Liturgical Imagery in Sean O'Casey's The Silver Tassie

Liturgical Imagery in Sean O'Casey's The . Silver Tassie JACQUELINE DOYLE • THE SILVER TASSIE represents a radical departure from Sean O'Casey's early work, and its most significant aspects have been almost consistently misunderstood by his critics. The play is a conscious blend of naturalism and symbolic expressionism~ and as such is unified through language, imagery, and theme, rather than through character. O'Casey himself wrote to W. B. Yeats, in their famous controversy over the play: "I'm afraid I can't make my mind mix with the sense of importance you give to 'a dominating character.' God forgive me, but it does sound as if you peeked and pined for a hero in the play. Now, is a dominating character more important than a play, or is a play more important than a dominating character?"1 Characterization in The Silver Tassie is clearly subordinate to the play's ritualistic structure and to its complex symbolic framework. Symbol and imagery throughout the four acts revolve around the trinity of war, religion, and sexuality-"the decorations of security." This imagery is placed within the dual context of a strong anti-war theme and the Sacrifice of the Mass. The thematic and structural function of the imagery is well expressed by the Croucher's lines in Act II: "Then the decorations of security/Become the symbols of self sacrifice."2 The Tassie was received with wrath and indignation by the Catholic clergy, and certainly there is ironic use of religious imagery in the play. However, doctrinaire interpretations ignore the play's structure 29 30 JACQUELINE DOYLE and its broader religious symbolism. The sacrificial ritual of the Mass is set against the sacrificial ritual of war, and it is clear that O'Casey is affirming the former. The Silver Tassie is by no means an antireligious play. In a reply to one of his accusers, O'Casey made the following statement concerning his religious attitude: "If Father Gaffney had said that the play was a challenge to the faithful rather than to the Faith, he would have been nearer the mark. Let me suggest to Father Gaffney that the Faith is a perpetual challenge to the faithful ."3 This distinction between the "Faith" and the "faithful" is essential to analysis of the structure and imagery of the play. The ritual structure is manifested first and most obviously in the religious chanting. Despite the observations of the critics, the chant is not confined to the second, expressionistic act"but operates as a unifying element throughout the play, appearing in both naturalistic and expressionistic passages. Susie opens the play with a chant, and as it develops it is supported and intensified by the repetitive and alliterative language of Simon and Sylvester. The intertwining of war, religion , and sexuality in the imagery of this act is subtly manipulated. Susie chants Biblical platitudes as she polishes Harry's rifle, an activity that is prolonged almost to the end of the scene, and is unavoidably phallic. It is revealed that the roots of her religious belief lie in sexual frustration: Simon muses, "I wonder what caused the peculiar bend in Susie's nature? Narrow your imagination to the limit and you couldn't call it an avocation"; and Sylvester replies, "Adoration, Simon, accordin ' to the flesh.... She fancied Harry and Harry fancied Jessie, so she hides her rage an' loss in the love of a scorchin' Gospel." (p. 16) It becomes clear as the act progresses that hers is the chanting of the "faithful" and not of the "Faith." Her Gospel is "scorchin' " indeed, as her religious imagery is constantly juxtaposed and fused with that of war. Simon and Sylvester refer to Susie's "cannonadin' you with the name of the Deity," her "shower of questions," her "battering" religion into a man, her "trying to mangle it into a man's emotions." Mrs. Foran refers to' Susie: "Even the gospel-gunner couldn't do a little target practice by helpin' the necessity of a neighbor." (p. 17) Susie's "I go away in a few days to help to nurse the wounded" (p. 14) becomes doubly ironic after her polishing of the rifle and her...