Reading Journal 1

• Quick Notes on The Irish Heiress
• Stan: unscrupulous/evil but unwilling to commit completely
• Lord Daventry: 2nd to last line, lame, worried he is too old for his wife, represents England
• Norah: last line, represents Ireland, young
• Quick Notes on The O'Dowd
• Mike: went to England, complete failure, redemption story
• O'Dowd: quintessential Irish, hospitality, family
• Talboys: rides with Mike
• Quick Notes on Lady Windermere's Fan
• Lady Windermere: strict moralist who grows
• Mrs. Erlynne: secretly unscrupulous but willing to sacrifice for her daughter
• Lord Darlington: trying with a married woman
• Reading Journal
• Perhaps all three plays can be summarized by the last two lines in The Irish Heiress shared by Lord Daventry and Norah. Daventry says Home is the most important thing, and Norah rebuts, "I'm from Ireland, say less." This theme is most apparent in The O'Dowd, where Michael is a complete failure when he goes to England, at least from a moral perspective. To his credit, the play does become a redemption story, and ultimately, Mike does reject the person he has become in England. He admits that he did forget who he really is, but finally displays it proudly, announcing "I am my father's son." In Lady Windermere's Fan, Lady Windermere has the option of leaving England with a new lover but decides to figuratively stay home, or remain with her husband.
• I did want to enjoy The Irish Heiress the most, because it starts with a character who should speak to me the most, Stan. He is clever and unscrupulous, and more importantly, he uses his talents and moral alignment to advance his interests. This should be my hero. But as the play unfolds, we find it is not really his story. It's really Daventry and Norah's story that is told through Stan's bumbling attempt to secure the bag. He sets all of the action in motion just by being clumsy, instead of some evil plan, which is how he was introduced to us and what I really needed it to be for it to by my favorite of the three.
• The O'Dowd, on the other hand, starts with a character with seemingly no redeeming qualities, who has squandered his family's wealth and prospects for the future, just to fit in with friends. It is a redemption story for Michael, as I explained earlier, but more importantly, it turns out that £20,000 is no big deal, and the only thing that matters is family. The O'Dowd and Bridget do not care that Mike has returned with a new fortune, they just care that he has returned. This seems like the biblical story of the prodigal son, and the sentimentality works for me, surprisingly.
• Can I also pause for a second to say how jarring it was to discover that George R.R. Martin stole the origin story for Hodor from Boucicault? Am I wrong? Or am I supposed to believe that George R.R. Martin conjured Hodor's story completely independent of O'Dowd's spasm "lock the dure"?
• Unlike Stan in The Irish Heiress, it was clear from the start that Lord Darlington was not going to be the main character in Lady Windermere's Fan, so I did not have the same issue of having high expectations from the start, but somehow I was still let down with his character as well. Lord Darlington could be this James-Bond-like character who says something like, "No, you're not my type. You are single." Instead, we get a character who whines that Lady Windermere is a good woman who does not love him.
• It is also central to the play, this Puritanical view that Lady Windermere starts with, ready to criticize Mrs. Erlynne, until she has this character development, where at the end she is the one defending Mrs. Erlynne from Lord Windermere's Puritanical complaints. We are left wanting from Lord Darlington, who in Act I is telling us people are either charming or tedious: we find he is in fact in the latter category of people. Instead we get the best rebuttal from Mrs. Erlynne, who criticizes the serious people of London, arguing that they themselves cause all the fog, and not the other way around.
• Two questions, observations, or additional comments for Class Discussion Forum
1. Let me address one aspect of Irish culture not explicitly mentioned in Dr. Peterson's question. In my previous Irish literature course, I had argued in my final paper that hospitality is the defining feature of authentic Irish-ness. In The O'Dowd, we have this scene in Act III where O'Dowd protects his guests, not understanding they are his opps:
   "If there war five thousand round the house, their lives are safe undher my roof. You hear me, Barney, Dat, Mat. These men are my guests, I promised them a welcome here, and they shall have it. Now, spake out, you are as safe as if you was in Dublin Castle."
   Explore the extent to which the play by Boucicault (or Wilde) engage with this aspect of authentic Irish-ness.
2. I do enjoy a play or movie that uses the whole play or movie to set up a single punchline at the end. That is how I read The Irish Heiress. Did anyone else read it that way? And if so, what do you make of Norah's final line of the play?
• Additional Prompt
• Irish Drama has long been informed by Irish culture, and particularly informed by Irish nationalist understanding of what 'Ireland' really is, understandings that emerge in contrast to (and in conflict with) those created by the British colonists and government (and their Anglo-Irish representatives). Such common issues influence choices in setting, characters, and sociocultural representation, all of which was hotly contest by the playwrights and the Irish audience. In short, the nationalist imaginary holds that 'real' Ireland is located in its rural areas (those least influenced by Anglo-colonialism); its people are devout, traditional Catholics, and embody traditional gender ideals (proud, hard-working men; modest, pure women--who often symbolize 'mother Ireland' itself--and here you might look at various songs on this theme); priests are admirable figures. Anyone Anglo is not to be trusted (they are the oppressors). The farmers and laborers are the true Irish patriots, and they struggle to realize the nationalist dreams of sovereignty and so forth. Explore the extent to which the plays by Boucicault and Wilde engage with these nationalist 'demands'?
