? You do still have me to look after.

Maureen: (In a happy daze.) He asked me to go to America with him? Pato asked me to go to America with him?

Mag: (Looking up at her.) But what about me, Maureen?

A slight pause before Maureen, in a single and almost lazy motion, throws the considerable remainder of the oil into Mag's midriff, some of it splashing up into her face. Mag doubles-up, screaming, falls to the floor, trying to pat the oil off her, and lies there convulsing, screaming and whimpering. Maureen steps out of her way to avoid her fall, still in a daze, barely noticing her. (McDonagh, 1999, 48).

It is obvious that Mag is most of all afraid of being left alone. Despite everything that is happening this is the only thing on her mind. Meanwhile, Maureen gets into a state of a daze as she hears an actual offer of a new life possible for her. Similarly to Mag, she focuses on the one thing most important for her. She leaves immediately for the train station to catch Pato before his departure. Wilson comments on the fact that an episode which started as a lascivious comedy ends in sadistic torturing and brutal despair when Mag at the end of the scene asks into the empty room who will look after her now. (Wilson, 2006, 36).

After that follows a scene with Maureen's monolog about her meeting with Pato at the train station which ends with Maureen murdering her mother with a poker. After a funeral Ray comes to visit Maureen delivering her news about Pato's engagement in America. At this point the audience learn that Maureen has never met with Pato at the train station.

Ray: Eh? Oh, also he said he was sorry he didn't get to see you the night he left, there, he would've liked to've said goodbye. But if that was the way you wanted it, so be it. Although rude, too, I thought that was.

Maureen: (Standing, confused.) I did see him the night he left. At the train station, there.

Ray: What station? Be taxicab Pato left. What are you thinking of?

Maureen: (sitting) I don't know now. (McDonagh, 1999, 55 – 56).

To the audience it is clear now that the whole conversation with Pato at the train station was happening only in Maureen's head. All the more is this a tragic moment when we realize the absolute pointlessness of the murder which Maureen justifies by getting free from her 'prison' in order to start a new life with Pato in America. As a result of all of this she stays at the same place and on top of that she starts to adopt her mother's manners. At the end Ray calls her "an exact fecking image of her mother" (McDonagh, 1999, 60).

To sum up, no matter how explicitly the physical violence is portrayed, it is the psychological one that prevails in this play. It appears that the majority of the play consists of a psychological tension that builds up gradually and ultimately leads up to the murder which is in the end absolutely pointless and driven by false facts. Alfonso emphasizes that the murder does not free Maureen, on the contrary it imprisons her even more. (Alfonso, 2009, 247). The story is based on the conflict of interests of the elderly mother who desperately seeks for attention and the daughter who is feeling like being suffocated by her own life which she, ironically, does not have.

One of the most important aspects that induces the characters' violent behaviour is the time and the setting. Alfonso very aptly encapsulates this in the conclusion of her essay:

McDonagh traces the issue of national identity in a globalized context and highlights the value of ethnicity for a community that feels their depletion is due to their Irish origin. By means of a shocking form of art, the writer gives a convincing portrait of wild rural Ireland,

24 making people aware of the reality of violence in parts of the country. Given the collapse of traditional spaces – home, region and nation – and identities – mother, daughter, Irish citizen, emigrant – the characters share unconventional relationships characterized by isolation, betrayal and brutality. In their inability to define themselves, these unstable identities are always in a permanent process of becoming. (Alfonso, 2009, 247).

4. The Lonesome West

The play is set in the same time and place as The Beauty Queen of Leenane, that is the west coast of Ireland, a small village Leenane during 1990s. The protagonists are two brothers Coleman and Valene who just buried their father who was shot by an accident. Later it is revealed that he was actually shot by Coleman on purpose because Coleman felt offended by his father's negative comment on his hair. The major part of the play consists of constant arguing of the two brothers over everything which usually leads up to a physical fight.

