Juno and the Paycock

Themes
Poverty
It is obvious from the opening stage directions that the Boyle family is
not well off.
As the play progresses, it becomes clear that they have barely enough
money to survive.
They live in a tenement building, part of the Dublin slums. There is
little room for four adults.
The audience sees "a small bed partly concealed
by cretonne hangings strung on a twine" in the same room as the
dining table and the bath.
These cramped claustrophobic surroundings become a symbol for the
conditions many people in Dublin lived in at this time.
In 1961, the Irish socialist and trade union leader James
Connolly noted that Dublin’s slums were:
...notorious the world over for their disease-breeding unhealthy
character. All the world over it is known that the poor of Dublin are
housed under conditions worse than those of any civilised people on
God’s earth
It seems that O’Casey’s main intention was to show the reality of
these conditions. He questions whether the Irish nationalist cause
and all its promises really made anything better for Dublin’s poor and
needy.
Juno is the only one in the household working. Mary is on strike,
Johnny is not well and Captain Boyle is too lazy to do any work at all.
He spends most of his time drinking any money he gets his hands on.
There are repeated references to unemployment throughout the play.
Therefore it is clear that the family do not have much income.
Juno is even unwilling to share tea with Joxer as they have so little
themselves.
But the promise of money changes everything as they immediately
begin to see the possibility of a life free of poverty.
When this turns out to have been a lie, their poverty seems even worse
as the dreams and hopes they had disappear.
The family members try to escape their situation. Boyle retreats into
alcohol and self-delusion while Mary strikes and reads Ibsen. She also
embraces a feminine world of ribbons and love with a
more affluent man.
Johnny turns to the Irish republican cause, an escape taken by many
working-class men who thought they could change things for the
better.
Perhaps because it will have Juno who actually works, and Mary who
reads and tries to improve herself, the baby will have some hope of
escaping these conditions in the future.

Religion
There are many references to religion throughout the play and the
characters have a variety of religious views. For example, Juno is a
traditional Catholic and Bentham is a Theosophist.
Mary seems to be more agnostic in her views. She proclaims, “There
isn’t a God, there isn’t a God; if there was He wouldn’t let these things
happen.”
Many characters resort to prayer in times of distress. For example,
when Johnny is being dragged out to be murdered, and when Mrs
Tancred and Juno are seeking comfort, “Sacred Heart o’ Jesus, take
away our hearts o’ stone.”
Johnny takes comfort in religion, despite not seeming to be a very
religious person. For instance, he feels safe if the light remains lit
under the picture of the Virgin Mary. However, this light could be
symbolic of hope and less to do with his faith in the protection of God.
Boyle expresses many anti-religious opinions, seeming to believe that
the church does not always have the best of intentions and that people
who seem very religious were often not as moral in their everyday
actions.
He composes an amusing poem which highlights the hypocrisy of
those who attend mass and openly profess a love of God while
behaving differently in their lives:
He was not what some call pious - seldom at church or prayer; For the
greatest scoundrels I know, sir, goes every Sunday there.
He also believes that "the clergy always had too much power over the
people in this unfortunate country". Perhaps Boyle is echoing
O’Casey’s own beliefs about a country with little separation between
church and state.
Although O’Casey’s Protestant mother brought him up in her own
religion, he eventually became an atheist.
Boyle’s voice may be the voice of O’Casey himself on this topic.
Nationalism
While focused on the Irish Civil War and the nationalist cause, this is
by no means a nationalist play.
O’Casey looks at the Irish Republican Army and the nationalist cause
with a very critical eye.
He had become disillusioned with the cause because he believed the
nationalists put their nationalism before socialism, forgetting about
the everyday working lives of the poor people of Ireland.
O’Casey was more concerned with presenting the poverty and
alienation faced by the working-class inhabitants of Dublin slums than
he was with nationalist ideals.
He believed that nationalism and the call to take up arms for one’s
country was in fact bad for working-class people.
O’Casey himself had worked as a labourer and was well aware of the
lack of rights and opportunities open to the working-classes.
He became a member of the Irish Transport and General Workers’
Union, writing articles for the Irish Worker, a newspaper founded
by James Connolly.
Therefore, the play is not biased towards nationalism. Instead O'Casey
dramatises the impoverished living conditions and stressful lives of
Dubliners without idealising nationalists or republicans.
The Irregulars, for example, are not portrayed in a positive light. The
men who come to take Johnny away for execution are rude and
violent.
O’Casey himself did not approve of the patriotic glorification of
violence, something explored in his other plays. He considered it at
odds with improving the lives of the working class.
Johnny’s idealistic political views trap him in a life of fear and
violence. When the play begins we see that he has already lost an arm
due to an injury he sustained in the Easter Rising.
When the Mobilizer comes for him at the end of Act II, Johnny cries
"Haven't I done enough for Ireland! I've lost me arm, an' me hip's
desthroyed so that I'll never be able to walk right agen! Good God,
haven't I done enough for Ireland?"
The young man replies, "Boyle, no man can do enough for Ireland!"
However, O’Casey’s disillusionment with this patriotic call to bear
arms is echoed in other plays from his Dublin trilogy.
For example, in Shadow of a Gunman the character Seamus Shields
remarks in Act II, “It’s the civilians that suffer; when there’s an
ambush they don’t know where to run. Shot in the back to save the
British Empire, an’ shot in the breast to save the soul of Ireland … I
believe in the freedom of Ireland, an’ that England has no right to be
here, but I draw the line when I hear the gunmen blowin’ about dyin’
for the people, when it’s the people that are dyin’ for the gunmen!”.
Perhaps this is O’Casey’s response to those who suggest "no man can
do enough for Ireland".

