1. General Vision or Viewpoint
In ‘The Plough and the Stars’, O’ Casey shows how the patriotic ideals of the nationalist cause invade the private lives of ordinary, working class tenement dwellers who are struggling to survive.

2. O’ Casey rejection of the rebellion in favour of social development
When O’Casey wrote The Plough and the Stars he already knew what the effects of the rebellion on Ireland and the Irish people would be. From his letters, notes and autobiographies we also know that he disagreed strongly with the idea of a violent rebellion against the British. He saw how it poor the working-class people of Dublin were, and he believed that the government should concentrate on helping them instead of focussing on nationalist politics and achieving Irish freedom from Britain.

3. Recognising the suffering of the ordinary, working class tenement dwellers
O’Casey’s play reveals a deep respect that he had for the Irish people, especially the ordinary, working-class men and women of the Dublin tenements.
He was the first Irish playwright to place this “underclass” of society centre-stage. In doing so he reminded his audience of the great suffering of the people who lived in the tenements (his audience of course were those who, unlike the working-classes, could afford to buy a theatre ticket).

4. The impact of the Rising on individuals, families, neighbours, communities
In his play the tenement building is full of life, his characters can prove themselves to be heroes, and their relationships can be just as comic or tragic as a great play of Shakespeare.
O’Casey also showed how deeply his characters were effected by the political events in the play and the violence of the Rising, regardless of whether they were soldiers, workers, mothers or children.

5. The squalor of tenement dwellings
The extreme poverty of the Dublin City tenements strikes a note of gloom from the outset of the play.
O’ Casey refers to the tenement building as being originally a fine building but now ‘struggling for life against the assault of time, and the more savage assaults of the tenants’.

6. Resentment towards Nora’s desire to improve her social circumstance
Because Nora is attempting to upgrade her accommodation, she accused by Mrs Gogan of having ‘notions of upperosity’ and of being ‘able to make a shillin’ go where another would have to spend a pound’.
Bessie’s words are so indicative of the poor condition of the tenements when she accuses Nora of putting a lock on her door for fear ‘her poor neighbours ud break through an’ steal’.

7. The invasion of privacy in the tenement dwellers’ lives
Bessie’s comments reveal the claustrophobic intimacy of life in the tenement building where everybody knows and comments on the business of everyone else and where poverty abounds.
In order to make ends meet, Nora has to share her home with Uncle Peter and The Young Covey, which leaves very little privacy for her marriage and relationship with Jack Clitheroe.

8. O’Casey depicts the real struggle of these characters to survive
Rosie Redmond seems to have been driven into prostitution by poverty and the need to survive.
Perhaps Mollser, the malnourished and dying child, embodies the poverty and deprivation of the time.
The Young Convey highlights this when she says of Mollser ‘Sure she never got any care. How could she get it, an’ the mother out an’ night lookin’ for work, an’ her consumptive husband leavin’ her with a baby to be born before he died’.
Not only is Mollser a victim of the hideous poverty of the tenements but a victim of sickness and lack of proper care.
The depiction of such harshness of daily life in the tenements creates a dark and depressing atmosphere throughout.

9. General Vision and Viewpoint (Act One) Choose one key moment from Act One of the play that depicts the harshness of daily life in the tenement dwellings of Describe how the lives of ordinary, working class characters are affected by their social plight. Explain how a portrayal of this struggle contributes to a dark and depressing atmosphere in the play.

10. Questions on struggles facing characters in the play (Act One)
1. Describe, in brief detail, the home of the Clitheroes.
2. Mrs. Gogan and Bessie Burgess do not think very highly of Nora Clitheroe. They both make a point of criticising her character. What do they both say about Nora and give reasons for your answer?
3. Why did Mollser come to visit Nora? Describe what Mollser looks like.

11. Mollser – Character Study

12. Mollser – a silent, yet influential character
One of the few characters in the play who appears to be relatively silent.
Those around her – her mother, Bessie Burgess, Fluther Good – speak at and shout over one another, desperate to be heard and understood.
But it is by saying little at all that Mollser has most influence over the lives of those sharing her tenement house.
Mollser is the youngest character in the play – O’Casey says that she’s “about fifteen, but she looks to be only about ten”.
Her ill health and poverty have forced her to face the possibility that she may not even survive to adulthood, or have a chance to begin her own family.

13. Moller’s hopeless struggle
Many people would associate youth with hope. However, she seems almost hopeless at the end of Act 1 when she says to Nora — ‘I often envy you, Mrs Clitheroe, seein; th’ health you have, an’ th’ lovely place you have here, an’ wondherin’ if I’ll ever be sthrong enough to be keepin’ a home together for a man. ’
Mollser’s words also make us think more carefully about Nora and her relationship with Jack. We realise how well they fool their neighbours into thinking that they’re a happily married couple, and we’re reminded how important it is to many of the characters to ‘perform’ for one another, to ‘keep up appearances’.

14. Mollser falls victim to her illness
Mollser also gives us an idea of the very deep suffering of the poor, working class society of Dublin’s tenements in the early 1900s.
She is the only character in the play who dies from sickness – Jack and Lieutenant Langon die in the fight for Irish freedom, while Bessie dies trying to save Nora from gunfire. Still, she never seems to complain about her illness.
She tries to assure her mother, Mrs Gogan, that she feels “a lot betther”, whereas Fluther panics even at the thought of catching a cold — ‘I think I’m afther gettin’ a little catch in me chest that time – it’s a creepy thing to be thinkin’ about.’