The brothers are often visited by the local priest father Welsh who is an alcoholic. He desperately tries to reconcile them but without any result. He blames himself for the overall bad morality that permeates Leenane and that leads him to a suicide. Before he drowns himself in a lake he leaves a letter for the brothers in which he tries for the last time to make peace between them.

The only female character in the play is a local young girl named Girleen who is in love with father Welsh and peddles alcohol in the village. It is her who stops the brothers during one of their fights by putting a knife to Coleman's neck reminding them the priest's letter. After this incident the brothers pin the letter on the wall under the crucifix and try to be good to each other from now on. However, this does not last long.

After father Welsh's funeral the brothers come home and start to contemplate about old childhood blames over a glass of poteen and they apologize and forgive to each other. By doing so they hope that father Welsh's soul finds its way into heaven. Nevertheless, the mood of their conversation becomes more and more serious as they try to top each other with more disturbing confessions. At one point they almost kill each other but they make peace again remembering the letter. However, Coleman makes another confession regarding insurance money and this time Valene grabs the gun but Coleman runs away. The play ends by Valene's attempt to burn the priest's letter in order for him not to oversee them all the time but he stops before it catches flame and puts it back on the wall.

Regarding the two brothers Valene is the one who inherited all the money from their father and he is also obsessed with marking everything that belongs to him with the letter V including a new stove and a big collection of religious figurines which he is particularly fond of. Coleman on the other hand has nothing and constantly asks Valene for food, alcohol or money.

The relationship between the brothers is described by Ben Brantley as a moldy state of suspended adolescence, needling each other with endless insults and recriminations, which every so often degenerate into fisticuffs, with the occasional appearance of a knife or firearm. (Brantley, B., 1999/2006, 406). Most of the time they are arguing about banalities such as who can and who cannot touch Valene's stove or Coleman is teasing Valene about the number of his figurines. They are in fact two adults behaving like children.

What is important to mention is their suppressed sexuality, a theme that strongly resonates through the whole trilogy. According to numerous comments it is obvious that they are just boasting about their sexual experiences which never really happened. For example, in scene six they are discussing a piece of news about a girl in Norway who was born without lips and Coleman is pitying her for she will never be kissed. Valene responds in a way that her and Coleman are the same – they will never be kissed – after which he starts to boast that he has already kissed two million girls and not aunties at all, as Coleman suggests, but proper women.

In scene four, when father Welsh gives Girleen the letter for the brothers, she makes fun of him that he is giving them a pack of condoms whereupon she remarks that they would have no use for them unless they would use them on a hen. After that she adds that it would have to be a blind hen. This idea that Girleen gets of the brothers indicates that they have never even had an opportunity to gain any sexual experience at all.

Regarding the sexually charged bragging and self-flatteries of the brothers Mária Kurdi assumes that they tend to carry a paradoxical or even entirely nonsensical mixture of hetero and homosexual reference, the more obscene the better. As for example the abusive label “virgin fecking gayboy” or “sissy-arse”. (Kurdi, 2006, 107).

Although, the theme of sex is pervasive throughout the trilogy, according to Joan FitzPatrick Dean "the consummation of desire remains the rarest of occurrences if it ever takes place at all." (Dean, as cited in Chambers & Jordan, 2006, 108). She demonstrates it on the moment when

Girleen reveals her true feelings to father Welsh but "at the same time they are stifled by their mutual fears to believe that the expression of genuine emotions and sexual attraction are normal and human." (Dean, as cited in Chambers & Jordan, 2006, 108).

Interestingly enough, Kurdi sees the gun that features in the last scene as a counterpart of the poker from The Beauty Queen of Leenane as a phallic symbol of power. (Kurdi, 2006, 109).

Regarding the character of Father Welsh, he plays an important role of a peacemaker between the brothers. Once he even uses physical violence on himself in order to make the brothers stop fighting. He believes that deep down there is love between them and he urges them if they would not try to reconcile for their sake, they should try to do it for him so at least one thing he can make right. His letter, which they put on the wall later, is a symbol for father Welsh watching over them.