The horrors of war

O’Casey shows the horrors of war through the tragic effect
of Ireland's Civil War on ordinary families.
The action of the play is entirely within a domestic setting, but the
impact of the war is devastating. Two mothers lose their sons.
Through the grief expressed by these women, O’Casey shows that
death is horrific regardless of how worthy the cause may seem.
Again, we see this attitude in one of his other plays in the Dublin
trilogy.
In The Plough and the Stars, Nora Clitheroe asserts that “There’s no woman
gives a son or a husband to be killed - if they say it, they’re lyin’, lyin’,
against God, Nature, an’ against themselves!”
This also seems to show O’Casey’s belief that no one gladly gave their
lives or the lives of loved ones for any cause.
The brutal murders of Robbie Tancred and Johnny Boyle, along with
the effects those deaths have on their families, demonstrate the
futility of the war.
O'Casey shows that there is not much support for the families
affected. The Irish police are of little help, as Mrs Madigan asserts,
"For you're the same as yous were undher the British Government -
never where yous are wanted! As far as I can see, the Polis as Polis, in
this city, is Null an' Void!".
O'Casey draws on his experience of living through these events and
shows that those who feel it is their duty to fight for their country are
rarely given any thanks or reward, especially the working classes.
The constant fear and psychological trauma Johnny experiences
throughout the play - a fear we come to realise is not irrational but
understandable - shows the consequences for many of those who
contributed to the nationalist cause, even if they did survive.

Gender inequality
The male and female characters stand in stark contrast to one
another.
The women in the play are shown as more compassionate and
intelligent than the men, who are often self-centered and cowardly.
 The men resort to alcohol, nationalist dreams and violence while the
women are shown to be stronger and wiser.
The women in the play suffer because of the actions, and inaction, of
the men. Thereby showing that women had little power over their own
lives in Ireland at that time.
Mary is vain, but she has passion. This is demonstrated by her
principled decision to go on strike on someone else’s behalf.
Her suitors, on the other hand, are self-centered and desert her in her
time of need.
She is a young woman born into poverty with a lazy, "hopeless" father.
Yet she shows a desire to get out of the slums through reading and
educating herself.
She is obviously an intelligent woman and her strike action shows that
she is willing to stand up for her beliefs.
However, in the end she is let down by all the male characters and
their lack of strength, integrity and compassion:

 Bentham abandons her without a goodbye

 Jerry Devine rejects her when he finds out she is pregnant
 her own brother and father scorn her for bringing "disgrace" to the house

