Building Empowerment Through Drama: The Characterisation Process of Irish Women in Three Plays by Sean O’Casey

Abstract

Irish female imagery and its connection with the Irish New State politics seem to be one interrelation which requires further examination, especially with a focus on the women who had active participation in the Irish society, not only the few ones from the historical records, but mainly the ones that lacked special social status. Sean O’Casey, in his first three productions on Abbey Theatre’s stage, The Shadow of a Gunman (1923), Juno and the Paycock (1924) and The Plough and the Stars (1926), placed powerful female characters
on the stage, transferring the heroism from the male figure to the female subject. These are representations of women who relied on their own agency, able to act in a higher level of autonomy in a different range of situations independently of cultural contingencies. Through these dramatic texts, taking both character construction and sociological approaches, I seek to demonstrate in my work-in-progress, how O’Casey, even being in the awakening of the twentieth century, could insert in his plays notions of individual empowerment through the creation of empowered female characters.