Depiction of women and their lives
The plays dancing at lughasa and clay witten by brian and joyce respectively show how the irish women struggle to get the limited opportunities of life. Also, they highlight the frustrations of unmarried women in ireland. As a result, they are faced with poverty and lack of economic opportunies. Thus, this paper seeks to explore how women lives are perceived in ireland in the two narratives.
The clay is a narrative that involves the life of maria and her frustrations for being unmarried. She is teased in the tea service, bakery and at joes house because of being unmarried. Also, in joe’s house in her song she skips the verse that mentions suitors because she is frustrated by her marital status. In the narrative dancing at lughasa the story is about five sisters who are not married and they also struggle with lack of eceonomic opportunities and poverty. Although they all had suitors at some point in their lives they are all unmarried and frustrated.
In the clay narrative, maria worked in laundry firm which is also refered to as fallen women. The name fallen women was used to refer to the unmarried moms and prostitutes who were only working hard to redeem themselves in life. The inmates are always arguing and they refer to maria as their servant. Thus, maria’s presence in the firm is used to show how women are are depicted as the diminished gender in the society. Also, when maria goes to joes house she engages the children in a traditional game which is used to predict the future. In the game she chooses clay which represents death and a prayer book which represents convent life. She fails to pick the ring which means wedding because she is not enthusiastic about it. Maria also seems not to be aware that she will die alone. Also, the narrative shows that maria is aware that she is missing alot in life.
In the two narratives both maria and the five sisters are unmarried. However, there is a difference when it comes to their economic status. For instance, maria is employed and independent whereas in the ”dancing of lughasa” the oldest sister named kate is the only one with a wellpaying job. Rose and agnes knit sweatas and sell in the market while christina nd maggie are lack a source of income. This shows how the four sisters are faced with poverty as they do not have a well paying job. This aspect also show how the irish women were perceived as economically frustrated and without husbands. Thus, in the ”dancing of lughasa” narrative the theme of financial insecurity and poverty is more dominant and it is shown using the four sisters. The theme also shows how irish women are unfulfilled because they lack good jobs and husbands. The narrative also shows how irish women are perceived in the 1930’s. there is a sense of limitation that the mundy sisters go through.
In summary, the two narratives show the depiction of of women and their lives. In ”clay” maria is used to show how a woman no matter her financial stability is teased everywhere because she is married. Also, through maria being in the launry firm the depiction of unamarried women is highlighted whereby they are refered to as fallen wome tring to redeem themselves. On the other hand, ”dancing at lughasa” shows the depiction of women with poverty. In this narrative four out of the five sisters do not have an income. It shows how the women in the narrative are frustated economically and unfulfilled because they are unmarried.