29 pages • 58 minutes read
Seán O'CaseyJuno and the Paycock
Fiction | Play | Adult | Published in 1924A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Act IChapter Summaries & Analyses
Act I Summary
The play opens during the morning hour in the Boyle family’s two-room tenement in Dublin, Ireland, in 1922. The two Boyle children, in their early 20s, begin the scene. Johnny is by the fire, and Mary is in front of the mirror. Mrs. Boyle, or Juno, returns from shopping. Juno questions the whereabouts of her husband (former sea captain) Jack Boyle, responding to his absence with “Oh, he’ll come in when he likes, struttin’ about the town like a paycock” (436). O’Casey has written a working-class Irish dialect for his characters; “paycock” means “peacock.”
Juno mentions that Mrs. Tancred’s, a neighbor’s, son has been killed in the Irish Civil War, a war that resulted from Ireland’s divided reaction to independence from British rule. Johnny does not want to hear about the death, having lost his own arm during the recent fighting and also having taken a bullet in the hip during the 1916 Easter Rising against the British in Dublin streets. Juno is about to make breakfast but is upset about Jack’s unemployment and carousing with his buddy Joxer Daly. The conversation topic changes to Mary’s union affiliation and her choice to go on strike. Mary explains her decision to her unconvinced mother, “A principle’s a principle” (436).
Jerry Devine, Mary’s on-and-off-again boyfriend, arrives at the apartment asking to see Jack regarding a possible job prospect from local priest, Father Farrell. Juno replies that there are two pubs where Jack is likely to be, suggesting that Jack has a routine. Jack and Joxer eventually arrive, talking about Juno without realizing that she is there. Jack mentions her “grousin’” and Joxer wonders how he can be tied to the “grousin’.” Jack offers to make some tea, then Juno appears, sarcastically asking if Joxer wouldn’t also like an egg. Joxer suddenly tries to leave the apartment with some excuse. Jack tries to intervene, asking Joxer about a job with a foreman he knows. Jack says he feels no pains in his legs this week. Juno doesn’t believe he’s actually going to work and tells him she’s tired of bringing in the money by herself. Jack claims he hasn’t had any liquor in three weeks and hasn’t been in Ryan’s “snug,” or pub.
Jerry returns from Ryan’s, where he learned that Jack and Joxer just left, confirming Jack’s lie to Juno. Jack gets upset that Jerry has interfered in his business. Jerry mentions the job prospect from earlier, and, suddenly, Jack feels pains in his legs. Juno expresses her frustration, and Jack reluctantly puts on his work trousers. Juno then announces her departure.
Jerry has a moment alone with Mary, asking why she hasn’t spoken to him in the past few weeks. Mary tries to leave, but Jerry grabs her arm, inquiring about her dating another man and offering to walk with her. Mary breaks free and leaves with Jerry following. Jack appears, lamenting children’s behaviors these days in front of their parents. He starts to make breakfast, singing to himself and ignoring knocks at the door. Joxer reappears and is nervous about Juno catching them. Jack mentions the job prospect, and they start to talk about religion. Jack confesses that he thinks the clergy have had too much power in Ireland and how because of his son’s sacrifice for the country the priest is now reaching out to Jack with jobs. Jack recalls his seaman days, and Joxer responds with his trademark expression, “It’s darlin’.” A vendor comes by trying to sell them coal, and Joxer is nervous that Juno is returning to spy on them. Juno does soon appear, and Joxer hastily climbs out of the window while Jack puts the food away. Juno asks if Joxer has been there, and Jack denies it. Juno tells him that there’s good news on the horizon, not a job, and that Jack should change into better clothes.
Mary arrives with schoolteacher and lawyer-to-be Charlie Bentham. Juno greets him while Johnny and Jack bicker in the next-door room. Juno calls for Johnny, introducing him to Charlie and talking about his service to Ireland along with his war wounds. Johnny says he is willing to fight until Ireland is fully free, and Juno agrees that “no bread’s a lot better than half a loaf,” meaning no independence is better than partial independence from Britain (443). Jack emerges in his best trousers, and Juno introduces Charlie to her husband. Charlie remarks on Juno’s name, and Jack explains that because many great things happened in June, such as Juno’s christening and wedding, he came up with her nickname. Charlie then announces that one of Jack’s relatives has died and left money for Jack in his will. With this news, Jack declares he will no longer hang around Joxer, who hears this declaration from outside the window and climbs back inside. Jack shoos an upset Joxer out of the apartment door and confesses his loyalty to Juno in poetic form.
Act I Analysis
O’Casey was indebted to the Realism movement, which took shape in the late 19th century in response to the Industrial Age and the new social conditions that came with it, such as economic disparities. In this play, O’Casey attempts to capture the reality around him via the setting; the Boyle home is a two-room tenement for the family of four, which reveals the poor living conditions for the working class of Dublin in the 1920s. Additionally, O’Casey employs realism by imitating the speech patterns of labor workers he worked with as a young boy; these patterns are most evident in the characters of Joxer and Jack (433).
The series of Irish wars and political upheaval that O’Casey experienced at the time of writing also influence the play. In 1916 during World War I, an armed insurrection of the Irish took place in the streets of Dublin, with the Irish fighting against British rule; this event was known as the Easter Rising. The Irish War of Independence from 1919 to 1921 came next and ended with the Anglo-Irish Treaty of 1921 and the emergence of the Irish Free Staters. However, starting in 1922, the Irish Civil War between the Free Staters, those in favor of the treaty, and the Die-hards, those in favor of Ireland as completely autonomous, began.
Ireland as free also came with the acknowledgement of hard labor, as O’Casey saw it. This becomes apparent in Juno’s remark to Johnny, “You lost your best principle, me boy, when you lost your arm,” meaning he can no longer perform manual labor tasks (442). Like the Irish trying to become free, the Boyles seem to have hope that their situation can change, especially when they learn of the inheritance at the end of the act. Another example is Mary, who places her principles for a cause above getting a paycheck. Jack finds Mary’s books, which include Henrik Ibsen (another Realist playwright), suggesting Mary’s interest in education and, perhaps, the possibility of a higher economic status one day.
With all of the suffering that influenced O’Casey’s reality, and the reality of the play, the tone still straddles tragicomic rather than pure tragic. For example, the use of a repetitive pattern is established in Act I with Jack receiving a job prospect and suddenly feeling pains in his legs. The potential for the actor to farcically portray this situation is in O’Casey’s writing. There is also the repetition of character catchphrases that start in Act I, such as Joxer’s this or that is “darlin’” and Jack’s “the world’s in a state o’ chassis,” which take on different meanings throughout the play.
O’Casey’s inclusion of Henrik Ibsen is likely a nod to Ibsen’s best-known play, The Doll’s House. Similar to Juno and the Paycock, The Doll’s House follows a female lead, Nora, who has a lack of autonomy as a married woman. Nora falsifies a loan document so that she can travel to Italy, and in the process, she realizes that her husband sees her as a dumb plaything rather than a human being. Just as in O’Casey’s play, Nora leaves her husband in the last act. Through this reference, O’Casey emphasizes the different constraints on women depending on their social status: While Nora is a wealthy woman for whom work is taboo, Juno is the breadwinner of her household and works endlessly to keep her family fed. Nora is well cared for, but she has no authority over her life or her family’s wealth; she leaves a comfortable position to gain autonomy. Juno, conversely, leaves her husband for the sake of survival; Jack’s a drain on her finances and will endanger the remaining family members. O’Casey seems to be comparing the women’s plights and pointing out the frivolity of what’s often considered Ibsen’s feminist play.