As for the setting, it is the same as in the Beauty Queen of Leenane therefore, everything that has been said in the previous chapter applies in the same measure for The Lonesome West. The isolation from the rest of the world is affecting both of the brothers who have nothing better to do than to quarrel and father Welsh who after he comes to Leenane becomes an alcoholic and eventually commits suicide because he cannot see any way how to fix this decayed part of the world.

4.1. Psychological violence

The core of the psychological violence between the brothers would be the never - ending verbal insults and humiliation. It does not matter which brother has started the fight but the other one always only adds fuel to the fire such as in the following example when Valene brings more plastic figurines and arranges them into a shelf.

Valene: Fibreglass.

Coleman (pause): Feck fibreglass.

Valene: No, feck you instead of feck fibreglass.

Coleman: No, feck you two times instead of feck fibreglass...

Welsh: Hey now!! (Pause.) Jesus! (McDonagh, 1999, 131-132).

As always father Welsh is admonishing them which only works for a while because they will soon find something else over which they fight. Not until father Welsh's suicide they do not show any sign of an effort to prevent or to stop the fighting. On the contrary, they only support it.

Valene: Don't you be starting with me again, ya feck.

Coleman: I will do what I wish, Mr. Figurine-man.

Valene: Leave me figurines out of it.

Coleman: How many more do ya fecking need?

Valene: Lots more! No, lots and lots more!

Coleman: Oh aye.

Valene: And where's me felt-tip pen, too, so I'll be giving them me 'V'? (McDonagh, 1999, 134).

It is obvious that Coleman is teasing Valene with addressing him "Mr. Figurine-man" and Valene is supporting Coleman's indignation over the figurines by saying "lots and lots more." It almost seems that they enjoy this bickering which would be fine unless it would not lead into physical violence afterwards.

In scene six they are discussing a piece of news about a football team and unusually for them, they find themselves to have the same opinion on the matter:

Coleman: She was fecking feigning? Getting us expelled from all competitions for no reason at all? I hope she relapses into her coma and dies.

Valene: The same as that, I hope she lapses into her coma and dies. (Pause.) Look at us, we're in agreement.

Coleman: We are, I suppose.

Valene: We can agree sometimes.

He snatches the magazine out of Coleman's hands.

Valene: Except don't go reading me magazines, I've told you, 'til I've finished reading them.

He sits at the table and flips through the magazine without reading it. Coleman fumes.

Coleman: (standing) And don't go.... don't go tearing them out of me fecking hands, near tore the fingers off me! (McDonagh, 1999, 173).

First, it seems they are finally able to agree, regardless the fact that it concerns a violent thought. However, Valene does not hesitate to use the moment to reproach Coleman that he is reading his magazine before he himself had read it, he snatches it out of his hands even though he does not intend to really read it. Yet Coleman does not let his brother to intimidate him and fights back. Whereupon they end up again in the never - ending circle of insults while neither of them is willing to step back.

The following extract features father Welsh who is psychologically tormented in his own self- pitying way. His alcohol addiction is caused by his low self-esteem and his conviction that he is not a good priest which later results in a suicide.

Welsh: I'm a terrible priest, so I am. I can never be defending God when people go saying things agin him, and, sure, isn't that the main qualification for being a priest?

Coleman: Ah there be a lot worse priests than you, Father, I'm sure. The only thing with you is you're a bit too weedy and you're a terror for the drink and you have doubts about Catholicism. Apart from that you're a fine priest. Number one you don't go abusing five- year olds so, sure, doesn't that give you a head-start over half the priests in Ireland?

Welsh: That's no comfort at all, and them figurines are overexaggerated anyways. I'm a terrible priest and I run a terrible parish, and that's the end of the matter. Two murderers I have on me books, and I can't get either of the beggars confess to it. About betting on the horses and impure thoughts is all them bastards ever confess.

Coleman: Em, only I don't think you should be telling me what people be confessing, Father. You can be excommunicated for that I think. I saw it in a film with Montgomery Clift.

Welsh: Do ya see? I'm shite sure. (McDonagh, 1999, 135).

