Flashcards for The Plough and the Stars

Bessie Burgess

Bessie Burgess is a working-class Protestant street trader in Seán O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars (1926), which takes place during the 1916 Easter Rising.

character

Captain Brennan

Captain Brennan is a minor yet crucial character in Seán O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars.

character

Corporal Stoddart

Corporal Stoddart is a British soldier featured in Act IV of Seán O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars, which takes place during the 1916 Easter Rising.

character

Fluther Good

Fluther Good is a carpenter from a Dublin tenement and one of the most memorable comic-heroic characters in Seán O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars (1926).

character

Jack Clitheroe

Jack Clitheroe is the idealistic and deeply conflicted protagonist of Seán O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars (1926), set against the backdrop of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin.

character

Mollser

Mollser is a minor yet poignant character in Seán O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars, a play set in a Dublin tenement during the 1916 Easter Rising.

character

Nora Clitheroe

Nora Clitheroe is the emotional and moral heart of Seán O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars, a Dublin tenement wife whose intense domestic love is gradually shattered by the nationalist fervor of the 1916 Easter Rising.

character

Peter Flynn

Peter Flynn is Nora Clitheroe's irritable uncle and a minor character in the Irish Volunteers, mainly providing comic relief and a means to satirize petty nationalist pride in Seán O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars.

character

Rosie Redmond

Rosie Redmond is a Dublin sex worker featured mainly in Act II of Seán O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars, which is set during the 1916 Easter Rising.

character

The Covey

The Covey is Jack Clitheroe's young cousin and a dedicated socialist in Seán O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars, set during the 1916 Easter Rising.

character

“I'd be ashamed to be seen with you, so I would. You're not fit to be seen with decent people.”

This sharp line comes from Bessie Burgess, a fiercely Protestant street vendor, aimed at one of her neighbors—likely the more "respectable" Nora Clitheroe—during one of the many quarrels that break out in Seán O'Casey's 1926 play The Plough and the Stars.

Bessie Burgess

“It's a curious way to demonstrate your love of your country — by blowing it to bits.”

This line is spoken by Bessie Burgess, though it’s more commonly attributed to Nora Clitheroe, in Sean O'Casey's 1926 play The Plough and the Stars.

Nora Clitheroe · Act II

“There's no reason to bring religion into it. I think we ought to have as great a regard for religion as we can, so as to keep it out of as many things as possible.”

This sardonic line is delivered by Fluther Good, the talkative Dublin tradesman, in Sean O'Casey's tragicomedy The Plough and the Stars (1926).

Fluther Good

“You lost what little sense you had an' you took a little risk, an' now you're payin' for it.”

This line is from Sean O'Casey's 1926 tragicomedy The Plough and the Stars, set during the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin.

Bessie Burgess

“Fluther: God, it's a terrible thing to be born a woman.”

This line is spoken by Fluther Good, a self-important tradesman living in a Dublin tenement, in Seán O'Casey’s 1926 tragicomedy The Plough and the Stars.

Fluther Good

“We're all going to die, so we might as well die for something.”

This line is delivered by The Covey (or a nationalist character) in Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars (1926), a tragicomedy set against the backdrop of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin.

Nationalist character (attributed to revolutionary sentiment in the play) · Act II or Act III

“Ireland was born in a fever and has never been well since.”

This sardonic line comes from the character Covey in Sean O'Casey's 1926 play The Plough and the Stars, which is set against the backdrop of the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin.

The Covey

“Cover it up, cover it up; hide it from the eyes of men, and weep over it yourselves.”

This painful line is delivered by Bessie Burgess in Sean O'Casey's 1926 tragicomedy The Plough and the Stars, which takes place during the 1916 Easter Rising in Dublin.

Bessie Burgess · Act IV

“Nora: I'd rather have Jack a coward than a corpse.”

This line is spoken by Nora Clitheroe in Seán O'Casey's 1926 play The Plough and the Stars.

Nora Clitheroe

“The Covey: There's only one war worth havin' — th' war for th' economic emancipation of th' proletariat.”

This line comes from The Covey, a young, self-proclaimed Marxist and cousin of Jack Clitheroe, the main character in Seán O'Casey's 1926 tragicomedy The Plough and the Stars.

The Covey

Mollser's Illness

In Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars, Mollser's tuberculosis reflects the slow, painful decay faced by Dublin's impoverished tenement residents—suffering that feels worlds apart from the lofty nationalist rhetoric surrounding her.

The Plough and Stars Flag

In Seán O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars, the Irish Citizen Army's Plough and Stars flag embodies the alluring yet ultimately harmful nature of nationalist ideology.

The Pub

In Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars, the pub below the tenement symbolizes the tempting allure of escapism, shared illusions, and the damaging divide between words and reality.

The Tenement

In Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars, the tenement building represents the reality of working-class Dublin—cramped, fragmented, and ultimately doomed.

The Tricolour

In Sean O'Casey's The Plough and the Stars, the Irish Tricolour symbolizes the alluring yet ultimately harmful nature of nationalist idealism.

Irony

The play's deepest irony lies in its structure: the 1916 Easter Rising, which Irish nationalists celebrate as a moment of heroic sacrifice, is portrayed through the eyes of Dublin tenement dwellers who experience only loss, displacement, and death.