• Boucicault and Wilde both challenge the cultural aspect of devout Catholicism and modest, pure women. Especially in Lady Windermere's Fan, some of the best lines attack these ideals as boring. Lord Darlington says in the opening that "[p]eople are either charming or tedious," instead of good or bad. Later, in the third act, Cecil Graham shares the same argument, saying gossip is fine, but if you put a judgment on that gossip, it becomes scandal, and that is "tedious." The whole play, in fact, is bookended by this debate first between Lady Windermere and Lord Darlington and then again between Lady Windermere and Lord Windermere. By the end of the play, Lady Windermere has switched from the conservative side to the more liberal, having been convinced through Mrs. Erlynne's role in her succor from the compromising situation. Therefore, the only way I can interpret the play is Wilde challenging this devout and modest cultural perspective. To a lesser extent, I read Boucicault the same way. While the characters do not call it tedious, or boring, or lame, there still is this central component of infidelity in The Irish Heiress, so by even incorporating this central part of the story, it does seem to challenge this aspect of Irish identity.
• Discussion Replies
• Shannon - In The Irish Heiress, you contrasted two of the relationships (or possible relationships), namely Stamore/Norah and Ardent/Norah, but what are your thoughts on the third important relationship, Lord Daventry/Lady Daventry? It gives us one of the more memorable lines of the play, where Lord Daventry thinks Lady Daventry is having a relationship with Ardent, bemoaning, "Yes, I am fated to be held up as an example of all old asses who browse on rosebuds."
  Honestly, I think this might be the example of simple and sweet marriage, if you can ignore the present-day-problematic issue of the age difference.
• Samantha - I get it that I have been terribly corrupted from watching Game of Thrones to never bat an eye at incest. No one ships harder than me for Cersei/Jaime, Daenerys/Jon, Rhaenyra/Daemon, etc. So yes, I did notice that Kitty was Mike's cousin, but I was shipping them when Mike steps in to defend and claim Kitty and his father. At the end of Act II, Borromore is trying to kiss Kitty and make a fool of O'Dowd. But Mike steps in and says, "No, this is my future wife/cousin, pal, and this is my dad." Call me a bad person, but I am shipping that.
• Jack - I do think I take the other side here: Lady Windermere is representing this conservative ideal of traditional gender roles that Dr. Peterson mentions with modest, pure women. If I was a modest, pure, married woman, and I had this guy trying to rizz me up, I think the appropriate response would be to say, "Hey, I don't appreciate that young man." I think characters like Lord Darlington or Cecil Graham are trying to challenge these ideals, and I agree in a comedic manner.
• Chris - I feel the character of Norah is used to represent Ireland, which as Dr. Peterson pointed out is often the case, that Ireland is represented by a modest and pure woman. Here, the play really makes it explicit for the reader in a couple of lines. Certainly Norah's final line of the play, but also earlier in the second act, you have Norah explaining that she is Ireland's lead advocate: "Faith, Ireland shan't want a trumpeter, while Norah Merrion has a voice!"
  Honestly, I do not think I put it all together myself, and I was hoping a classmate could really make the connection. But what I did decide was Norah comes out of the play looking like the best character. No one likes Stan (except myself, and even I was let down) and Lord Daventry seems foolish as well with his lack of confidence. So by elimination, Norah is my champion, and I felt it was important that she was given the last line here.
• Janel - The line from Mike that you point out is especially important because it directly contrasts with the the person Mike had become in London. In the first act, Mike explains the exact opposite, that "the name he bears ... I have been ashamed to own" (9). He had assumed this false identity which threw away his family name. So it is quite poignant that Mike argues here how much the family name means to him, coming full circle from where he began at the start of the play.
• Jack - Yes, it turns out Mrs. Erlynne is this much more subtle version of Stan or Mike from the previous two plays. From the start, we understand Stan to be this unscrupulous character who advances his own interests at the expense of others. He is meant to be disliked by the reader. Mike also has these terrible character flaws, but does redeem himself. Mrs. Erlynne, like Mike, is disguising her true identity. Like Stan, she is unscrupulous. She prides herself on being heartless. When she makes a sacrifice for her daughter, she knows this goes against who she really wants to be: "I thought I had no heart. I find I have, and a heart doesn’t suit me, Windermere. Somehow it doesn’t go with modern dress. It makes one look old. And it spoils one’s career at critical moments." So why does she not stay with her daughter? I think because she is not lame--like her daughter.
• Shannon - As far as explicit connection to this Irish history we talked about, we do have this situation set up from the beginning of The Irish Heiress. Stan, an Englishman, thinks he owns this land in Ireland. We learn he does not however, and that it actually belongs to this stereotypical Irish young woman, though she is unaware. And so Stan sets his mind on re-acquiring "his" land, through marrying Norah, under some shady pretenses. His plan to re-acquire the land and wealth -- (marital) union.
• Sterling - I think there are a couple reasons Mike decides to accept his Irish identity. First, he realizes what a terrible person he has become. He worries, "who will take my place at the fireside at home, and wipe away my mother's tears" (10)? But even though he understands he is a complete failure, this is not enough for him to change. He only changes when he sees his friends making fun of his father and love interest. Only at this point, does he step in and reveal his true identity, by announcing his father and Kitty. So it is worth noticing that he did not change until the consequences of his new identity were placed directly in his face. If not for his family's journey to come see him, I think we should assume Mike sticks to his plan of running away from all of his problems.