Surprisingly, given his argumentative nature, Coleman is trying to comfort father Welsh. He also tackles an important issue that relates to what was happening in Ireland at the time regarding the church. Patrick Lonergan expresses an idea that each part of the Leenane Trilogy represents one of the authorities firmly rooted in Irish life. Specifically, The Beauty Queen of Leenane deals with family, A Skull in Connemara with the law and The Lonesome West with the church. The power of these authorities in Ireland were being eroded by revelations about political corruption, child abuse and institutional incompetence. (Lonergan, 2013, 637).

Father Welsh also refers to two murders which happened during his stay in Leenane. One is the murder of Mag Follan from the first play and the other one from The Skull in Connemara. Therefore he also represents an interconnection among the three parts of the trilogy.

Coleman justifies his belief, that father Welsh could be excommunicated for sharing other people's confessions, by seeing it in a film. This relates to the fact that they watch a lot of TV

31 same as the characters in The Beauty Queen of Leenane because they have nothing better to do during the day due to the lack of employment.

4.2 Physical violence

Constant verbal insults and mutual nagging of the brothers usually results in some kind of physical violence be it grabbing by the neck, throwing things at each other, wrestling on the floor, pointing a knife or a gun at each other and so on.

There are two moments which are pivotal and at the same time brought into ad absurdum. Before analysing these scenes there are other two interesting moments which are related to physical violence yet the reason behind it is different from causing pain or suffering.

First is when in scene six the brothers are arguing about a packet of crisps. They end up wrestling on the floor. All this is witnessed by Girleen who comes to bring them the letter from father Welsh. When she gets a chance she grabs a butcher's knife and puts it to Coleman's neck in order to catch their attention and to break them off. By doing so she successfully achieves that and Valene is actually scared for his brother's life and they stop at once. This is the only moment in the play when we can see a glimpse of what father Welsh is implying in his letter and that is that somewhere deep down there is love between the two of them. Or at least some sign of mutual care. However, it must be someone else, apart from themselves, who is threatening, otherwise they are pretty much determined to kill each other on a couple of occasions.

Second is a part of one of the crucial moments between the brothers. It is when father Welsh deliberately puts both of his hands into a bowl of steaming hot melted plastic in order to attract the brothers’ attention and to stop them fighting.

In those two particular moments both Girleen and father Welsh are using violence in order to stop another violence from happening. Apparently, this is the only way how to make the brothers listen.

Another act connected with the physical violence is father Welsh's suicide by drowning himself in a lake.

During the play there are two escalated moments in which the brothers are on the verge of killing each other. Each moment has its own trigger and in both cases it is Coleman who does or say something which Valene is not able to overcome. First it is the figurines, second it is his dog's ears.

The first incident is trigged by Coleman's childish act of vengeance, by putting Valene's religious figurines into the stove where they melt. The moment he finds out he grabs the gun and starts to shout: “I'll kill the feck! I'll kill the feck!” (McDonagh, 1999, 156). Father Welsh is trying to calm him down by saying that he cannot shoot his own flesh and blood. Valene responses:

Valene: Me own flesh and blood is right, and why not? If he's allowed to murder his own flesh and blood and get away with it, why shouldn't I be?

Welsh: What are you talking about, now? Coleman shooting your dad was a pure accident and you know well.

Valene: A pure accident me arse! You're the only fecker in Leenane believes that shooting was an accident. Didn't dad make a jibe about Coleman's hairstyle, and didn't Coleman dash out, pull him back be the hair and blow the poor skulleen out of his head, the same as he'd been promising to do since the age of eight and da trod on his Scalectrix, broke it in two...

Coleman enters through the front door.

Coleman: Well I did love that Scalectrix. It had glow in the dark headlamps. (McDonagh, 1999, 156-157).