15. General Vision and Viewpoint (Act Two) Choose one key moment from Act Two of the play that depicts the harshness of daily life in the tenement dwellings of Describe how the lives of ordinary, working class characters are affected by their social plight. Explain how a portrayal of this struggle contributes to a dark and depressing atmosphere in the play.

16. Question on Rosie’s struggle to survive (Act Two)
Read the dialogue and stage directions that are used to portray the character of Rosie Redmond on stage in the second act.
How would you describe Rosie Redmond in this act? How is she received by other characters on stage? What vision do you think O’ Casey had in bringing her character to life on stage? Give reasons for your answer.

17. The betrayal of the cause of Labour by the delusion of romantic patriotism
O’ Casey felt very strongly about the rights of workers. He believed that the ordinary working class people of Ireland should be given the education and opportunities to achieve in life. He felt that Labour lost it’s way in helping workers by changing it’s focus to dangerous and romantic nationalistic ideals.

18. Rosie Redmond – a character abandoned by society
O’ Casey’s characters exist to show something rather than to do something: we see what they stand for. For example, we do not immediately see that Rosie Redmond is a prostitute, but more so that she is dependent on men and exploited by her landlord. She is one of the defenceless whom the Rising will ignore and fail to help. She is made powerless by the refusal of society to reach out and help her; in giving her opportunities to better her life.

19. Questions on Mollser’s deteriorating health (Act Three)
How would you describe the standard of housing that the characters in this play live in?
Mollser’s consumption is an example of the suffering from poverty that the characters have to endure daily. How does the playwright Sean O’ Casey feel about this suffering and poverty do you think? Give reasons for your answer. 
How does Mrs Gogan respond to her daughter Mollser’s illness? What does she say to her? Why does she respond in this way? Explain your answer.

20. Mrs Gogan’s denial over the true extent of her social plight
Mrs Gogan responds to her daughter Moller’s consumption, and the fact that she can do nothing for her, by prefering to believe Mollser is getting better. When she is told at one point that Mollser ‘looks as if she was goin’ to faint’, she is quick to snap back, ‘She’s never any other way but faintin’!’.
Mrs Gogan’s refusal to address her problems in a realistic way makes her powerless. It leaves her in a deeper state of poverty and decay.

21. Questions on looting undertaken by some characters (Act Three)
Bessie Burgess and Mrs Gogan join forces and embark with some of the others in looting the local stores. Why do you think they do this? What do you think of their actions? Explain why.
Captain Brennan is enraged by the looting of shops by many of the people from the tenements. He feels that they are insulting their cause for freedom. What does this tell you about the Irish Citizen Army and their fight for freedom? Do you think that their vision of a united Ireland is one that is helping or hindering the lives of ordinary people? Has the cause lost it’s way at all or not? Explain your answer.

22. Characters whose lives are at odds with the cause for freedom
In Act Three, we move to the streets and a group of characters that are very much on the outside, powerless, removed from both the fight for freedom and from any share in the material wealth in society. This is a powerful image for poverty and social abandonment.

23. The Woman from Rathmines
When the Woman from Rathmines briefly enters this space we clearly see, if briefly, what a dead end, what a vacuum the tenements are. She desperately needs to escape to the safety of her middle class suburb.
The Woman’s presence in this setting is out of place. We almost feel her panic and longing to return to a better world. This stands out in contrast to the characters in the tenements who have in a way accepted and come to terms with the social plight. They remain in an imprisoned state of powerlessness.

24. Question on the Woman from Rathmines and what she stands for in the play?
A good playwright is not supposed to introduce a character only once and never have her mentioned by another character. This can be seen in both Rosie and the Woman from Rathmines presence on stage. O’ Casey put them there to throw light on the realities of Irish life in the period in which The Plough is set.
O’ Casey’s characters exist to show something rather than to do something: we see what they stand for.
Why do you think Sean O’ Casey placed the lost woman from Rathmines in this scene? What do you think her presence here stands for? Explain why.

25. A fight for physical survival
By this time the looting has started, and the deprived people’s need to steal in order to have a lifestyle equal to the middle class is clearly seen in Mrs Gogan and Mrs Burgess allying to bring home consumer goods of all kinds.
When Mrs Gogan fights with Bessie Burgess to use the pram for looting, this is the only real action that she takes, the only real show of power in her. Rising or no Rising, she has to feed and clothe her family and will steal to do so.

26. Characters made powerless by poverty
The social setting of this world makes the characters powerless. While some of them choose to invest in the disillusioned promise of better times to come, the fact remains that they continue to live in squalor.

27. The suffering caused by poverty
Act Four brings us to Bessie Burgess’s dingy flat at the top of the tenement. The apartment has a ‘look of compressed confinement.’
It symbolises a trap, a form of poverty bordering on destitution.
This poverty causes great suffering for the characters. It is the real struggle that they have to face each day. The real battle. It pushes some characters to the end of the line. In Act Four, Nora is displaced, out of her element, out of her home, and out of her mind.

28. O’ Casey’s underlying vision of poverty
Sean O’ Casey makes a powerful statement in this play about human rights. He chooses to focus on the lives of ordinary lower working class people from Dublin’s tenements rather than the battle outside. He reminds us of the real daily struggle faced by these people. He gives a voice to those made voicless by the dangerous romantic ideals of the nationalist movement at the time.

29. Question on poverty (Act Four)
Act Four – The room upstairs belonging to Bessie Burgess.
Act Four opens with Fluther and the Covey playing a game of cards on top of Mollser’s wooden coffin. There are confined within a tiny space. What does this scene tell us the poverty in the play? What suffering does it cause?