It is only the other women in the play who stand by her. Juno promises
"If Mary goes, I’ll go with her."
The men in the play do nothing for Mary in her time of need.
The most detailed contrast is between Juno and Boyle. Her hard-
working nature is contrasted with his idleness in the opening scenes.
He spends all his time and money drinking with Joxer and accuses his
pregnant daughter of bringing shame on the family, rather than
supporting her in her plight.
In contrast Juno feeds the family, stands by Mary and grieves
desperately for her dead son.
The strength of the female characters - particularly juxtaposed with
the male ones - reflects a feminist perspective in O'Casey's plays.
Juno herself wonders "is there not even a middlin’ honest man left in
th’ world" as she laments the disappearance of any decent men.
Despite the feckless nature of the men in the play we see that the
female characters are blamed - much as Eve has been since the Book
of Genesis - for the misfortunes that befall the characters.
Mary is disgraced for the pregnancy, despite Bentham’s role in it. She
has to accept the scorn and live with the stigma.
Even her mother assumes that it is Mary’s fault that Bentham has gone
without a word and asks her “Are you sure you said nothin’ to him?”
And despite her feeding, clothing and soothing him in his time of need,
Johnny says to Juno in the end, “You’re to blame yourself for a gradle
of it - givin’ him his own way”.
Perhaps O’Casey is commenting on the unfortunate position of women
in society and the expectation that they be the backbone of families,
and yet be treated as scapegoats for all the misfortunes of men.
This certainly seems to be the case when Juno finally rejects her
previous beliefs that everything that happens is the will of God and
says, "These things have nothin’ to do with the Will o’ God. Ah, what
can God do agen the stupidity o’ men!"

Deception
Characters in Juno and the Paycock regularly deceive and are
regularly deceived.
Both Mary and Johnny are deceived into thinking that sticking to their
“principles” will improve their position in life.
This may have been O’Casey showing his disillusionment with both
the nationalist and the socialist causes.
Despite needing her job, Mary strikes to support the trade unions.
Johnny has been deceived into thinking the sacrifices he made risking
his life during the Easter Rising would be worthwhile.
By the end of the play Johnny’s idealism has led to his execution and
Mary has been abandoned by her fiancé while pregnant with his child.
Mrs Boyle, however, seems to echo the disillusionment of O’Casey
himself as she is more of a realist. She is not convinced by the idea
that having principles will automatically improve the lives of her
children.
She asks Mary what the local shopkeeper would say if she told him a
“principle’s a principle” and informs Johnny that “you lost your best
principle, me boy, when you lost your arm”.
Mary is betrayed by Bentham and even Juno incredulously questions
how he could "go away t’ England, an’ not to even leave you his
address”.
Mrs Boyle herself has been taken in by Bentham. She admits, “I
thought he was mad afther you". Because of his class and education
both women believed that he was trustworthy and reliable.
Despite the way he has treated Mary, Mrs Boyle remains deceived by
Bentham’s class into considering him to be respectable – she refers to
him as “a man like Mr. Bentham” even after he has left.
We see Boyle believing that people are real friends, especially after he
finds out about his windfall.
Right from the beginning we see him putting his trust in Joxer Daly
who ridicules him behind his back when he wonders “who, in the name
o’ God, ud leave anythin’ to that oul’ bummer?” Joxer sneers at the
family's misfortune, “Sure they were bound to get a dhrop!”
Boyle himself, of course, shows a similar fickle attitude to Joxer whom
he is quick to denounce the minute he finds out about his inheritance.
The inheritance changes things for the Boyles and their neighbours.
The family are fooled into thinking Mrs Madigan is a friend, instead she
is only interested in profiting from Boyle’s inheritance. She physically
assaults him when it is clear she will not be able to do so. Her anger is
shown when she asserts “You’re not goin’ to be swankin’ it like a
paycock with Maisie Madigan’s money.”
Everyone who befriended the Boyles when there was money to be
made from their good fortune rejects them as soon as they find out
they have nothing.