This is regarded by Murphy as a clear implication of patriarchal abuse which goes back into the early childhood. (Murphy, 2006, 67). Evidently, Coleman had held a grudge against his father for a long time and throughout the years it was only strengthening by piling up particular cases of injustice done upon him. The comment on his hair was only the last drop that released

Coleman's anger which resulted in a murder. This abuse can be considered as the core of all the problems that accumulated over the years.

The scene continues by father Welsh not being able to believe that this was not an accident: “Tell me you didn't shoot your dad on purpose, Coleman. Please, tell...”. Whereas Valene interrupts him: “This isn't about our fecking dad! This is about me fecking figurines!” (McDonagh, 1999, 157).

Valene's excessive reaction is an example of emotional and intellectual underdevelopment which is according to Murphy the cause of all the sibling rivalry and fraternal abuse. (Murphy, 2006, 73).

After Coleman confirms that he killed his father on purpose he justifies his act by saying the following which only serves as another example of his emotional underdevelopment and twisted perception of values: “I don't take criticizing from nobody. 'Me hair's like a drunken child's.' I'd only just combed me hair and there was nothing wrong with it! And I know well shooting your dad in the head is against God, but there's some insults that can never be excused.” (McDonagh, 1999, 158).

At this point it seems as Coleman is the bad brother but another revelation is about to be made.

Coleman: I'll tell you another thing that's against God. Sitting your brother in a chair, with his dad's brains dripping down him, and promising to tell everyone it was nothing but an accident...

Valene: Shut up now, ya feck...

Coleman: So long as there and then you sign over everything your dad went and left you in his will...

Welsh: No... no... no...

Coleman: His house and his land and his tables and his chairs and his bit of money to go frittering away on shitey-arsed ovens you only got to torment me, ya feck... (McDonagh, 1999, 158).

From the beginning we are led to believe that their father left all his possessions to Valene but now it became clear that originally the heritage was left to Coleman. As a price for his silence about the intentional murder Valene made Coleman to resign everything to him. Now all Coleman's spiteful actions towards Valene suddenly make sense.

The situation reaches its climax when Valene pulls the trigger. However there is no gun shot, only a hollow click. Coleman took out the cartridges earlier which he now shows to Valene. The horrifying fact is that Valene pulls the trigger two more times after it does not fire for the first time. This indicates his strong intention to kill his brother. The moment when they start to fight over the cartridges is when father Welsh puts his hands into the hot liquid as a desperate cry for their attention in order to stop them from killing each other.

Their reaction on his behaving after he runs away is:

Coleman: Sure that fella's pure mad.

Valene: He's outright mad.

Coleman: He's a lube. (Gesturing at bowl.) Will he be expecting us to clear his mess up?

Valene puts his head out the front door and calls out.

Valene: Will you be expecting us to clear your mess up, you? (McDonagh, 1999, 159- 160).

Coleman than remarks that it is Valene's floor after all so he is supposed to clean it and than he leaves for his room. This absurd conclusion of the scene is left to be resonating among the audience during the interval that follows after. Despite the anticipation that the audience would

35 be left deeply shaken by what they have just seen the reality is quite the opposite. Murphy comments on his experience from the Lyric theatre in 2005:

While this act is physically shocking on the page, the reaction to it on the stage was much less so at least in terms of the Lyric production, where the effects of Welsh's self-immolation were sidelined by the brothers' antics. The waves of laughter rippling through the audiences at every performance I attended, both before and during the event, served to wash away the traumatic effects of the horrifying spectacle. Indeed the audiences continued laughing as Welsh dashed off the stage screaming in agony, and a fresh wave of laughter greeted the brothers' dim-witted reaction to Welsh's masochism. (Murphy, 2006, 69).

The other crucial moment happens at the end of the play when the brothers are playing a “game” of confessing and apologizing for their childhood wrongs. In order to understand what confession is Coleman trying to top by revealing it was him who cut Valene's dog's ears off, it is necessary to mention the incident with Alison O'Hoolihan. At the beginning of the play Coleman describes what happened to a girl he was in love with.

