Masaryk University

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. …...................................... 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. 8 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, 9 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,

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