Symbolism

The plough-and-stars flag of the Irish Citizen Army serves as the main symbol in the play.

Dramatic Monologue

The Figure in the Window in Act II features long speeches that go unanswered—acting as a dramatic monologue within the play.

Juxtaposition

O'Casey's most striking technique is the sharp contrast between different tones.

Pathetic Fallacy

The physical setting of the play closely reflects its emotional journey.

Motif

Drink is a recurring theme in the play that both humanizes and criticizes the male characters.

Allusion

The speeches in The Figure in the Window directly reference the historical writings and speeches of Patrick Pearse, including his graveside speech for O'Donovan Rossa and his essay 'The Coming Revolution.'

Imagery

O'Casey’s stage directions are packed with visual and sensory details that the dialogue alone can’t convey.

Personification

Ireland is often depicted as a person in the nationalist speeches that O'Casey quotes and mocks.

Apostrophe

Several characters directly address abstractions or absent figures, a technique O'Casey employs to highlight the divide between impassioned words and tangible actions.

ud

A phonetic spelling of 'would,' representing the Dublin working-class dialect pronunciation used throughout the play to capture authentic speech patterns.

Chapter 1

betther

A dialect spelling of 'better,' reflecting the way working-class Dublin characters pronounce the word, used throughout the play to render authentic speech.

adjective · Chapter 1

afraid of his own shadow

An idiom meaning extremely timid or cowardly — so fearful that even harmless, everyday things cause alarm. Here it describes the social shame of being seen as a coward.

phrase · Chapter 1

vanity

Excessive pride in oneself and one's appearance or reputation; here used to criticise someone who cares too much about how others see them, to the point of causing harm.

noun · Chapter 1

th' ruin of

An idiom meaning the cause of someone's destruction or downfall; to be ruined by something means it will bring disaster upon you.

phrase · Chapter 1

commission

An official document granting someone a rank as an officer in a military or paramilitary organisation; here, Jack's letter appointing him as a captain in the Irish Citizen Army.

noun · Chapter 1

captaincy

The rank or position of a captain in a military or paramilitary force; Jack has resigned from this rank after feeling passed over for promotion.

noun · Chapter 1

tenement

A large, run-down urban building divided into many small, cheap apartments, typically housing poor working-class families; the cramped shared setting of the entire play.

noun · Chapter 1

duty

A moral or patriotic obligation one feels compelled to fulfil; here specifically the obligation to fight for one's country, used to justify joining the Rising.

noun · Chapter 1

sacred

Treated as holy and deserving the highest reverence; here used in a nationalist, quasi-religious sense to elevate the shedding of Irish blood in battle to something spiritually precious.

adjective · Chapter 2

blood sacrifice

The idea, drawn from nationalist rhetoric of the period, that dying in armed rebellion is a noble, almost religious act that redeems and purifies the nation.

phrase · Chapter 2

bayonet

A long blade fixed to the end of a rifle, used as a stabbing weapon in close combat; here used as a violent threat to silence an opponent.

noun · Chapter 2

th' likes of you

A dismissive idiom meaning 'someone of your sort' or 'people like you,' expressing contempt for the person being addressed.

phrase · Chapter 2

guts

The intestines or belly; used here in a blunt, violent way to mean the abdomen, emphasising the brutality of the threat being made.

noun · Chapter 2

rally

A large public meeting held to stir up enthusiasm and support for a political or military cause; here the nationalist gathering taking place offstage in the meeting hall.

noun · Chapter 2

apron-strings

The ties of an apron; 'tied to the apron-strings' is an idiom for being controlled or held back by a woman, usually a mother or wife, implying weakness or dependence.

noun · Chapter 3

chained to

An idiom meaning to be completely controlled by or unable to break free from something; here used to express resentment at being held back by domestic ties.

phrase · Chapter 3

barricades

Makeshift barriers built across streets using furniture, carts, or rubble to block enemy movement during urban fighting; here the street fortifications of the Easter Rising.

noun · Chapter 3

looting

Stealing goods from shops or buildings, typically during a period of war, riot, or civil disorder when normal law enforcement has broken down.

verb · Chapter 3

madness

Here used not to mean mental illness but reckless, senseless behaviour — specifically the decision to join an armed uprising that Nora believes will get Jack killed.

noun · Chapter 3

sniper

A hidden marksman who shoots at individuals from a concealed position at a distance; here a British soldier whose bullet kills Bessie while she stands at the window.

noun · Chapter 4

dhrops

A dialect spelling of 'drops,' meaning small amounts of alcohol; here Bessie means she still has a little drink left to sustain her through the night.

noun · Chapter 4

see her into th' mornin'

An idiom meaning to last or carry one through until morning; here Bessie means the remaining drink will keep her going until daybreak.

phrase · Chapter 4

Rotunda

A well-known Dublin building used here as a place where the bodies of men killed in the Easter Rising are brought; its name signals a real location repurposed in the chaos of the rebellion.

noun · Chapter 4

topple

To fall or collapse heavily; here used in an exaggerated, defiant expression meaning the whole city could come crashing down and Bessie would not care.

verb · Chapter 4