Coleman: I was in love with a girl one time, aye, not that it's any of your fecking business. At tech this was. Alison O'Hoolihan. This gorgeous red hair on her. But she got a pencil stuck in the back of her gob one say. She was sucking it the pointy-end inwards. She must've gotten a nudge. That was the end of me and Alison O'Hoolihan.

Welsh: Did she die, Coleman?

Coleman: She didn't die, no. I wish she had, the bitch. No, she got engaged to the bastarding doctor who wrenched the pencil out of her. Anybody could've done that job. It didn't need a doctor. I have no luck. (McDonagh, 1999, 131).

At this point Coleman has no idea that it was not an accident but it was Valene who nudged the girl on purpose because he was jealous of his brother. By doing so he tried to prevent him from going to a dance with her the following day. Moreover, regarding the repressed sexuality, Kurdi claims that the act of shoving a pointed object to a female body also gains a sexual overtone by functioning as a coital substitute. (Kurdi, 2006, 110).

Coleman is feeling hurt that his brother ruined his chance to have a relationship and his response to this revelation is his confession that it was him who cut off the ears of Valene's dog.

Coleman: ... D'you remember you always thought it was Mairtin Hanlon snipped the ears off of poor Lassie, now?

Valene: (confidently) I don't believe you at all. You're only making it up now, see.

Coleman: It wasn't wee Mairtin at all. D'you know who it was, now?

Valene: Me arse was it you. You'll have to be doing better than that, now, Coleman.

Colema: To the brookeen I dragged him, me scissors in hand, and him whimpering his fat gob off 'till the deed was done and he dropped down dead with not a fecking peep out of that whiny fecking dog. (McDonagh, 1999, 189).

Only after Coleman brings the dog's ears in a paper bag as evidence Valene grabs a butcher's knife. In the same moment Coleman takes a gun and points it at Valene.

Coleman: (surprised, slightly scared) What are you doing, now, Valene?

Valene: (blankly) Oh not a thing am I doing, Coleman, other than killing ya.

Coleman: Be putting that knife back in that drawer, you.

Valene: No, I'll be putting it in the head of you, now.

Coleman: Don't you see me gun? (McDonagh, 1999, 190-191).

The knowledge that his beloved dog was mutilated by his own brother is too much to bear for Valene. He does not care if he dies as well with his brother and at that moment he also does not care about father Welsh's letter. When Coleman reminds him of it he responds that father Welsh was not here when the incident with the dog happened so therefore his involvement does not relate to this matter. The situation escalates up to the point when Coleman's gun is touching Valene's chest and Valene's knife is touching Coleman's chest. Suddenly, Coleman changes the aim of the gun and points it at the stove.

Valene: (pause) Be pointing that gun away from me stove, now.

Coleman: I won't be. Stay away, now. It's your stove it'll be'll be going with me instead of ya.

Valene: Leave...what...? That was a three-hundred-pound stove now, Coleman...

Coleman: I know well it was.

Valene: Be leaving it alone. That's just being sly, that is.

Coleman: Be backing off you with that knife, you sissy-arse.

Valene: (tearfully) You're not a man at all, pointing guns at stoves. (McDonagh, 1999, 191-192).

For fear that his stove would be destroyed Valene actually puts down the knife. This is a manifest of the utter absurdity of his perception of moral values. His stove and religious plastic figurines mean more to him than his own life. After that Coleman goes on and on about how he cannot believe that his own brother rose a knife against him whereas Valene urges him to stop aiming at the stove in case the gun would go off by accident.

Valene: Is the safety catch on that gun, now?

Coleman: The safety catch, is it?

Valene: Aye, the safety catch! The safety catch! Is it ten million times I have to be repeating meself?

Coleman: The safety catch, uh-huh...

He jumps to his feet, points the gun down at the stove and fires, blowing the right-hand side apart. Valene falls to his knees in horror, his face in his hand. Coleman cocks the gun again and blows the left-hand side apart also, then nonchalantly sits back down.

Coleman: No, the safety catch isn't on at all, Valene. Would you believe it?

Pause. Valene is still kneeling there, dumbstruck.

Coleman: And I'll tell you another thing...

He suddenly jumps up again and, holding the shotgun by the barrel, starts smashing it violently into the figurines, shattering them to pieces and sending them flying around the room until not a single one remains standing. Valene screams throughout. After Coleman has finished he sits again, the gun across his lap. Valene is still kneeing. Pause.

Coleman: And don't go making out that you didn't deserve it, because we both know full well that you did. (McDonagh, 1999, 193).

Here Coleman is making an allusion to the fact that Valene threatened him to give away the truth about their father's death unless he resigns the heritage to him. As a result of this Coleman remained poor and Valene had everything. Now as a revenge Coleman destroys Valene's stove and figurines which, however ridiculous it may sound, were the things closest to his heart.

Valene's reaction is that he rises the knife again at Coleman with a comment that now he has no more bullets. However, Coleman pulls something from his pocket but he holds it in a clenched fist so neither Valene or the audience know whether he has really loaded the gun or just pretended to do so. While aiming at each other again with the gun and the knife, Coleman is teasing Valene about the presence of the bullet in the gun. It is a very intensive moment which ends by Coleman putting down the knife and going over to the father Welsh's letter, touching it and saying:

Valene: Father Welsh is burning in hell, now, because of our fighting.

Coleman: Well did we ask him to go and betting his soul on us? No. And, sure, it's pure against the rules for priests to go betting anyways, neverminding with them kinds of stakes. Sure a fiver would've been overdoing it on us, let alone his soul. And what's wrong with fighting anyways? I do like a good fight. It does show you care, fighting does. That's what oul sissy Welsh doesn't understand. Don't you like a good fight?

Valene: I do like a good fight, the same as that. Although I don't like having me dog murdered on me, and me fecking dad murdered on me. (McDonagh, 1999, 194).

Father Welsh once again metaphorically steps between them. Coleman apologizes to Valene for killing their father, Valene's dog and for destroying the stove and the figurines. This time it seems genuine and honest and the brothers decide to go out for a drink.

Kurdi points out the expression “a good fight” as the traditional test of manhood. The constant need of the brothers to prove their masculinity in some physically forceful way in order not to look weak does not let them to leave things just like that. In the Becketian fashion it will all start again. (Kurdi, 2006, 109).

Before they go out for the drink Coleman makes a remark about the insurance money.

Coleman: Do you remember a couple of weeks ago there when you asked me did I go stealing your insurance money and I said no, I paid it in for you?

Valene: I do remember.

Coleman: (pause) I didn't pay it in at all. I pocketed the lot of it, pissed it up a wall. (McDonagh, 1999, 195).

Coleman yet again needs to prove that he is the one who has the upper hand here. At the same time it is obvious that the brothers are apparently forever entangled in a never ending circle of sick need to prove their masculinity and therefore there is no chance for them to reconcile.

After this statement, Coleman runs out the front door. Valene goes after him with the gun but is not able to catch him. He checks for the bullets in the gun and finds out that Coleman really had loaded the gun before: “He'd've fecking shot me too. He'd've shot his own fecking brother! On top of his dad! On top of me stove!” (McDonagh, 1999, 196). The fact that Valene puts in one line his dad's life, his own life and his stove's life is at first quite funny but at the same time very disturbing.

He also wants to destroy father Welsh's letter: “And you, you winy fecking priest. Do I need your soul hovering o'er me the rest of me fecking life? How could anybody be getting on with that feck?” (McDonagh, 1999, 196). Eventually he decides not to destroy it and pins it back on the wall: “(Quietly) I'm too fecking kind-hearted is my fecking trouble.” (McDonagh, 1999, 196).

The play ends by lights fading, with one light lingering on the crucifix and the letter on the wall a second longer than the others. This leaves the audience at least with some faith that maybe there is after all some hope for the brothers no matter how hard it might seem. This little touch at the end as well as the whole play mirrors the power of church as the main topic of the play as Lonergan sees it.

To sum up, on the contrary to The Beauty Queen of Leenane, in The Lonesome West it is the physical violence that prevails. The brothers do verbally insult each other very often but they

41 also resolve to physical violence considerably more often than Mag and Maureen. Coleman murdering their father over a bad hair comment is the starting point for all the troubles. There is this forced act of resigning the heritage from one brother to another in order to keep the secret that the murder was not an accident. Coleman who was supposed to have everything now has nothing and at the same time he is forced to not talk about it otherwise his secret would be revealed. All his suppressed feelings of hatred towards his brother result in the childish acts of vengeance like teasing, melting the figurines or misappropriation of the insurance money. He uses every opportunity to annoy his brother who does not hesitate to pay it back. Valene's possessive nature and his emotional attachment towards inanimate objects are not his only problems. As it turns out he used the murder of their farther in his favour which demonstrates the true nature of his distorted character.

5. Conclusion

The thesis examines the theme of violence in two out of three plays which together create The Leenane Trilogy by Martin McDonagh. The selected plays are the first The Beauty Queen of Leenane and the third The Lonesome West. They are chosen intentionally in order to demonstrate domestic violence between two women (mother and daughter) and two men (brothers) which does not correspond with the usual structure of domestic violence when a man is the aggressor and a woman the victim.

The introduction is devoted to Martin McDonagh and his work. The first chapter focuses on violence and defines the terms physical, psychological and domestic violence. Furthermore, it introduces in-yer-face theatre which is used by McDonagh and which is closely connected to violence. The second and the third chapters are crucial since they deal with the analysis of the two selected plays. It starts with a plot review, followed by a description of the characters and the setting. After that, specific examples of violence from the play are presented and analysed.

The result of the analysis implies that in these two plays men incline towards physical violence more often than women. In The Beauty Queen of Leenane Mag and Maureen rather maintain this ever present poisonous atmosphere and gradually build the palpable tension until it bursts and results in a murder. As for Valene and Coleman in The Lonesome West a murder is a starting point of all the problems. However, they come on the verge of killing each other so many times that it almost seems funny. This implies that they only make big gestures but in the end they do nothing and carry on until the next fight. Only like this they can continue to satisfy their need to prove their masculinity over and over again.

Another important finding is that in both The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Lonesome West neither of the parties try to act constructively. Valene and Coleman directly seek every opportunity to fight, they provoke each other, they even try to top each other in who makes more disturbing confession. As for Mag and Maureen it may seem that the 'villain' here is the mother and the 'victim' the daughter. A mother who does not want to let her own daughter go and live her own life because she is scared to be left alone. However, she herself can also be considered as the victim of the time and the place. It is not possible to point out only one source of all the

43 misery as it is a combination of several factors entangled together including the character's personal disposition.

Furthermore, in both plays there exists an incident of physical violence which has been done in the past and its consequences are clearly visible in the present. Regarding Valene and Coleman in The Lonesome West, there was a murder of their father which was a result of a psychological abuse and also by the immaturity of the brothers. In the case of Mag and Maureen in The Beauty Queen of Leenane, it is apparent that Maureen has scolded her mother's hand which was a result of psychological oppression and hopelessness. Thus, the plays also dramatize the actual psychological truism that aggressors are often victims themselves and they replicate violent behaviour which corresponds with Bandura's social learning theory.

Finally, it is obvious that the physical violence does not occur out of the open but it is the psychological one that precedes it. It is not that the characters act violently without any previous reason. However explicit and shocking might the physical violence in The Beauty Queen of Leenane and The Lonesome West seem, it is the psychological one that needs to be considered as more serious. This also correlates with the statements of victims who have suffered domestic violence who claim that the emotional abuse is much harder to bear than the physical one. In fact, the physical violence is only an outburst of accumulated suppressed feelings that have no more space to expand to, therefore, naturally they must come out in some way. At the beginning of both plays there is always either psychological abuse, suppressed desires, isolation, frustration, loneliness, desperation all together combined with emotional underdevelopment, sexual repression and isolation from the rest of the world.

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